House of Games is a film starring Lindsay Crouse as Margaret Ford, the famous psychiatrist, and Jon Mategna as Mike, the con man. The film was released in 1987 and the setting of the movie seems to reflect a similar time. The movie begins with Margaret taking in a patient who is threatening suicide over debt owed to the head of a poker ring named, Mike. Fearful of her patients intentions, Margaret investigates the bar where "Mike" is supposed to be in order to settle the debt. In order to settle the debt, Margaret has to become a side kick to Mike, helping him win a huge hand in poker. They develop a relationship after her interest in how Mike's mind work peaks. She cannot seem to take herself away from Mike and his lifestyle. Margaret …show more content…
wants to meet up with Mike more and study him and how he cons people. Margaret is introduced to Mike's posse of con men and therefore, becomes on of them. Mike has a planned "sting" operation that Margaret thrusts herself into due to her insatiable taste for conning.. The sting involves a planned dropping of a briefcase filled with $80,000, and an innocent bystander witnessing this and agreeing to "split" the money with the con men. The sting goes wrong and Margaret ends up killing a police officer in the wake of the botched plan and loses the $80,000. The $80,000, as Mike explains, was mob money and they have to pay it back or the mob will kill them all. Margaret agrees to write Mike a check for the money in order to save them all from the mob. The con men and Margaret escape, agreeing to split up and go far away. Margaret is haunted by her cold blooded murder of an officer. It follows her everywhere, making her question what she got herself into. She begins to breakdown and shun herself from society. Wanting some closure, she visits the bar where she first found Mike and stumbles upon a conversation she was not supposed to hear. It's Mike and all of his con men, including the "police officer" she killed., gloating about how they duped Margaret out of $80,000. Margaret catches up with Mike at an airport and feigns wanting to go with him. He catches on to her act and calls her out. Enraged about how she was tricked, she shoots Mike and kills him, thereby settling her mind. Margaret, who becomes enthralled in the life of a group of con men, begins a life of gambling and crime.
Margaret is a psychiatrist who specializes in fixation and addiction. She is most notably know for her book, "Driven": Compulsion and Obsession in Everyday Life. Her popularity due to her work and best selling book leads to her ignorance. Margaret has so little insight on her own obsession that she is easily lured into a life of crime by con men who may understand human nature and motivation more than the famous psychiatrist herself. Margaret prides herself so much on being able to cure other of addictions and problems that she does not realize she is becoming a victim. Margaret shows most of the key symptoms of someone who is addicted. She is embodiment of a sensation seeker, going from a composed author to a full-blown criminal in a matter of days. House of Games is a wonderful movie which highlights the dark world of self control issues and human nature. The con men, especially Mike, are metaphors for her self control issues and addiction. This is apparent throughout the movie, the more she encounters these men the farther she falls down the deep dark hole of her psyche. The film doubles as a social commentary about self control issues and having to face them. The entire movie is battle that she eventually comes to terms with. In the end, Margaret accepts that her problem cannot be fixed by running away and she embraces
it. Role of Gambling in House of Games Setting To truly delve deep into the role of gambling in the film, one must understand the setting. The film appears to take place in the later 1980's. This isn't apparent in the movie because a date is never uttered, but it can be inferred from the fashion, model of cars, and buildings. The film's setting falls under "The Third Wave" gambling period and the Mafia/Mob era of gambling in the United States (McGowan, 2012). The gambling the characters do in the film is mostly limited to poker. Poker is a table game which requires skill. Games of skill are usually categorized under action games. It can be argued that Margaret uses her brief encounter with poker to escape her life, but action seems more suitable since poker is not the main focus of the film ("Action", n.d.). Margaret, Mike, and his men play poker in the back room of the House of Games bar. Playing in the back room of a bar is not the typical spot that poker is played. Poker is usually played in a well lit casino, surrounded by tons of lights and sound. The sights and sounds add to the experience, making it more of an enjoyable time. The poker room is depicted in the move as a dreary, dimly lit hole-in-the-wall. The game commences as Margaret sits down a large table surrounded by very masculine, confrontational players. This scene shows that Margaret is completely out of her element. The men are cursing at her, calling her a broad, but she isn't phased. To the viewer, after seeing this scene you may think that gambling is crooked and controversial game. During the game, Mike is trying to use "tells" or hints to determine if his opponent is bluffing. Although what Mike does is not seen as cheating in the traditional sense of poker, it may make the viewer believe that gambling is not just a game of skill. Mike using tells to get the upper hand on his opponent conveys to the reader that playing poker also involves triumphing over your opponents human nature, rather than just playing the cards.
