Thesis: Although someone can seem normal in every way they may unexpectantly come at you with a dark side. Through compare and contrast “The Most Dangerous Game” and “The Child by Tiger” we will see the darker side of human nature.
In the stories “The Child by Tiger” and “The Most Dangerous Game” we see two men that seem to be fairly normal. They are open, honest and ready to help others. Unfortunately all of this begins to change as we progress through the story. These two men seem to be very similar in their ways from the beginning of the story up to the end. General Zaroff comes across as kind when he goes above and beyond to help Rainsford when he comes to his home after being lost at sea. He provides him with a shelter over his head,
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food, clothing and a warm place to sleep at night. This scenario sounds very similar to “The Child by Tiger”. Dick Prosser is kind, caring and very gentle. He is even said to be their “best Negro man they’d ever had.” He could do no wrong in their eyes; he was a teacher and role model to the boys. Not only would be go out and play football but he would also teach them how to do things around the property. It is also thought of, in the story, that Mr. Prosser was very religious. This thought came about due to him reading his bible every day. The only thing that seemed to be strange was the way that they said he moved around. It was always very quiet and you hardly noticed him being there. To them there was something very dark about this. General Zaroff went to Rainsford and started to discuss with him about how he wasn’t getting as much thrill from hunting big game animals. He wanted to start to hunt something that would be of a greater reward, something that would bring the excitement back that he once felt. Through the conversation Rainsford comes to realize that Zaroff isn’t talking about some other huge animal he is talking about hunting humans. Due to “courage, cunning and reason” Zaroff states that humans are more exciting and more of a challenge for him to capture. Before Rainsford knew it he was Zaroff’s new target and he had exactly three hours to get a head start. During the three day hunt Zaroff found three traps that were set up to try and catch him, each trap failed but for him this was all the more exciting, it fueled him to keep going. We noticed that Zaroff dark side began to uncover as he had the conversation with Rainsford. Once Rainsford becomes aware of his intentions you begin to see that there is something so much darker about him. This isn’t your typical hunter, he is a dark soul that has found excitement out of hunting down humans. Next we look at “The Child by Tiger”.
This story seems to take them same twisted route that the other does. Dick Prosser is much like Zaroff he acts very strange and it is so bad that eventually it becomes scary. Shepperton’s car gets hit by a man in the village, that same man then, out of anger, punches Mr. Prosser. You can tell that this makes him angry but he doesn’t act upon it. Not once did he throw a fist at the village man that struck him. Something else that is strange is when he told the children he had a gun. He then warned the children not to mention it to anyone until the morning of Christmas. This clearly makes you wonder why he didn’t want the family to know. What was he keeping that was so secret? In the middle of the night, all of the sudden, you hear sirens go off in the village. This immediately woke up everyone in the village and they began to panic as Mr. Prosser was on a murderous rampage. The village quickly comes together to make a group or mob to try and track down Mr. Prosser. They chased him down to a creek nearby and eventually catch up to him. As Mr. Prosser attempts to attack he realizes that he is completely out of ammunition. After he realizes that there isn’t anything else that he can do he slowly walks to the creek, takes his shoes off and falls to his knees. He had nothing else to do but to surrender himself. The mob from the village was still very much angered. Out of anger they began to shoot him, after one shot he was dead but they …show more content…
continued to fire over three hundred shots into Mr. Prosser. General Zaroff and Dick Prosser both had split personalities.
They let on, from the outside that everything was fine and they were just like everyone else, yet deep down beneath the layers was their true colors, their dark side. The difference between the two men is that General Zaroff just became bored, he wanted something thrilling to do and for him that was hunting humans. Dick Prosser had a possession, he was a little harder to pin point. He point on a really good show by claiming to be a Christian. He wanted to help everyone which makes it really hard to know whether he plotted it all from the beginning or one day just snapped. At the end of the story, when he knew there was nothing else he could do he bowed to his knees and took his fate. Later on, after Mr. Prosser was dead the family comes across his bible and found that it was left on Psalms 23:4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.” It seems as though he thought that God would be
forgiving. Both stories point out that all human beings can have a good side to them and an evil side. It’s what we allow to take presence over them. Although someone can seem perfectly normal on the outside we don’t know what they may be feeling on the inside. Our very friend may be plotting against us and we would never know. Through compare and contrast of the two stories we see that both characters unfortunately chose evil. The only thing that this gets them is their death. Resources Connell, R. (1924) “The Most Dangerous Game” Wolfe, T. (1937) “The Child by Tiger
Dick was 33 years old and he did not have the best character. Dick was one who
Dick Hickock was the twisted individual who planned the invasion into the Clutter’s home and pushed for the gruesome policy of “no witnesses.” Unlike his partner in crime, Perry, Capote wrote Dick as an utterly unlikeable man with seemingly no redeeming qualities, no glimpse of humanity, and, above all, no feelings of regret. A court psychiatrist surmises that Dick suffers from “ a severe character disorder” which causes him to “seems obviously uninfluenced by [his moral standards] in his actions, [have] a pathological inability to form and hold enduring personal attachments”, “cannot tolerate feelings of frustration as a more normal person can”, have “a very low self-esteem”, and makes Hickock “feel inferior to others and sexually inadequate…these
