This is the fourth part of our LOST homeschool curriculum – The Games Losties Play! (PART I – THEMES is here.) Games play an important symbolic part in the series, and we may even find they’ve provided clues to the strategic storytelling in LOST.
NOTE: If you watch the series, this will all make sense to you. If you don’t watch the series, I highly recommend it, but you have to watch it from the beginning – we purchased the first 4 seasons on DVD. You can’t just watch a couple episodes and have any understanding at all. My series here includes only the simplest of the discussion points. For in depth LOST analysis, please visit the message boards or Lostpedia.
Backgammon
Clearly the most symbolic game in the series is backgammon, an ancient game that is believed to have originated in Mesopotamia in the Persian empire (present day Iran, Iraq, and Syria.) It is the oldest known recorded board game in history and its “light” and “dark” playing pieces provide the most frequently discussed theme in the show. Locke teaches Walt how to play the game in the pilot episode, and references to the light and dark imagery have continued throughout the five seasons of the show. (We bought a vintage Backgammon set on eBay for $7.)
RISK
In the photo above you see my kids playing RISK with the neighbors. This strategic war game is definitely a classic, as is evidenced by the Losties playing it in the 1970’s Dharma barracks in Season 4. The first five seasons seem to be leading up to a war in season six, so I expect to see parallels with Risk in the coming year. The gameboard set we found also as the “Castle Risk” version on the backside of the board – this wasn’t introduced until the 80’s or post-Dharma in the show.
CHESS
Locke defeats the computer chess game in season three, and Hurley plays the ghost of Eko in season four. Our kids have been playing chess for about five years, so this is already a mainstay in their game repertoire.
For more fun references to games in LOST, please visit Lostpedia.
LOST Homeschool Lessons Series:
Themes
Character Arc
Symbols
Games!
History/Literature
Tags: boardgames, games, homeschool, LOST
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1:33 pm
My 6-year old thinks you don’t need to use your brain in chess because he can beat me easily. Of course, he doesn’t know I let him beat me.
Honest.
Really, I really let him beat me.
You believe me, don’t you? Hmm.
Mike
http://www.mikeleonen.com
Twitter: AboutParenting
3:49 pm
my grandkids play chess. I never have. Not once.
11:01 am
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