moreover, it shows us that she is like an animal that is trap in a cage suffering from the burden of not enjoying herself. Thus, lashing out at her husband while disregarding the danger she is putting her family through mentally traumatic events. As well as strains on the fact that she is not acknowledging the effects and extent of her addiction. Thus, shutting everyone out and eating herself apart. Therefore, she avoids discussing her issues with her husband on the movement to the city which might help with resolving her issue or lessen the magnitude of the stress she is going through.
Everyone’s lives are affected by the decisions they have made and past experiences they have had. In the novel A River Runs Through It, author Norman Maclean uses the theme of experiences to portray the difficulties a person can face throughout life. Although Norman and Paul are brothers and bond through fly fishing, they are two different people who have different life paths. Norman chose to get a stable job and live a domestic life, whereas Paul chose to become a bachelor and a lower class reporter. The main character is Norman himself, and he also experiences the difficulties his troubled brother Paul is faced with. Unlike his brother, Paul has chosen a different route in life, and he has an addiction problem. As a result of Paul’s alcoholism, his life is destroyed by financial issues, family disconnects and gambling.
The novel Go Ask Alice written anonymously tells the story of one girl’s struggle with drug addiction. The conflict in this novel is person versus self. The protagonist is struggling against herself trying to overcome addiction. The mood is depressing. The main character reveals how drugs ruined her life, which evokes depressed feelings in the reader. The point of view is first person. This is a publishing of a teenage girl’s diary and she wrote in first person. The conflict, mood, and point of view make this book a work of realistic fiction.
All sense of individuality and self worth is taken way from the narrator when her name is never revealed to the audience. Furthermore, John continues to belittle his wife by giving her the command to not walk around at night. Although the John thinks in his mind that he is looking out for the best interest of his wife, in actuality, he is taking away his wife’s abilities to make choices for herself. There is a possibility that John’s controlling personality is one of the factors that led to his wife’s psychosis. Such a controlling life style more than likely limited the narrator’s ability to live any life outside of the home.
Gerald May does an incredible job of integrating spiritual concepts and theology into the treatment of addictions in his book Addiction and Grace. He clearly asserts that all humans are born with the desire for God’s love. This desire is what gives our lives personal meaning. Addiction is defined as any personal attachment that takes an individual’s focus away from God. As human beings, we all have addictions; personal attachments that can be viewed as positive or negative. Addictions are not limited to substance abuse (i.e. drugs, alcohol, and food). Addictions can also include behaviors (i.e. love, work, family, exercise). It can be difficult to view loving someone as a negative addiction; however, Gerald
The two women follow the pattern of those going mad: eventually, they begin to see things and form relationships with the images that reside only in their minds. The narrator gives into the figments of her imagination and begins to metamorphose this “thing” she imagines behind the wallpaper as a hallucinogenic image of herself. This “woman” becomes a deadly combination: best friend and worst enemy. She views the woman as trapped, and, in order to free herself from this non-fulfilling life, she must free the woman. Elisa also receives an uninvited guest, a tinker who she perceives as the perfect emblem of freedom.
Addiction is something that may seem inevitable but at the end it’s entirely the fault of a person who is addicted. In the article by Charles Duhigg ‘the power of habit’ Angie Bachmann got addicted to gambling, it was because of her fault as she kept accepting the offers from cassino and many other reasons.. Both knew what they were doing but still Angie let herself get into the situation, and the casino encouraged it. She was a well settled housewife, when everybody used to leave the house she was all alone. One fine day, while passing through the street she took a visit to casino just for a change. “She knew gambling could lead to trouble, so she set strict rules for herself. No more than one hour at the blackjack table per trip.” (pg 247,
Substance abuse is the habitual use of mind altering substances (Substances). Addicts have a false or altered look on reality; they need help seeing what is wrong with the life style they are living. Nikki Sixx once said,” Addiction- When you can give something up at any time, as long as it’s next Tuesday!” Recovery is teaching a person to break old habits. Substance abuse counselors are very important, not only in the mental health field, but in society as well.
