Heavy Themes And Religious Dogma
Trigger Warning: I will be covering themes of child abuse and generally disgusting visuals
Well here we are again, I swear I will try to write something more cheerful but I just find the message of this game to be really powerful. The Binding of Issac is a indie game about the story of Issac, told through his imagination going wild as he slowly asphyxiates to death in a toy chest hiding from his mother. The story is very personal to it’s creator, Edmund McMillian, as he set out to create a game to express his experiences with religion, coming from a household of former drug addicts turned born again christians. Of course this is metaphorical as he wasn’t literally hunted down by his mother or fighting vile lovecraftian horrors by shooting them with tears, but more of a sharing of his feelings in a way he feels fit, dark humor.
The story of Issac as mentioned before exists solely in his deteriorating mind, as he hides from his mother as he assumes she is coming to sacrifice him like the biblical story of the same name. McMillian frames this story as a more up to player interpretation as he has stated before he hates hand holding in stories. My understanding from the clues given to us is that Issac used to live happily in a relatively poor nuclear family, consisting of a recovering alcoholic dad who is implied to be some sort of researcher and his stay at home mother who is a devout christian. His father fosters Issac’s creativity, inspiring him to take up drawing and creating papercraft worlds as a release. This lays in stone the basis of Issac’s main coping mechanism before the events of the game as eventually through some unknown event, his father takes up gambling (implied to perhaps help his family’s poverty) which kickstarts his drinking habit again which fuels his gambling even more. Issac’s mother, to cope, delves deeper into her religious beliefs and eventually drives her husband to divorce. With his father gone Issac’s mother would fall deeper into her beliefs escalating to only absorbing evangelical christian programming, eventually taking away everything Issac owns and locking him a room, starting the events of the game.
As mentioned before, the story is highly interpreted through the bits and pieces given throughout the game. Most of the stages, items, bosses, and endings show Issac’s understanding of the events as it stands as a young kid, he naturally doesn’t truly understand religion and interprets it as him being filled with sin and being the sole root of the problems in his life. I don’t believe McMillian is demonizing religion but rather trying to establish the idea that children are susceptible to the connections they make unconsciously, dangerously so. It’s a great game mechanically and the themes are very well thought out, but I would not advise the squeamish as it is literally one of the most grotesque games I’ve ever played despite the cartoony artstyle, from things like a damage up item stapling one of Issac’s eye shut to literally fighting through a floor representing the a decaying womb.
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I like the way you explained the entire backstory and context of the game to give us an understanding of what the purpose of the game is. I never would've guessed any game to have this deep of a story tied into it, but a video game is a great way to help send a message in a somewhat entertaining way. The story itself is dark, but it helps you establish the idea that children are susceptible to connections they make unconsciously, exactly what you said.
ReplyDeleteI have always heard about The Binding of Isaac through Steam, but I never bought it because I didn’t know anything about it. Reading your blog got me intrigued. I love elements of horror, and your description of the game makes it sound dark, disturbing, and mysterious. I always find it interesting whenever pieces of work that have potentially dark themes can be understood from a variety of perspectives, because it helps bring awareness to the many evil things that lurk in the real world. The way you presented your analysis was well-organized, and the events of the game seem incredibly impactful on those who play it. I like that you added a trigger warning at the top; it shows that you are considerate of those who may have negative emotional reactions to the kinds of topics you talked about.
ReplyDeleteThe Binding of Isaac is one of those game I never played and never really watched anything on it either. Yet it has still manage to interest me anytime I hear anything about it, so to hear about way the game came to be is very interesting.
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