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
to like a modern day television, but it’s free! “ (1). He was seated at the table, staring up at the Free-Vee with steady, vacant concentration. This sounds like the daily American watching tv, a vacant gaze from this world staring at nonsense. “He had been watching it for weeks now. It wasn’t like him. He hated it, always had. Of course, every Development apartment had one- it was the law-but it was still legal to turn them off”(1). The “Games” are held on the Free-Vee which are free. The history and culture set in this book are much like the culture in the world now. The similarity of the history from his future to our history is striking and really hits home with the generation of students growing up now. The history and culture in the novel are quite similar, yet different.

The father like now will do anything for his family. “No! No, I won’t...won’t allow it. You’re not going to-.”(3) His wife knows that they need money for their beautiful young daughter is about to pass away. The father knows that if he gives his life; she may live. “Why not? At worst you can get a few old bucks as head of a fatherless house.” (3) He as the fathers now will gladly trade their lives for their kids to live a full life. As well as it may be an escape plan for him to go to heaven and leave the nasty place for which he lives. He is leaving to go to the “Games” to get money. He is trying to calm his wife by telling her they may not even take him. The wife replies “ If you go now, they’ll kill you. And I’ll be here watching it.” (4) The wife is just like the wives now. There is no job that they both have; they are basically homeless. The husband worked at a job when he dropped out of high school and met his wife. He is a young man around the age of forty with his flashbacks giving me the idea. The “Game” that Ben is participating in is “The Running Man”. He has to outrun police and professional trackers for a month for a billion dollars. No one has ever won. Today this is just modern to any other game show they show that you can earn this amount of money, but you can never really get it. It’s the new worlds version of getting rid of the poor people. To bring entertainment to the middle and high class. As every family now has at least one tv per home, the Free-Vee is free and most likely turned on to the games. For an example, the “Games” in this period are the professional games we watch such as: baseball, basketball, football, soccer, tennis, track, and volleyball. The difference between the professional games then and now is that you are able to turn in “The Running Man” for a reward. This is how the lower class can turn on each other for money. I believe if people were desperate enough for the money in this small town of Oakland, Iowa we would turn in a man without even wondering why he is joining the games. An online review, “The American Gladiators,” said
By 2017, the world economy has collapsed. Food, natural resources and oil are in short supply. A police state, divided into paramilitary zones, rules with an iron hand. Television is controlled by the state and a sadistic game show called “The Running Man” has become the most popular show in history. All art, music and communications are censored. No dissent is tolerated and yet a small resistance movement has managed to survive underground. This is the new life, while the economy is far from what the book says, I can see why this review would think this. The source also notes the similarity of the film, “The Hunger Games”. Although The Running Man is not nearly like The Hunger Games it’s a similar thought (American Gladiators).
“A complete panoptic society has been installed, where all of life is monitored, from cradle to grave.
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
way.
As the culture and history in this outstanding novel are similar yet different, This book still shows me how much the world could turn to chaos in a matter of years. American Gladiators says the NBC reported in 2017 Micro-Chipping may become a real possibility. As for the end of The Running Man the poverty stricken people will always rise and take back what is rightfully theirs.

Sources:
"American Gladiators: How The Running Man Is Our Reality." Jays Analysis. 10 May 2015. Web. 7 Dec. 2015.
King, Stephen, and Frank Straschitz. Running Man. Paris: LGF, 2005. Print.
"The Running Man - WhatCulture.com." WhatCulturecom The Running Man Tag. Web. 7 Dec. 2015.