Becoming Zaroff's Prey In The Most Dangerous Game By Richard Connell

Predators and their prey are often thought of as opposites, however, they are more similar than most people think. Most animals are part of at least one food chain where they are both a predator and prey. This idea is further elaborated in the short story The Most Dangerous Game. Rainsford, a famous big-game hunter, finds himself trapped on an island where he learns that innocent people are being hunted for entertainment. He soon finds himself being hunted by General Zaroff, the owner of the island, because he refuses to “murder” humans. Becoming Zaroff’sthe General’s prey changes Rainsford's perspective that the animals he hunts have no understanding of fear. In The Most Dangerous Game, Richard Connell suggests that the hunter is not

that different from the hunted when the big game hunter Rainsford becomes General Zaroff’s prey.

Rainsford believes that hunting is a game because he doesn’t value the lives of the animals he hunts. When conversing with his hunting companion Whitney, Rainsford presents his view of the subject by stating that, ”You’re a big-game hunter, not a philosopher. Who cares how a jaguar feels?”(92). Contradicting his superior’s opinion, Whitney suggests that “they understand one thing—fear. The fear of pain and the fear of death.”(92). Suggesting that perhaps all living organisms are united through the universal concept of fear, he challenges Rainsford’s belief that “The world is made up of two classes—the hunters and the huntees”(92). Unlike Whitney, who displays empathy for the hunted prey, Rainsford’s lack of sympathy makes him seem cold and callous.

Rainsford meets General Zaroff, a more extreme hunter, who has “advanced” to version of himself, due to the General’s newly created, dangerous sport of hunting people, not animals.

At first, Rainsford related to and was even impressed by Zaroffthe general for his experience in hunting. HoweverTherefore, when Zaroff explained hishe was told of the General’s new choice in prey, Rainsford was so shocked andthat he was unable to think. However, he still instinctively felt that hunting humans was absurd. When talking to the general about hunting humans, the appalled Rainsford admits that he disagrees with this form of “Hunting? General Zaroff, what you speak of is murder”, but the general refused “to believe that so modern and civilized a young man as you seem to be harbors romantic ideas about the value of human life”(101). Rainsford’s conversation with the General clearly resembles the previous conversation he had with Whitney, where General Zaroff values human life as little as Rainsford valued the jaguar’s life. This is a parallel conversation in which he unknowingly switches sides, disagreeing with his previous argument made in the first conversation. General Zaroff tries to persuade Rainsford to accompany him on a hunting day, but Rainsford continues to refuse claiming that the war “Did not make me condone cold-blooded murder,”(101). In his first conversation with Whitney, Rainsford doesn’t seem to put any thought or regret into hunting animals as prey because he

doesn’t value their lives as he does humans. However, the high value he places on people’s lives unconsciously forces him into feeling and thinking that hunting humans is an absurd act of murder. Therefore he claims that “I’m a hunter, not a murderer”(102). Much like General Zaroff, Rainsford doesn’t realize that what he considers the “sport of hunting” is actually the murder of an animal. This allows Rainsford to disagree with General Zaroff’s hunting, but still believe that he has done nothing wrong himself.

When Rainsford becomes General Zaroff’s next prey, he finally understands and experiences the pain and fear of those hunted, smudging the line between hunters and “huntees”. Arguing with the General, Rainsford becomes his next target of prey. “Rainsford knew now how an animal at bay feels”(111). This external transition from predator to prey connects the natural symbiotic relationship between these opposing sides. This relationship allows Rainsford to experience and understand the prey, creating a personal connection. From this experience, he gains a new appreciation, and begins to better value the lives of the prey. The line separating these two classes is further blurred when Rainsford kills the General out of self-defense, while still in the mindset of the prey, not the predator. After having won the game, the unsatisfied Rainsford returns to face the general. “Rainsford did not smile. ‘I am still a beast at bay,’”(112). This refers to Rainsford’s new connection to the animals he had hunted because although he had already won General Zaroff’s “game”, he still feels like he is the prey trapped on the island. He began as a hunter who was put into a position where he externally transitions into the prey. Therefore, when Rainsford “murders” General Zaroff, he had already unknowingly transitioned back to being a hunter, but in the confusion he still considers himself the prey. This displays the predator-prey relationship in which the predator can mistakenly become the prey and vice versa.

After becoming General Zaroff’s prey, Rainsford realizes that the hunter and the hunted are more similar than he had initially thought. Having had seen hunting only from the hunter's point of view strongly influenced his opinions about how the prey have “no understanding” of “the fear of pain and the fear of death”. His external change from the position of the hunter to the prey caused an internal change as well. He realizes how the fine line between predators and prey is not determined by the one who lives and the one who dies. This revelation shows him how predators can also be the prey and survive the hunt, much like he did. Through this realization of the similarities between predators and prey, Rainsford’s point of view changes, allowing him to see the real value of the lives of the hunted.