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Monopoly's Real-Life Atlantic City

John McPhee plays a series of Monopoly games and uses the properties on the board to guide a journey through the decaying city of Atlantic City, which inspired the game. As he plays, McPhee juxtaposes the well-known Monopoly sites with visits to their crumbling real-world locations. By the end of the essay, McPhee finds the elusive Marvin Gardens property after traveling through the faded resort town and gaining insight into its decline from a once-renowned destination.

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746 views1 page

Monopoly's Real-Life Atlantic City

John McPhee plays a series of Monopoly games and uses the properties on the board to guide a journey through the decaying city of Atlantic City, which inspired the game. As he plays, McPhee juxtaposes the well-known Monopoly sites with visits to their crumbling real-world locations. By the end of the essay, McPhee finds the elusive Marvin Gardens property after traveling through the faded resort town and gaining insight into its decline from a once-renowned destination.

Uploaded by

Taga Ilog
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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John McPhee, "The Search for Marvin Gardens" (originally appeared in The New Yorker, 1972)

“Go. I roll the dice—a six and a two. Through the air I move my token, the flatiron, to Vermont Avenue, where dog
packs range.” And so we move, in this brilliantly conceived essay, from a series of Monopoly games to a decaying
Atlantic City, the once renowned resort town that inspired America’s most popular board game. As the games
progress and as properties are rapidly snapped up, McPhee juxtaposes the well-known sites on the board—Atlantic
Avenue, Park Place—with actual visits to their crumbling locations. He goes to jail, not just in the game but in fact,
portraying what life has now become in a city that in better days was a Boardwalk Empire. At essay’s end, he finds
the elusive Marvin Gardens. The essay was collected in Pieces of the Frame (1975).

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