Kyle Lucas
English 105H sec 12
Rhetorical Analysis
 
 

    The American Dream: an ideal in which so much is bound.  It is the lure that attracted so many to this country.  It is life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It is the motivation that drives people, whether consciously or unconsciously, to try to improve their position in society and in the world.  After reading McPhee’s “The Search for Marvin Gardens,” the question arose of how the game of Monopoly, and specifically Marvin Gardens, reflects the American Dream. I think the structure of the game as well as the specific search for Marvin Gardens as described in the text reflect a great deal of the American Dream.

    In “The Search for Marvin Gardens,” McPhee intertwines two separate but related short stores to form a single narrative.  He describes two men playing Monopoly for the international singles championship of the world, their history of playing together, as well as some of their tactics and strategy for playing the game.  Parallel to this storyline is the second half of McPhee’s story, which describes life in the real Atlantic City.  When something in the game occurs at a certain place on the board, the next paragraph will often show what that particular place is like in reality.  For example, as a player lands on St. Charles Place, the author describes the scene along the real St. Charles Place.  When the narrator lands on Vermont, he depicts a grim scene of “ruins, rubble, fire damage, open garbage” and dog packs roaming aimlessly through it all.
In order to see how Monopoly and the search for Marvin Gardens reflects the American Dream, I will use metaphoric criticism and first examine the reading as a whole to gain a sense of perspective of its dimensions and context.  Then, I will look specifically at how both the game of Monopoly itself and the search for Marvin Gardens are symbols for the American Dream.  Finally, I will analyze these metaphors and show their relevance for the audience in addressing the research question.  I will discuss the various vehicles and how they are used by McPhee to show the reader something of the tenor, in this case, the American Dream.

    The game of Monopoly itself reflects the pursuit of the American Dream in its very structure.  The goal of the game is to move around the board as one would move through life and acquire wealth and properties.  It is a competition against at least one other person to get ahead in the game.  This competition is similar to that of life and how people are always fighting against others in business and in the workplace for promotions to get ahead in society.  A common phrase in American society, “to get ahead in the game,” is another very similar metaphor.  We use it everyday but often do not realize the underlying implications of it, that life is in some ways like a competitive game such as Monopoly.  The goal of both the game and life is to win, and as everyone knows, “he who dies with the most toys, wins.”  It is understood in American culture that in order to be successful in life, one must acquire material goods.  Also in Monopoly, one must acquire and develop property as well as build up a cash base in order to be successful.  This is a very individual pursuit both in the game as well as in life.  The narrator says at one point that he and his opponent never trade.  Each player must fend for himself in gaining property and wealth without anyone to help.

    The search for Marvin Gardens is also a very significant metaphor in this short story.  Marvin Gardens is the only property on the entire Monopoly board that lies outside of Atlantic City.  It is a very quiet suburb with “seventy-two handsome houses” in a very planned order.  It is a very quiet neighborhood, and a “sanctuary of the middle class.”  By calling it a sanctuary, McPhee emphasizes that it is where people to go get away from the city and all that is bad in the city.  Marvin Gardens is a goal, much like the American Dream, to be worked toward.  In fact, many would define the American Dream as a place like Marvin Gardens.  It is a stereotypical quiet neighborhood with quaint, one and a half story houses with white picket fences, two cars, two kids, and a dog.  This is where any normal person would want to raise a family.  It is free of crime and other undesirable aspects of a large city.  For all these reasons, it is a very attractive place, and those who live there are not eager to leave.  The few people who live there are the fortunate ones in life.  They have been able to do well enough in life to allow them to move outside of the city to this wonderful suburb, Marvin Gardens.  Most people whom the author asks are clueless as to the location of Marvin Gardens.  They are unaware that there is even something better out there for them.  These are the people who cannot “win” at life because they have not attained the American Dream that is the goal.  In the game, the narrator is looking to land on Marvin Gardens to complete a Monopoly and presumably win the game and the tournament.  He is unable to do so however and loses the match.  He is just like the people who do not know where Marvin Gardens is; neither one is successful at what he is doing whether a game or life.  The search for Marvin Gardens as a ticket to winning the game runs parallel to the pursuit of the American Dream as a ticket to being happy and satisfied in life.

    So is the game of Monopoly really what life in America is all about?  In a somewhat simplified way, yes.  The same forces of competition and a desire for wealth and self-improvement are at work in both the game and real life.  Certain aspects are of course different such as the ratio of luck to skill needed for success, but in their basic forms, Monopoly and the search for Marvin Gardens as described by McPhee are very accurate metaphoric descriptions of the American Dream.