Representation Of Greed And Systemic Elimination In Squid Game: An Ideological Semiotic Perspective

Abstract

The South Korean series Squid Game (2021) has emerged as a global cultural phenomenon that critiques harsh economic systems through a lethal survival competition. While greed is often perceived as a personal moral failure, this study argues that it is a structural product of an oppressive environment where survival necessitates the elimination of others. The research problem focuses on how visual symbols in the series construct the ideology of greed and the mechanism of systemic elimination. Consequently, this study aims to reveal the ideological power behind visual signs and demonstrate how popular media naturalizes inhumane competition. Employing a qualitative descriptive method, the data consists of ten key visual markers from Season 1. The distinct novelty of this research lies in its dual-theoretical approach, analyzing data through Roland Barthes' semiotic layers denotation, connotation, and myth integrated with Louis Althusser’s theory of Ideological State Apparatuses (ISA). The results indicate that symbols such as the Giant Doll, the transparent piggy bank, and the voting console function as apparatuses that interpellate participants into a logic of "profit through death". The study concludes that the series successfully exposes the "invisible hand of capital" by transforming human beings into replaceable statistical units, thereby portraying systemic elimination as an inevitable reality of late capitalism.