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... more privileged ones have more advantages in normal life, e. g. more money - Lower colours have to show their respect and inferiority by bowing to higher colours A police force, called the G 4, is also invented.
It is their duty to check if the rules are kept and to insure that everybody is keeping a journal. The students who have played this game in previous years are spies, who also control and if necessary, report any students who jeopardise the success of the game. There is also a sex related difference between men and women in the game (the opposite to real life) - Women (called teks) are the superior of each class - Men (called no-teks) are the inferior sex - Teks get more money than the no-teks of the same colour - No-teks are required to undertake mundane tasks, e. g. to bring home made cookies and coffee to class - No-teks have to take part in a beauty contest where they are judged on their individual talents or for their physical attributes The game was invented to show the present class differences and the effect it has on the respective classes, by the fact that it is played with role reversal. So it demonstrates for every student what it is like to be in a different class in society.
The purpose is to prevent the growth of these prejudices because they are now able to feel what it is like to be categorised. It also takes the aspect of sex discrimination into concern. It is often unconsciously dealt with. The play shall make the existing class differences clear by forcing the students to get into contact with gender differences. So the main purpose of creating this game is that the participants develop a feeling for justice, fairness and tolerance.
The success of the role-playing of the participants of the "colour game" will become evident if they start to challenge bias and prejudice in the wider community. (Miklowitz, 1986) 2. 4 Characterisation of Amy & Adam and the relation to their families Amy is the protagonist in the novel, which is written in the first person. The fact that the whole story is told 'through her eyes' gives you a very detailed impression what she thinks about several situations and aspects of her life and her surroundings. Amy is an 17 year -old girl who lives with her parents in a middle class neighbourhood in some American city. Both of her parents emigrated from Japan a long time ago but they still follow their old traditions and try to raise and educate Amy that way. Amy is an Americanised form of her first name: 'Emily', her parents choice, by her parents but none of her friends uses that name. She grows up in a lower-middle-class part of town racially very mixed.
It is said that she does like her parents and obeys both of them, but she does not like her father's attitude concerned that she should not date Adam because he is white and comes from the upper class. That frustrates and makes her sad sometimes just because she has observed her father's intolerant attitude towards Hideo (her brother) and his girlfriend over the years. She admires his brother for his strong will to keep up the relation with Sue (his wife) even though her dad has such strong prejudices against it. Her relation with Adam is very similar to theirs, which creates a strong bond between them. There is a major change in her character, or especially in her outward appearance throughout the novel. The first impression which she gives is, that she is a responsible young woman who really cares about other people's feelings and opinions.
So she never speaks up even if there is disagreement about other people's opinions. She lacks of self-confidence in a way because she never knows what the others think of her and she always fears of being discriminated against. That makes her keep a sharp eye on them because she feels unprotected, by being Japanese. She thinks that she is only accepted in Adam's group because she is a girl and his girlfriend. For that reason she has created a special behaviour, which makes it more likely to be accepted by others, so she by times is exotic, shy, submissive and pretends to like people as she finds them and would not venture to stand up against someone else's opinion. During the colour game she is changing her principles quite a bit.
As a superior class, as she is at the beginning, she notices what power the upper class has accumulated against the lower colours and how unfair they are treated by the system. The revealing fact that she decides to help the lower colours by planning a rebellion, which is a clear indication that she feels sorry for them and that she does not wish to support the system any longer. Surprisingly, even after she is demoted she does not give up her idea to unite all colours. From now on she appears as a strong-willed person, who is prepared to fight for the improvement of the system. She acts in a leading role of the rally, which gives her confidence. The fact that she expresses her view to her parents and Adam are good examples of the change her mind has undergone.
Generally, Amy has achieved more maturity during the course of the game. Adam is the boyfriend of Amy and, as he has so much to do with her, he can be considered as the second character in the novel. He is from a white and wealthy American family who lives in the upper-class part of town. They own a big house, which looks like a castle on the 'Valley Vista'. Adam is driving his own car, a BMW, which is an indication of how rich his family is. He is the same age Amy, he is described as a strong and attractive boy and is voted second at the male beauty contest in class.
There is little said about his family and next to nothing of his own opinion about them. He has a younger sister, Bettina, who is tutored maths by Amy. His mother is described as being rational thinking without many obvious emotions or feelings. Except that she has many prejudices about non-whites and people from other races, and people from a lower social standard. She would like to see Adam going out with Eileen who is from the same social class and also a friend of the family.
Adam wants to separate himself from that kind of prejudice and is sure that he has chosen the right girlfriend. At first he appears to be the dominant partner of their relationship. He is very self-confident and experienced in exert his will but towards the end of the novel they become, more or less, equal partners. He likes Amy for the reason that she is 'exotic' and very different to all the other girls.
He tries to protect Amy from the people's prejudices as well as from other boys. He has had a strong desire, through the whole novel, to keep the relation up between them and to work at it. 2. 5 Analysis on the relationship between Amy & Adam As the relation between Amy and Adam develops throughout the novel it is hard to get a precise idea about what the relation is like at the beginning of the novel. So I have to draw attention to several major parts of interest to get an insight about the changes which have gone on during the game. The story starts with a monologue, dealing with the relation from Amy's point of view. It is clearly said that Amy is in a passionate mood of overwhelming feelings for Adam, combined with a bit of uncertainty as to why he has just chosen her (Miklowitz, 1985: 7, ll. 1 - 4; 20 - 21). There exists strong prejudices about their intercultural relationship from their parent's point of view and who even try to separate them.
That is going to challenge them in the course of time in the novel. The first challenge they have to face together, is the week when she is placed under house arrest and they cannot see each other for that period. Adam wants to go to a beach party and does so without her. She starts to get suspicious when she hears his mum shouting that there is "some girl" on the phone but he is diplomatic enough to convince her of his innocence.
As the story develops and the colour game is introduced to their class, their relationship will have to fa...
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