1.McPhee’s counterpoint style in “Marvin Gardens” has been described as resembling a ladder, with the two parallel narratives of the Monopoly tournament and the exploration of the impoverished state of the real Atlantic City, New Jersey in 1972, connecting conceptually at several important points. Identify several important places where the “game” and “city” narratives are juxtaposed, and explain the effect of these counterpoints.
2.McPhee’s essay was written overforty years ago, shortly before New Jersey voters, desperate to revitalize their Atlantic City, approved casino gambling in 1976. Though boasting the only legal casinos in the eastern U.S., Atlantic City continued to have serious urban problems. Simon Bryant suggests that the casinos merely exacerbated the issues, and points to the stark contrast between tourism intensive areas and the adjacent impoverished working-class neighborhoods. In what ways does this situation mirror Atlantic City’s history, both in 1935 (when the Monopoly game was first marketed by Parker Brothers) and during McPhee’s 1972 visit?
3.One interpretation of McPhee’s famous essay is that it shows the real-world cost to a community that has suffered being the board where literal monopoly games have taken place. This idea, like the exposition and guidance one might expect to find at the beginning of an essay, is not given up front, and the reader is dropped in with the word “Go,” left to orient themselves in both narratives. What is the use of such an approach, and does it change the reader’s experience of the article? When the two narratives are woven more closely together at the essay’s end, is that initial confusion still relevant?
