Understanding the Bread or Lottery Challenge in Squid Game Season 2: Insights into the Salesman’s New Game

Warning! This article features significant SPOILERS for Squid Game Season 2. In the latest installment of Squid Game, Gong Yoo’s mysterious Salesman introduced a chilling new game titled “bread and lottery.”Following the dramatic events of the first season, Seong Gi-hun (played by Lee Jung-jae) embarks on a relentless quest to track down the Salesman and unravel the secrets behind the sinister organization administering the deadly games. However, this pursuit proves challenging as many characters, including Hwang Jun-ho (Wi Ha-joon), remain oblivious to the island’s location, leading Gi-hun directly into the Salesman’s path.

Gi-hun organized an extensive search effort, recruiting his former loan shark, Mr. Kim, and his crew, to comb through every subway station across Seoul. Their determination ultimately led them to the Salesman, resulting in a tense observation as he unveiled his new, disturbing game, “bread and lottery.”While the specifics of this game remain vague, the Salesman’s cruel intentions are more pronounced, subtly suggested throughout the unfolding chaos.

The Salesman Offers a Disturbing Choice: Bread or Lottery

A Sadistic Game: Nourishment vs. Fortune

Gong Yoo as The Salesman presenting bread and a lottery ticket in Squid Game Season 2, Episode 1

Notably, unlike his prior role in Season 1, the Salesman does not invite homeless individuals into the deadly games directly. Instead, he engages them in a sadistic ritual that seems to serve his own twisted desires. His actions—tormenting those already in dire straits—act as a manifestation of his hatred rather than being orchestrated by the affluent puppeteers of the games. This highlights a troubling dynamic where the Salesman inflicts suffering purely for his amusement.

Decoding the Bread or Lottery Game in Season 2

A Game Designed for Cruelty and Foreshadowing

The Salesman trampling bread in Squid Game Season 2, Episode 1

The “bread and lottery”game serves as a grim metaphor for societal struggles and foreshadows broader thematic elements in Squid Game. The game essentially aims to demonstrate the alleged weakness of the impoverished, insinuating that they prefer a futile gamble over practical sustenance. This perspective grossly oversimplifies the intricacies of poverty, reducing individuals to mere statistics in a heartless experiment.

Moreover, the choice presented to players reveals deep-seated societal critiques. The term “bread and lottery”may echo the ancient expression “bread and circuses,”coined by the Roman poet Juvenal. This phrase historically described how authorities placate the masses with superficial offerings, thus distracting them from substantive societal issues. It suggests that those in power manipulate basic survival needs and entertainments to prevent discourse on more critical matters.

Gong Yoo’s Salesman: A Reflection of Self-Hatred

Insights into the Salesman’s Character and Self-Perception

The implications of the “bread and lottery”game extend beyond mere social commentary; they delve deep into the psyche of the Salesman. Creator Hwang Dong-hyuk illuminated this aspect, suggesting that the Salesman projects his struggles onto those he exploits. He sees mirrored reflections of his own painful past in the homeless he torments.

I believe that Gong Yoo’s character [the Salesman] is someone who lived a difficult, tough, rock-bottom life, just as much as those that are depicted as the homeless people in the series.

And he is someone who is so filled with self-hatred, it is expressed in the hatred he harbours for other humans. And by hating these people, he believes that he is different from them. [He is] showing and expressing his hatred for the people who choose lottery tickets instead of bread, almost as if he’s trying to escape his own self-loathing nature.

The Salesman’s backstory further supports this narrative; having risen from the ranks of faceless workers to a coveted recruiter after committing heinous deeds, including killing his own father. This ascent, fraught with dread, indicates he too was once ensnared in the cramps of poverty, now displaying wealth that stands in stark contrast to the suffering he inflicts.

Despite his apparent success in societal climbing, this success does not permit him to dismiss the structural barriers that keep others in despair. His newfound power leads him to look down upon those still trapped in the cycle of poverty, directing his vitriol toward anyone he perceives as complacent in their circumstances. The Salesman’s complex narrative sets an intriguing tone for Squid Game Season 2, promising depth and intensity as the plot unfolds.

Source & Images