This prompt by Luna and Mia of the Write with Us blog amuses me. Maybe it’s because my family played so much Monopoly when I was growing up.
I always liked the thimble because it was big enough that I could put it on my pinky finger. I also prefer to get the cyan group and the railroads over some of the more expensive groups. I’m pretty sure the cyan group was because I like that shade of blue. The fact that they are some of the least expensive properties and thus less valued than other things didn’t hurt with trying to get them from other players. As for the railroads, it was because one of them was called Reading Railroad and, surprise, surprise, I like reading. If you played Monopoly a lot did you have a favorite game piece? What about a favorite group of properties you liked to have. Which ones do you like and why?
Another reason I might find this prompt so amusing is probably because of how much the character clearly doesn’t know what they are talking about. Now, I don’t know what they are talking about either, because I am glad to say I have never been to real jail either. Monopoly jail, sure. It’s even a game strategy, get into jail and don’t land on other people’s expensive properties while they land on yours.
I’ve got to say though, I am very curious what started this conversation. What leads a person to comment that jail is no fun when they are literally just talking about Monopoly jail, which I would argue later in game is actually fun, because you get to watch everyone else get into money trouble when you aren’t.
I like how surprised the second person sounds. Presumably they know this person well enough to be pretty sure they would never go to jail, but not close enough or at least not long enough to be one hundred percent sure. We have no idea how long they have known each other and while the wording implies to me that the second person has probably never been to jail or at least if they have the first person doesn’t know, it’s not impossible.
We also don’t know how old these two people are, but I think it’s safe to assume that at least the first speaker is at least old enough that they are either an adult or old enough that getting sentenced as an adult for a really serious crime is not impossible to imagine. I kind of see them both as being on the younger side or at least the first speaker. There is a naivety that seems to lend itself more often to the young than the old since it’s something that once lost isn’t coming back.
What kind of characters do you see here? Would you agree with them being younger or do you think they might be older? Do you have any characters you can see having this conversation?