Invitation To The Game

The novel suggests that people need work for a larger purpose to orient their lives. Without purpose, people turn to violence, crime, and drugs. When Lisse first arrives in the city, she theorizes that the high rates of crime stem from people’s lack of meaning in their lives: “Was that why those kids painted their faces and rampaged through the city, breaking windows and carrying off women? Because violence was better than forty years of nothing?” (13). The unemployed have their basic needs provided, but they still turn to criminal activity out of boredom and meaninglessness. Lisse and the others grow bored with living in the city, so they try out the nightlife, but they are repelled by the vices they see there. When they are in a café that serves hallucinogenic drugs, Lisse observes the customers who are high: “In the shadows of the other booths pale faces gleamed. They weren’t talking together, not even looking around, just staring into space with vacant smiles. It gave me shivers” (34) Lisse perceives the use of illegal substances as a sinister, empty temptation. She and her friends view work as a virtue and idleness as a sin, echoing the Protestant work ethic.

Once the teens join The Game and become invested in it, it replaces work or school as the main purpose in their lives. It resembles a religion because they associate it with certain rituals, such as their physical training. When Rich points out the likelihood that the Game is a simulation, Lisse protests this idea by stating, “If it isn’t real, what have we got?” (93). She recognizes that they are making a conscious choice to believe The Game is real and that it is meaningful to their lives. Hughes shows the teens following the philosophy of existentialism, which asserts that humans must create their own meaning in life.

Once the teens arrive on the new planet, they find purpose in the labor of building a new society. Hughes compares Prize to the Christian idea of Paradise, implying that each of the teens had to prove they were worthy to be part of this new society through their knowledge and hard work. By depriving the teens of jobs, The Government also deprives them of them of having a purpose in life. However, on the new planet the teens reclaim their agency by finding meaning in their tasks: “We have discovered something wonderful on Prize: that there need be no separation between what used to be called ‘work’ and ‘play.’ We do everything as well and as joyfully as we can and it turns out to be beautiful” (179). Thus, Hughes suggests that the teens have reached a state of self-actualization where the lines between work and leisure are blurred.

The novel portrays the harmful psychological effects of living under an authoritarian regime. The Government’s constant surveillance causes the teens to self-censor whenever they are tempted to critique The Government and keeps them compliant because they are afraid of being rounded up by the Thought Police. However, the knowledge that they are being surveilled and controlled also makes them feel anxious and powerless. Hughes establishes a foreboding mood from the very start of the novel when Lisse states, “It was the last day of school and the terror of the previous weeks had crept up on me again” (3). Lisse’s anxiety stems from her lack of control over her own future. Since she cannot decide her own future, she must rely on The Government, which she does not trust, to decide her fate.

Because The Government fosters feelings of difference between the employed and the unemployed, it effectively quashes any collaborative resistance. The side effect is animosity on both sides of humanity, breeding hate that Hughes compares to the genocide of Nazi Germany. She suggests, too, that the employed are considering a eugenics approach, as Lisse sees a newspaper article to that effect. We can assume that The Government is instigating these ideas, since it seems to have absolute control over all of its citizens.

When she is in the city, Lisse constantly feels like she is under a microscope, being observed by the Thought Police. She and the others don’t even consider rebellion because they are so afraid of The Government’s power. Even The Game, which Lisse views as an escape from life in the city, becomes a source of anxiety for Lisse when she realizes that The Government is spying on them during their sessions, listening to their conversations, and reacting to them. She pictures The Government as “a great eye watching us from above” (113) and “a huge human face” (163). By personifying The Government as a person watching from above, she implies that The Government is as powerful as a deity. This metaphor reinforces Lisse’s perception that she has no free will as long as she is living under The Government’s rule. This image also recalls Lisse’s feeling that she is a rat in a maze and The Government is the scientist peering down at her progress.

Only on the new planet away from the totalitarian regime does Lisse find some psychological relief. On Prize, she is free from both The Government’s monitoring and its meddling, so she is finally able to live her life without fear. When she realizes that she no longer needs to worry about The Government, she is able to let go of negative emotions: “I could feel myself get angry and I told myself firmly: They’re not watching. Not anymore.” (163). She describes the happiness she finds on Prize: “Each day we move a little forward. Each day is even more worth living” (170). The mood in the final chapter is hopeful and optimistic. The absence of The Government on Prize contributes to Lisse’s joyful outlook.

The novel suggests that the solution to the economic and social ills plaguing humanity is to unite people around a common goal, specifically colonizing a new planet. When the teens first consider the gloomy future they face as unemployed people, the political scientist in their group, Trent, states that “We should scrap [society] and start over” (14). This statement foreshadows the teens’ transplantation to a new planet where they are given the exact chance to recreate society.

While The Government never asks for consent from the people it sends to colonize new worlds, it nevertheless prepares them for the challenges of colonization with the simulation in The Game. The Game Manager hints at the true purpose of the Game: “Perhaps in working together cooperatively during your searches you will discover what it is you really need and desire” (63). His words suggest that The Game is an allegory for finding self-actualization. However, since the true goal of The Game is to send the teens to another planet, his comment reveals The Government thinks it knows what the teens desire better than they do themselves. The Government is confident that sending them to a new planet to develop their own society is in the teens’ best interests, and nothing in the outcome of the novel contradicts this theory. The teens are happier and more satisfied with their lives after they start a colony on a new planet, as they find meaning in the community they create. Additionally, the references to eugenics and Nazi Germany suggest that the unemployed people left behind on Earth may be facing genocide.

Thus, the novel portrays colonization as positive, since the unspoiled planet the teens take over is ripe for the picking. There are no sentient beings on the planet to object to the humans’ arrival. While the new planet is uninhabited, Lisse and the other teens compare the landscape to real places colonized by Europeans, including Africa and South America. These references suggest that colonizing a new planet is a natural extension of Western expansionism. It also serves a utilitarian purpose for The Government by giving The Government a release valve for its excess population. Just as European countries sent undesirable people such as criminals and poor people to the Americas, The Government uses its colonies to exile its unemployed population while also giving those people a chance to have a better life than the one they left. Lisse describes the dilemma The Government faced that led it to start the colonies: “The Government was faced with a choice: get rid of the robots or get rid of the young people. It’s ironic that it was easier to get rid of the young people. It all has to do with the use of power” (172). Lisse recognizes that The Government’s “use of power” prioritizes the continuity of the status quo on Earth. The only way for The Government to maintain its grasp over people on Earth is to send some of its population away. The novel portrays space colonization as a way of solving the issue of the Earth’s limited resources, environmental as well as economic.