Perry, who is far more introspective than Dick, wonders about the choices the two ex-convicts have made in their lives. 'I think there must be something wrong with us, ' he says. As the two discuss the causes of criminal behavior, Perry remembers a letter from his sister. In it, she writes, 'There is no shame - having a dirty face - the shame comes when you keep it dirty. ' Perry, who has had an altercation with his father, is angered by what he views as his sister preaching to him. Alienated from his family, Perry clings to Dick, viewing him as a strong, masculine
The whole “robbery” was planned by Dick, the drive was planned by Dick, and even the cover up process was his idea. Although he wasn’t the one who pulled the trigger, Dick is equally responsible for the Clutter family murder as Perry. It would take a horrible person to murder a family, but it takes a vial beast to plan, examine, organize, and operate the murder. Dick grew up with loving parents who were no poorer than any other family in the neighborhood. According to both him and his parents, he was a good kid who did well in school and lettered in nine sports. Similar to Perry, he feels cheated in life and is willing to do anything he must to get what he deserves. Along with this, he has zero insight on how to life a normal life. Dick is the type of person to act on his impulses. He 's likes to have a good time and live in the moment. His aspirations are easy money and easy women. With this, he seems to have no ability to weigh the consequences of his actions, and he will do whatever it takes to get his way. This type of momentary reaction is prone to lead a life of “poor decision.” If he’s in need of money, he will write a few bad checks or maybe steal from a store. If this jig wasn’t plentiful enough, he hitches a ride with a stranger to basically rob and kill everyone in the car. Dick was known for being a terrible person as one man stated, “Dick Hickock! Don 't talk to me about
Dick is annoyed by Perry’s statement, mostly because he is uninterested in dwelling on what they had done to the Clutters, but also because Dick thought much higher of himself than he did of Perry, after reviewing what he had known of Perry and his peculiarities, Dick remarks, “Deal me out, baby, I'm a normal.”(108). Perry thinks in a self deprecating way, he reflects upon his childhood, his siblings, and the Clutters. Perry cannot shake an unrelenting guilt and is driven to the conclusion that in order for two men to commit an act as grisly as theirs, they must have had some form of mental instability. Dick becomes incredibly irritable at the mention of what he and Perry had done and demonstrates a lack of concern for what it takes for two men to butcher a family of four they had never known.
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.
Cormac McCarthy’s “Blood Meridian” does a marvelous job of highlighting the violent nature of mankind. The underlying cause of this violent nature can be analyzed from three perspectives, the first being where the occurrence of violence takes place, the second man’s need to be led and the way their leader leads them, and lastly whether violence is truly an innate and inherent characteristic in man.
killers. He does not completely integrated his opinion on the events or the court process. But, Capote seems less interested in Dick than Perry. Actually, Dick lived in a warm family, got some athlete awards in high school, and was sastified in his normal sex life, but in fact, he was irresponsible and without humanity. ( Capote 108, 172) In contrast, Perry's interior life won more favored of the author than Dick. Capote engages extensive attention to Perry's troubled chilhood and youth, including a broken family, two siblings suiside, and the accident that left him with disabled legs. Capote supposes that Perry was more innocent than Dick because Dick prepared
The narrator and his brother’s bear physical abuse from pap’s which led them to become more violent towards one another and people outside. The narrator and his brothers were abused by their father whe...
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 ...
This story contains an almost equal balance of good and evil, though it also raises questions of what is truly good. It blurs the line between good and selfish or thoughtless. Characters’ actions sometimes appear impure, but in the long run, are good.
By structuring his novel where time is out of joint, Dick is able to illustrate that one’s perception of reality is entirely based on what one believes to be fact. This point is illustrated through Ragle Gumm, who, “from his years of active military life” in the beginning of the story, “prided himself on his physical agility” (Dick 100). It is not until time is mended again toward the end of the book that he realizes that it had been, in fact, his father that had served in the war. This demonstrates how one’s firm belief can turn into a reality, as it did for Ragle Gumm for the two and a half years he lived in the fabricated city of Old Town.
Being able to overcome anything in life is a great feeling. There is a special feeling in the body and the mind when the body achieves a goal, and the mind gets a feeling of satisfaction. Since, the mind chooses to go against the body's will to quit, you have to be mentally strong. In Richard Connell's short story “The Most Dangerous Game,” large game hunter Sanger Rainsford is tested in the following ways: strong versus the weak, the value of life, and becoming what he fears. To begin with, Rainsford has to pose as the weak against the strong, General Zaroff.
My thesis statement is that children’s innocence enables them to cope in difficult situations. Children generally have a tendency to lighten the mood in sad situations because of their innocent nature. They turn even the saddest situations to mild, innocent situations. This is evident when Marjane says “these stories had given me new ideas for games”, (Satrapi, 55). By saying this she refers to her uncle’s stories of how he and other prisoners were tortured in prison. Stories of torture have never been easy to hear even for adults but Marjane so innocentl...
In the novel, The White Tiger, by Aravind Adiga the main character, is Balram, one of the children in the “darkness” of India. Adiga sheds a new light on the poor of India, by writing from the point of view of a man who was at one time in the “darkness” or the slums of India and came into the “light” or rich point of view in India. Balram’s job as a driver allows him to see both sides of the poverty line in India. He sees that the poor are used and thrown away, while the rich are well off and have no understanding of the problems the poor people must face. The servants are kept in a mental “Rooster Coop” by their masters. The government in India supposedly tries to help the poor, but if there is one thing Adiga proves in The White Tiger, it is that India’s government is corrupted. Despite the government promises in India designed to satisfy the poor, the extreme differences between the rich and the poor and the idea of the Rooster Coop cause the poor of India to remain in the slums.