In “The Most Dangerous Game” the author creates two strikingly similar characters that blur the line of ethics. Rainsford, the protagonist, meets his adversary and leader of an exotic tribe, Zaroff, after falling off of a yacht and swimming to the nearest island. The short story then explores the events that transpires between the strangers – focusing on Zaroff's bloodthirsty hunt against Rainsford. Yet even with the two men on opposite sides of a loaded gun, they both share many common interests and views pertaining to their similar backgrounds, hunting methods, and desired end result.
With Rainsford meeting Zaroff on an exotic location, it is apparent that their experiences have taken them all over the globe and put them into a variety of diverse, yet similar, situations. Upon their first encounter, Rainsford's book on hunting snow leopards is mentioned and the reader can imply that he has hunted in arctic areas that a normal hunter would not dare to go. However, the confidence Zaroff displays throughout the conversation dismisses any initial impressions on who the better hunter ...
Rainsford is an intelligent man. Early in the story, “Rainsford remembered the shots. They had come from the right, and he doggedly swam in that direction” (34). Rainsford had just fallen in the water, swam fifty feet further out, but he kept his senses in the right direction. In total darkness, Rainsford used his intelligence and intellect to reach the land. Also, I don’t think that Rainsford knew he was being sized up when Zaroff was staring at him, but when “Rainsford’s bewilderment showed in his face” (100), he quickly understood what Zaroff was leading too. Rainsford wasn’t a murderer. Sure he liked to hunt game, but he wasn’t bored as Zaroff was. Rainsford never bought into all the old tales. ‘“One superstitious sailor can taint the whole ship’s company with fear”’ (20). He never got worked up or stressed out.
In both film and story, Rainsford expresses his lack of sympathy for his prey. Similar to the story, Rainsford meets Ivan first and can’t get through to him and then, he’s greeted by Zaroff. In the film, Zaroff knows that Rainsford is a famous hunter and has read his books, just like in the story. Moreover, Zaroff reveals that a cape buffalo gave him the scar on his head. In the same manner, Zaroff tells Rainsford how he stocks his island with human prey. Just as the film showed Zaroff has a room filled with human heads, and that’s also mentioned in the story. Furthermore, Rainsford uses the same traps (Malay Mancatcher, Burmese Tiger Pit, and a native Uganda Trick) in the film as he did in the story. In addition, Rainsford kills Ivan with the same native Uganda trick. Both film and movie, unveils that Rainsford kills
Zaroff is extremely pleased when he gets to host Rainsford at his house, as if it's an honor to host this world renowned hunter in his home. He is so pleased when he has the chance to tell Rainsford about his new hunting style. “Dear me. Again with that unpleasant word. But I think I can show you that your scruples are quite ill founded” (26). Zaroff believes that he can change Rainsfords view on his hunting style when he reacts immediatly with great disgust.
In the beginning of the story, Rainsford has a conversation with his friend, Whitney, about hunting animals. Rainford does not care about the animals that he hunts. He believes hunting is only a sport to kill innocent creatures. “‘Who cares how a jaguar feels?’” (1) Showing the reader exactly what he thinks of hunting. Rainsford does not understand that the animals he hunts are like the people that Zaroff hunts. They are innocent, and he is murdering them when he hunts them. Rainsford thinks that Zaroff is insane for murdering people, but Rainsford is also a murderer. When Zaroff hunts Rainsford, the protagonist realizes the terror and pain the jaguars must have felt when he hunted them. Now the roles are reversed, and Rainsford is the one being hunted. “The Cossack was the cat; he was the mouse. The general was saving him for another day’s sport! Then it was that Rainsford knew the full meaning of terror.” (17) Rainsford has changed his feelings about hunting animals now, and he has become a better person. He now takes into account how his prey feels. His interactions with people will also be different, because instead of being extremely overconfident, he realizes that he is not perfectly adept at hunting, and everyone has feelings that matter. In conclusion, Rainsford is now more humble and less overconfident than he was when he began his
The setting in the short story “The Most Dangerous Game” has many similarities and differences to the setting in “The Interlopers”. Though the settings differ in many ways, for example the danger of them and their contents, they are also similar in their mystery and vitality to the plot. These two pieces of writing hold many of the same ideas, but they also are original works that portray them in their own way.
