The Devaluation Of Culture In Stephen King's The Running Man
Stephen King’s The Running Man is a wonderful novel about a wise, noble man whose child is sick. A man named Ben is the heart and soul of the story. He is a quick witted man whose only focus is getting money to save his daughter, to relieve his family of this poverty stricken way. He forces himself to play in the “Games” to win money for his family. While the setting of the story is in the near future of the United States, it also has the same issues as the current United States. These issues are: poverty, sickness, and a job ridden society. The culture and history in the novel that he flashes back on in “The Running Man” is most times wrong when compared to actual events, as well as it can be right. He mentions a device that everyone is glued
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In order to keep the masses satiated, the old “bread and circuses” trick of bloody, gladiatorial spectacle has been reintroduced, mirroring the devaluation of human life. One need only turn on the television in our day to see the gladiatorial spectacle of trash that has evolved since the 80s, where transvestites are accounted heroes, morons compete in the most extreme forms of lunacy, and the latest “idol” is trotted out to record some pop song that will be forgotten in a few months. Make no mistake about it, we are only a few years away from the return of actual gladiatorial games and bloodletting, as Hunger Games style competitions will eventually exist. And speaking of Hunger Games, boy does its plot resemble The Running Man, yet instead of Jennifer Lawrence in spandex tights, we’ll have to settle for Arnold and Yaphet Kotto. I might also add that the 80s were completely convinced that the fullest extent of the future’s technological advances, profound as they may be, never extend beyond Atari level screen displays. Setting aside spandex and Space Invaders, another surprising element worth noting is the film’s depiction of crowd control weaponry. Still retaining its class structure, the future megacity of The Running Manconfines its classes to various zones, where enforced labor is conducted.” This is exactly the culture of The Running Man. Though there is more to this article it starts to talk about more of an opinion than stating cold hard facts. The Running Man almost feels like the world culture now, only because the poor people are forgotten and as long as the rich stay rich no one will change the
In order to keep the masses satiated, the old “bread and circuses” trick of bloody, gladiatorial spectacle has been reintroduced, mirroring the devaluation of human life. One need only turn on the television in our day to see the gladiatorial spectacle of trash that has evolved since the 80s, where transvestites are accounted heroes, morons compete in the most extreme forms of lunacy, and the latest “idol” is trotted out to record some pop song that will be forgotten in a few months. Make no mistake about it, we are only a few years away from the return of actual gladiatorial games and bloodletting, as Hunger Games style competitions will eventually exist. And speaking of Hunger Games, boy does its plot resemble The Running Man, yet instead of Jennifer Lawrence in spandex tights, we’ll have to settle for Arnold and Yaphet Kotto. I might also add that the 80s were completely convinced that the fullest extent of the future’s technological advances, profound as they may be, never extend beyond Atari level screen displays. Setting aside spandex and Space Invaders, another surprising element worth noting is the film’s depiction of crowd control weaponry. Still retaining its class structure, the future megacity of The Running Manconfines its classes to various zones, where enforced labor is conducted.” This is exactly the culture of The Running Man. Though there is more to this article it starts to talk about more of an opinion than stating cold hard facts. The Running Man almost feels like the world culture now, only because the poor people are forgotten and as long as the rich stay rich no one will change the