Recently I started watching the Netflix original, Squid Game. Intrigued by the viral TikTok Dalgona Candy Challenge, my friends and I decided to watch the Netflix original which, in my humble opinion, lives up to the hype. There are many things to enjoy about the show: the direction is extremely intentional, the characters retain an element of intrigue over the majority of the series, the music elevates every performance, and the incorporation of well-known South Korean children’s games gives the global Netflix audience an appreciation of a new culture. Another aspect that I enjoyed immensely was the symbolic design of the show. You might already be familiar with the symbol of Squid Game: a circle, triangle, and square laid out in said sequence. The shapes dually come from the designs drawn on the ground to play the game known as the squid game and abbreviate the show’s name in the Korean alphabet. However, it’s impossible to ignore what the shapes might mean in the context of semiotics.
Semiotics is the usage of signs to convey a certain meaning, emotion, or information. These signs can be anything, from a thumbs up to signify agreement to the color red to signify warnings. Generally, creators will employ signs with the intention of conveying a certain message through all sorts of media, be it through the lighting and visuals present in a concert, the font and layout present in the newspaper you currently hold, or through shapes and designs prevalent in a TV show. In Squid Games, simple geometric shapes fulfill the semiotic quota to bring an element of cohesion to the different elements of the game, and by extension, the show, effectively bridging the gap between the viewer’s perception and the fictional reality.
In 2018, researcher Silvia Klettner of Vienna University of Technology studied the perception of geometric shapes by both male and female undergraduate students at her college. Students were asked to group an assortment of geometric shapes according to any sorting technique they pleased, verbally explain their grouping choices, and label the groups based on their chosen distinction. The results showed that an overwhelming majority grouped the shapes by visual strategy (visual qualities of the shapes) while others grouped the shapes by either affective strategy (how boring, aggressive, showy, etc. the shapes looked) or associative strategy (what the shapes reminded them of in the real world). The results confirm that the deepest and most direct way people interpret geometric shapes and their meanings is mainly through what they can physically discern. The results also showed that most visual strategy groupings differentiated polygons and rounded shapes the most from star-like shapes, resulting in a hierarchical ordering. This means that the circle, triangle, and square, though vastly different in appearance and philosophy, are normally considered to be related.
Knowing that the different shapes will have left an imprint in viewers’ minds due to people’s tendency to utilize visual strategy over other strategies in observation, whilst seeing the three shapes as mostly related allows me to further argue for the cohesion the shapes bring to the show. In the game red light green light, the rules state that while the individual faces away from the group, the group can move toward the individual, but any movement detected once the individual faces the group results in elimination. The lyrics uttered by the individual while facing away read “Red light, green light, one, two, three,” corresponding to the three shapes representing the games. In the game of marbles, the triangle and square might be the representation of odd and even numbers while the marbles represent the circles themselves. In the end, there are three finalists corresponding to the three shapes. In these ways (and I’m sure many more) the design of the symbols intentionally and unintentionally unifies the themes of the games, players, and TV show.
Semiotic theory employs symbols to foster communication and understanding between individuals. At the crux of Squid Game lies the lesson that human interaction and relationships will determine our abilities to survive or even thrive. The application of semiotic theory as a promoter of relationships through communication and understanding lends depth to an already complex serial that makes us rethink our morals and interest in material gain.
The Doodling Duck is an Opinion culture column written and created by Pooja
Rajadurai to discuss art as it relates to pop culture, trends, and students.
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