Literary Analysis Essay Neil Shusterman once said, “Death must exist for life to have meaning.” This same logic can be applied to literature. Often, death scenes are the most powerful ones and can give meaning to a story. Authors take advantage of this and deliberately write their death scenes to help reveal much larger themes of a story. Both Richard Connell and Kate Chopin use this technique in “The Most Dangerous Game” and “The Story of an Hour” to give their stories greater meaning. Although General Zaroff from “The Most Dangerous Game” and Louise Mallard from “The Story of an Hour” deaths are very different, they both reveal the greater themes of the two stories: Zaroff's death helps to reveal that deep down all humans have beast-like …show more content…
Rainsford has done a complete 180 and has become a ‘huntee’ by letting his beast-like senses take over the minute danger was near. This goes to show that no matter how well-mannered and refined one acts, deep down all humans have the same barbaric instincts as animals. We will do anything for survival, and Rainsford's character development is the perfect example of this. Without Rainsford deciding to kill General Zaroff, the themes of instinct and human nature wouldn't have been able to be as fleshed out and developed as they were. Similarly, the death of Louise Mallard in “The Story of an Hour” plays an important role in revealing the theme of the story; historically, freedom has been very difficult for women to find. At the beginning of the story, Louise was under the impression that her husband had died in a tragic train accident. While this did initially bring her some sadness, an overwhelming sense of freedom quickly overcame these emotions: “Her fancy was running riot along those days ahead of her. Spring days, and summer days, and all sorts of days that would be her own. She breathed a quick prayer that life might be long. It was only yesterday she had thought with a shudder that life might be long” (Chopin 2). The death of her
“I hunt more dangerous game….” Similarities and differences can appear anywhere, especially in the short story and the movie called The Most Dangerous Game. They have similar, yet different expositions, characters, and plots with conflicts. Many people say that books or short stories are better than movies because of the similarities and differences that are found. Books or short stories are usually more descriptive, informative, and do not stray too far from the central idea or main theme, while movies only fall into one or two of these categories. Movies hardly ever fall into all three categories, however if they do the movies become better. This is not the case with The Most Dangerous Game. One place where movies and short stories have major similarities and differences is at the beginning of the story or the exposition.
Shrouded in a black cloak and a razor sharp scythe gripped in its callous hands. Feared by the bravest of men. It is the inescapable end met by all. This tends to be the common notion when it comes to death. In Markus Zusak’s extraordinary novel, The Book Thief, death is personified as the narrator. In contrast to the average perception, Death is an intricate and internally conflicted character with a lot to offer. Death’s perspective softens the harshness of the overall subject of the book and contributes a poetic view of the world. Death provides a complex knowledge of the characters and the human psyche, as well as future events and the outside world.
The richness of General Zaroff’s lifestyle is a little ironic because one would not expect a man who lives this way to be uncivilized and hunt humans. Imagery is very important in a literary classic; it serves to intensify the impact of the work. Imagery also gives the story more detail, because the reader is able to use their senses to understand the mood and theme of the story (The Use of Imagery to Reflect Theme). One of the main literary techniques Connell uses to make “The Most Dangerous Game,” an interesting and fast-paced story, is suspense. Suspense is the intense feeling the reader goes through while waiting for the outcome (Engrade).
When Rainsford falls off of the boat, he has to try his best to stay afloat until he can find something to latch on to. He swims vigorously until he reaches Ship-Trap Island. "Jagged crags appeared to jut up into the opaqueness... dense jungle came down to the very edge of the cliffs." It is midday and he is just searching for a place to rest when he runs into Ivan, the astonishingly large guard of the island. Zaroff, the owner of the island, joins in on their conversation about hunting. The conversation is interesting to say the least. Zaroff says, "You'll find this game worth playing…your brain against mine. Your woodcraft against mine. Your strength and stamina against mine. Outdoor chess! And the stake is not without value, eh?" Zaroff is trying to point out that he finds interest in hunting humans, and he wants to know if Rainsford will rise to the challenge. Rainsford is left with a choice to make; will he fight Zaroff, or will he decline and get killed by Ivan. The choice in this situation is pretty self- evident.
In the popular stories The Hunger Games and “The Most Dangerous Game” the main characters are skilled hunters that are partaking in games where they have to hunt while being hunted. They both show main traits of “true survivors”, including using their hunting knowledge to survive, using resources and building traps, and standing up to their fear or being able to turn it around.
Throughout American literature, the deaths of certain characters often transpire as unavoidably as the termination of life in the real world. In the realm of realistic fiction from the early twentieth century, deaths begin to signify more than just the simple loss of a life. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby and John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath, the deaths of seemingly minor characters not only signify the end of an era and termination of a fight, but the beginnings of a new life and the revelation of human nature to push hard times onto a third party in hopes of unachieved selfish ambition.