Addiction controls people in many ways. Some addictions can even lead to death if not stopped early on. Addiction to any kind of substance or drug is not an easy thing to quit. It is hard to quit because it is not physically hard but also mentally hard to end an addiction. Addiction controls people by making them lose control of their actions and cravings. Also addiction controls people by changing their circadian rhythms which make it hard to stay away from what they are addicted to.
Her worse fears came true after she saw what was behind the doors of the forbidden room. The worst thing imaginable would be that her new husband was either abusive or a murderer and the latter seems to have been Carter’s choice for the Heroine. The Heroine realizes that her innocence has been taken from her from Marquis and she will now find herself in the same fate as the previous wives. “Nothing in my life of family love and music had prepared me for these grown-up games and yet these were clues to his self that showed me, at least, how much he had been loved, even if they did not reveal any good reason for it. But I wanted to know still more; and, as I closed the office door and locked it, the means to discover more fell in my way.” (Page 15). The Heroine herself admits that her experiences before her marriage to Marquis could not have prepared her for what she may find in the chamber or find out about Marquis. Her referral to “grown-up games’ in itself proves that even the Heroine believes that she may have been a little naïve going into this marriage and that she is not ready for the total package that may come with her new
Many people today view alcohol and drugs very differently than how they were portrayed years ago. In earlier years, there were not that many drugs that were used to save lives as the several different types of drugs that are used today. Today there are drugs used for different treatments for all kinds of diseases. Drugs are a business in which makes billions of dollars, both legally and illegally. Society views drugs majority of the time as something for saving lives, helping society for the better, but many don’t realize the millions of lives it’s destroying. Substance abuse from alcohol, illegal drugs to over the counter drugs and cigarettes can go from a casual once and a while thing to becoming an addiction. Substance abuse can be a huge gateway to addiction that can escalate very quickly. A lot of the time we convince ourselves that people chose to do these drugs so frequently, that addiction is a willing option they do to them-selves. Substance abuse and addiction are more than an individual problem it is a social issue.
The narration creates this insinuation of John being in control of her, when really everyone and everything in the story is all about the protagonist’s illness. Therefore, creating the illusion that she is a victim allows John to be the offender, and begins creating the feeling of entrapment. The protagonist feels trapped by John, trapped by her illness, and finally, trapped by the wallpaper. However, because of the narrator’s mental condition you question when her journal entries are sane and when they are twisted. For example;” Sometimes I think there are a great many women behind and sometimes only one”, this exert sounds as though she is metaphorically speaking to the reader like she knows the woman do not exist (401).
Drugs play an important role in the lives of Molly and Case adding another dimension to their complex life styles.
In the United States today, drug use, substance abuse, and addiction are consistently growing dilemmas! At a young age we are asked, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” Answers vary from doctor, police officer, astronaut, etc.; it is hard to image an individual saying, “I want to be addicted to drugs.” However, society witness’s individuals tumbling into drug addiction or other forms of addiction daily. This, in consequence, can cripple and prevent any person from accomplishing their childhood dreams. Addiction has many forms; this is evident in Requiem for a Dream, Darren Aronofsky’s critically renowned film, centered on the effects of drug use and misuse. The film conveys how quickly an individual can transition from recreational use to a drug addictive lifestyle. The film also addresses the pressing question, “Are legal and illegal drugs equivalent in terms of addiction?” Contrary to popular belief, drug dependence is not at all exclusive to illicit drugs and the “addicts” which confide in them. This is conveyed in the film through the evolution of Sara Goldfarb’s (Ellen Burstyn) character. A widowed mother, who becomes physiologically consumed on diet pills in hopes to be in peak condition when appearing on a game show. This molds another compelling topic: to what degree do drugs alter an individual’s physical
Addiction is a psychological condition that comes up when a person takes a drug or engages in an activity, which becomes compulsive and interferes with the ordinary responsibilities in life (Leshner, 1997). The addicts in most instances do not know that their behaviors affect others, and that it is out of control. Addiction is a physical addiction, or the biological state, whereby the body adapts to the presence of a drug to the extent that the body becomes tolerant. Because of the tolerance, there is always a reaction when an individual stops the consumption of the drug. However, the majority of the addictive behaviors is not related to the physical tolerance or exposures to cues. In most of the times, people have a compulsive need to use the drugs as a form of reaction towards emotional or psychological stress that they face. Since addictive behaviors are psychologically based, most of the people tend to switch from one form of drug to another.