From Mark Twain to Amy Tan, American authors have refined the narrative form beyond what the Greeks and subsequent practitioners of the literary form have achieved. One of the most anthologized American narratives--"The Most Dangerous Game"--provides evidence of the American talent for incorporating narrative conventions, multiple conflict types, and language that achieves symbolic purpose. Thus, readers of this Richard Connell classic are given a lesson in perfect narrative form.
Clearly, the author provides evidence of a sinister plot line in the exposition phase of the story. Connell sets the tone of the story right away with dialogue between two characters, Whitney and Rainsford. Whitney is describing a mysterious island to Rainsford, the unfortunate protagonist who will end up on that very island. The two are aboard a yacht headed for Brazil for big game hunting. Whitney comments about a distant, mysterious island called Ship Trap Island that sailors dread and try to avoid at all cost. Whitney states even cannibals wouldn't live on Ship Trap Island. Connell establishes fear and dread by speaking of a dark "moonless Caribbean night” and eerie atmosphere out on the dark still ocean. Connell also uses the color red throughout story to highlight the blood, violence, and death on Ship-Trap Island. For example, Connell describes seas as the “blood-warm waters.” Connell describes a patch of weeds as “stained crimson.” Connell uses the color red to link the lust of murder and violence.
In the beginning of the story, Rainsford exhibits a harsh attitude toward the animals he hunts. He believes that the world consists only of predators and prey. Rainsford is alone on deck and falls overboard the ship is gone, so he swims to the is...
... middle of paper ...
...ord states, “I am still a beast at bay" I am not caught yet. Rainsford is still playing the game and wants to end the game by battling to the death. Rainsford shows he is now ready to kill in order to protect himself.
Richard Connell's "The Most Dangerous Games" is a masterfully structured narrative that exemplifies an American author's expertise in the literary form. This short story tells the story of Survival of the fittest and how any of us can go from being the hunter to being the hunted.
Works Cited
Works Cited
Stedman, Raymond W. "WELCOME TO THE NOSTALGIA LEAGUE!!" The Nostalgia League- Old Time Radio, B-Movies, Westerns, Comics, Railroading, both Real and Model, and Nostalgia. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Nov. 2013.
The most dangerous game began as a sport for one man. His name is Sanger Rainsford. In Richard Connell’s story “The Most Dangerous Game,” Sanger Rainsford, an avid hunter, is lost at sea, stranded on “Ship-Trap” Island-every sailor’s worst nightmare. Rainsford goes through a series of events that prove to be life-altering. Even though Sanger Rainsford went through many trials and tribulations, he never lost his intelligence, composure, or his bravery.
As we read “The Most Dangerous Game” by Richard Connell, we are introduced to Rainsford. The true survivor expresses several characteristics that help him to defeat General Zaroff and win the game. Connell not only shows us that by being confident, quick thinking and adaptive, Rainsford is able to survive against the most inhumane people like General Zaroff, but he concludes that these characteristics of a true survivor can help us to survive conflicts of our own society as well.
“The Most Dangerous Game” by Richard Connell was published in 1924, 6 years after WW1. He served in WW1 and was a writer and editor before that. Around 1924 there were big events that might have caused him to write this story. WW1 ended, the Russian Revolution was happening, and big game hunting in Europe was popular. This story is a modernism piece because a modernism story it has no clear conclusion or just capturing the moments in detail. Connell’s story had an untrustworthy authority figures, movement away from moral goodness, an allegory, and an ambiguous ending. Those are all characteristics of a modernist story.
Hunting big game animals for sport was a popular pastime with the wealthy classes following World War I. The morality of killing for sport was not questioned in reality, but in this short story the author does question it by taking it a step further and having the protagonist, Sangor Rainsford, hunted by the antagonist, General Zaroff.In a short story full of irony, one of the greatest ironies of Richard Connell’s “The Most Dangerous Game” is that General Zaroff repeatedly tells Rainsford that he maintains a sense of civilization on his island.
“An abrupt sound startled Rainsford. Off to the right he heard it, and his ears, expert in such matters, could not be mistaken. Again he heard the sound, and again. Somewhere, off in the blackness, someone had fired a gun three times.” (2). This abrupt sound is what lead Rainsford to the island and got him into multiple conflicts including, man versus man, man versus himself, and man versus nature. For example, the conflicts Rainsford faces consists of man versus nature , man versus man, and finally man versus himself.