Rainsford is talking with the general about the best game to hunt and is astonished by what he is hunting now.
“The Most Dangerous Game” offers a clever play on words, with “game” carrying two different meanings. The first being the animals and humans hunted, and the second being the competition aspect between Zaroff and Rainsford. The title advocates hunting other people is the most dangerous game, and people themselves are the most dangerous prey to hunt.
In “The Most Dangerous Game,” Richard Connell correlates three common literary devices especially well: setting, suspense, and plot. Connell makes use of an appropriate setting, the literary element of suspense, and an interesting plot in order to strengthen the story’s recurring theme of reason versus instinct within humans, and to blur that line between reason and instinct.
In the story, Zaroff and Rainsford are both enjoy hunting, and are both excellent and skillful hunters
Richard Connells “The Most Dangerous Game” is a short story which illustrates how calm analytical thinking can increase your odds of survival and controlling panic. 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. Whitney is a fellow hunter, a flat character and used mainly as a plot tool.
Conflict is the sole thing that pulls a story together and pushes it forward. Without conflict, there is no action or force moving the story. External conflict usually pushes the story forward with scenes such as fights and internal conflict pulls the story together with more insightful information about the characters’ personalities. However, they could do both pulling and pushing at times. In the fictional short story “The Most Dangerous Game” by Richard Connell, there are many instances of conflict in the story between all the characters.
In “The Most Dangerous Game”, the way in which one can understand Rainsford’s ideas was through several man versus man conflicts between himself and Whitney in the beginning of the story and General Zaroff and himself towards the end of the story. The conflict between Whitney and Rainsford was displayed through a discussion in which they expressed their points of view about hunting. While they both agreed that hunting is the best sport in the world, Whitney thought that this was only true for the hunter. To which Rainsford responded “Don’t talk rot Whitney… Who cares how a Jaguar feels?” The conversation progressed, and finally caused Rainsford to express his ideal view of the world that “The world is made up of two classes the hunters and the huntees…” As the final point on the subject, these ideas planted the seeds of conflict within Rainsford as he is later forced to choose between his ideals of hunting and his own
In the story The Most Dangerous Game a character named General Zaroff has a passion for hunting. He has been hunting since he was born. He has hunted every animal known to man, but, then he gets tried of hunting the same animal over and over. So he discovers a new animal human flesh. General Zaroff is person of bad character because he is cruel, cowardly, and untrustworthy.
“The Most Dangerous Game”, written by Richard Connell, tells a story about the concept of natural selection between the predator and the prey. The short story starts off with the main character, an American hunter named Sanger Rainsford traveling via yacht to hunt jaguars in the Amazon with a friend. Eventually, after his friend has gone to bed, he goes to investigate a series of gunshots he heard in the distance and eventually falls off the yacht, leaving him stranded in the Caribbean Sea. Rainsford keeps calm, despite his troubles, and swims toward where he had heard the gunshots. He soon found an island and, after sleeping off his exhaustion from his swim, began to search for the men who shot off the gun he had heard, in hopes that he will
At the beginning of this short story, on the yacht, Rainsford states to his friend Whitney, “The world is made up of two classes-the hunters and the hunted.” (Connell 40). This quotation sets a path for the rest of the story, as almost everything from this story reflects upon this idea. From Rainsford’s point of view his life is all about hunting. He has only stood on the side of a hunter, and he observes everything else as the hunted, which is a very narrow interpretation of the world. This is ironic, as he becomes the hunted while playing the dangerous game with General Zaroff, which he was not expecting. This quotation also foreshadows that there is going to be a dangerous game/a hunt, which ...