Authors use various styles to tell their stories in order to appeal to the masses exceptionally well and pass the message across. These messages can be communicated through short stories, novels, poems, songs and other forms of literature. Through The Masque of the Red Death and The Raven, it is incredibly easy to get an understanding of Edgar Allen Poe as an author. Both works describe events that are melodramatic, evil and strange. It is also pertinent to appreciate the fact that strange plots and eerie atmospheres are considerably evident in the author’s writings. This paper compares and contrasts The Masque of the Red Death and The Raven and proves that the fear of uncertainty and death informs Edgar Allen Poe’s writings in the two works
Death is something everyone must face at one point or another. For varying reasons, many people are willing to die for a certain cause. Some find that there is no other way out of their dilemma. Other feel so strongly about what they believe is right, that they are more than willing to pay the ultimate price. Moral or ethical dilemmas are pivotal devices used in many literary works. However, the literary characters explored in this essay are so firm in their convictions that they are willing to sacrifice themselves for their own respective beliefs. As readers of these works, we are often so moved by their beliefs that we often side with the characters in their journey. We, as readers, are offered insight on situations that we become deeply
Controlling the movements of the short stories, death is a regnant theme in D.H. Lawrence’s “The Horse Dealer’s Daughter” and Katherine Mansfield’s “The Garden Party.” Death brings forth consciousness and it excites the need for an epiphany within the protagonists. To a lesser extent, death creates tremors in the worlds of the antagonists. Death furthermore makes the indifferences of the secondary characters more pronounced. Affecting the lives of the protagonists, the antagonists, and the secondary characters of these two short stories, death plays an integral role in the themes of these works.
Facing hardships, problems, or obstacles shouldn’t discourage one from completing their task or job. Many of authors usually put their characters through tough complications to show the reader that no matter what happens; anyone could pull through. In the short story, “The Most Dangerous Game” by Richard Connel, the main character Mr. Rainsford gets stranded on an eerie island with a bad reputation. He meets General Zaroff and gets thrown into a huge hunting game, where his life is on the line. In the end, he wins the game and will continue to hunt animals, but not people, as the general once did. He will continue to hunt because one, hunting means everything to him. Two, he will not continue the general’s crazy ways, and resort back to the legal and non-dangerous to other humans sport. Third, he feels powerful when he becomes the hunter and not the hunted. Giving up hunting would be like giving up his life, so just because of a minor block he had to overcome, he will not give up hunting.
Richard Connell’s short story, The Most Dangerous Game is about a famous hunter named Rainsford who falls off of a yacht and ends up on an island called Ship-Trap Island. Later, Rainsford encounters another man named; General Zaroff who he later finds out likes to hunt humans, as he became bored hunting animals. Zaroff later announces to Rainsford, that he is the next player for his hunting game, and so Zaroff tells Rainsford that he is going to hunt him, and if Rainsford survives for 3 days without being killed, he can leave the island. Throughout this short story there is a continuous theme about the two classes of people in the world, the hunters and the hunted. General Zaroff as well as Rainsford find themselves apart of these roles during alternate times, as the hunting game progresses. Thus, in this short story, Connell portrays the idea that there are two classes of people in the world, the hunters and the hunted, in relation to Rainsford and Zaroff, through the use of foreshadowing.
Many stories have unique and interesting characterization. However, Richard Connell's "The Most Dangerous Game" and "The Cage Man" expresses a different kind of characterization as both have their own way of expressing and showing a character's personalities. In certain ways, the two stories contrast and compare to one another as Connell use the protagonist and antagonist of each story to develop characterization and the theme of the story. The main characters of each story has an antagonist, which goes against the protagonist. This allows the plot to build up and showcase the characterization of each characters mentioned. All in all, Connell's expression of the characters in the story and the building of personalities for each provide the
We are all condemned to death; it is inescapable. Even if a person doesn’t believe in the concept of destiny, it is undeniable that every person is fated to die at some point. Most people, however, are not aware of when exactly the inevitable will approach. Often in works of fiction, the reader, or sometimes even the character, is aware of their fate. There are many different understandings of destiny, which is one of the reasons why it has played such a large role in so many different literary works throughout the world and history. Fate is one of the principal literary devices used in Homer’s epic poem, The Iliad, Shakespeare’s tragic play, Antony and Cleopatra, and Tolstoy’s pedagogical novella, The Death of Ivan Ilych.
Death is, perhaps, the most universal of themes that an author can choose to write of. Death comes to all things; not so love, betrayal, happiness, or suffering. Each death is certain, but each is also unique. In Other Voices, Other Rooms, Truman Capote addresses several deaths, and each is handled in its individual fashion. From the manner of the death to its effect on those it touches, Capote crafts vignettes within the story to give the reader a very different sense of each one.
Edgar Allan Poe is known for his masterful writing on all aspects of mortality, but his famous short story “The Masque of the Red Death” proves to be more than a simple story about death. While it is about death, Poe’s short story can be read and applied as a cautionary tale whose purpose is to illustrate a worthy way to live and die by portraying the opposite of both. This interpretation comes about when the story is viewed through the lens of New Criticism. This viewpoint shows how the story uses its formal elements converge to create one complex theme. Poe’s short story develops its theme through the use of paradox, tension, irony and ambiguity, all of which come together to identify