As the sweltering, hot sun signified the start of a scorching afternoon, a young boy lay in the fields harvesting vegetables for another family. He had been enslaved to perform chores around the house for the family, and was only given very few privileges. While his stomach throbbed with pangs of hunger, he continued cooking meals for them. After the family indulged in the cozy heat from the fireplace, he was the one to clean the ashes. Despite his whole body feeling sore from all the rigorous work he completed, the young boy had been left alone to suffer. As months passed by, he desired independence. He wanted to cook his own food, make his own fire, harvest his own plants and earn money. The lad soon discovered that he needed faith and courage to break away from his restricted environment. When put in a suppressive situation, every person has the aspiration to escape the injustice. This is what Harrison Bergeron and Sanger Rainsford do to liberate themselves from the external forces that govern their lives. Harrison, the main character of “Harrison Bergeron” written by Kurt Vonnegut, is a strong, fourteen year old boy whose talents have been concealed by the government. Growing up in an environment where equality has restricted people’s thinking, Harrison endeavors to change society’s views. Rainsford, the main character of “The Most Dangerous Game” written by Richard Connell, is a skilled hunter who believes that animals were made to be hunted; he has no sympathy for them. Stranded on island with a killer chasing him, he learns to make rational choices. While both Harrison and Ranisford are courageous characters, Rainsford’s prudence enables him to overpower his enemy, whereas Harrison’s impulsive nature results in him being ...
Tindall, G.B. & Shi, D.E. (2010). America a narrative history 8th edition. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. p.205-212.
We are introduced to the protagonist and main character, Sanger Rainsford who is a big game hunter and a WW1 veteran. The story starts off with a conversation between Whitney and Rainsford discussing the island, so we can understand the reputation it holds.
In The Most Dangerous Game the characters in the story were Sanger Rainsford and General Zaroff. Now in the story Sanger Rainsford is the victim, and General Zaroff is the predator. Sanger Rainsford was a hunter, he was fearless, brave, strong, and smart. He claim’s that he is superior to the animals that he kills. But when he is being hunted himself, his point of v...
The author of “The Most Dangerous Game” is Richard Connell. Richard Connell is an American author and journalist, who wrote a lot of short stories and few novels. His short stories appeared in the Saturday Evening Post and Collier's Weekly. While he was still in high school, Richard Connell was hired as the city editor for sixteen dollars a week. He studied college at Georgetown University, while working as a secretary for his father, who had been elected to Congress. After his father’s death, he moved to Harvard, and started writing for two college newspapers. After graduating, he transferred to New York, but he also left a brief stint in the army during World War |. After that, he moved to Los Angeles and began to write screenplays for major Hollywood movie studios. Richard Connell’s most famous story is “The Most Dangerous Game”, which is still widely read, even nowadays. It has inspired many movies and it’s probably the most frequently anthologized American story.
Some people you meet can have a major impact on your life and change it for better or for worse. Rainsfords (a man who likes to hunt dangerous animals) life was greatly changed in both a good way and a bad way by a man who lives on a tiny island in a big house named General Zaroff. Rainsford ended up on this island after he fell of a yacht he was on to go hunt an animal somewhere else but ended up swimming his way up to the shore of an island. But after about a day of being on the island Rainsford was being hunted down. While Rainsford was trying his hardest to survive on the island he was on he found a way to escape to the mainland where General Zaroff was to try and get a way off the island back to civilization. The points in this story will be somehow related to my thesis statement in ¨The Most Dangerous Game” by Richard Connell, Zaroff teaches Rainsford how it feels to be like the hunted and not the hunter.
Kippen, David. "The Most Dangerous Game." Short Stories for Students. Ed. Kathleen Wilson. Vol. 1. Detroit: Gale, 1997. 155-169. Short Stories for Students. Gale. Web. 20 Jan. 2010.
“A man who had been hiding in the curtains of the bed, was standing there. ‘Rainsford!’ Screamed the General. ‘How in gods name did you get in here?’(80).” The General left that day knowing he hadn't caught Rainsford after he jumped out into the sea. The General believed he would not come back but until he found Rainsford in room, did he start to think anything bad would come to him. Up until this point in the story the general is enjoying hunting Rainsford, and Rainsford has the exact opposite feeling about this situation. Rainsford says himself “I am still a beast at bay”(80). The General challenged Rainsford, “‘One of us will furnish a repast for the hounds. The other will sleep in this very excellent bed. On Guard, Rainsford…’(80).” The General never thought he would lose at his own game. That was until he was fed to his own
"The Most Dangerous Game Allusions & Cultural References." Shmoop.com. Shmoop University, Inc., 11 Nov. 2008. Web. 02 Apr. 2014. .
The conflict of good and evil presents itself in “The Most Dangerous Game” and “The Child by Tiger” in two completely different ways. One story being commercial fiction and the other being literary fiction, there are many ways of viewing variables such as good versus evil, realistic versus unrealistic stories and moral significance. The stories have different voices and are meant for different audiences, but in viewing the overall moral importance of both fictional works, the story with a greater moral significance is “The Child by Tiger”.