External Conflict In 'The Most Dangerous Game'

Benjamin Book 11/7/14

Are you fighting him or yourself?

The best and most memorable short stories are the ones that contain conflict. The most obvious form of conflict is man versus man, where there is an external conflict between two characters, or even an internal conflict within man himself. Within “The Most Dangerous Game”, the main character Rainsford meets General Zaroff, a fellow hunter who has invented a new game to hunt. When Rainsford finds out that the new game is humans, he is disgusted by the idea. Yet, when he is later hunted by the General, he begins to feel the thrill of having a battle of wits with his opponent. This stirs within him an inner conflict of thoughts contrary to the

disgust he had previously felt. Similarly, in the short story “Interpreter of Maladies”, the main character, an Indian man named Mr. Kapasi meets the enrapturing Indian American woman, Mrs. Das. Mrs. Das, with her demeanor and characteristics, catches Mr. Kapasi’s eye and causes him to begin to question his beliefs and life decisions. Both Kapasi and Rainsford initially appear to be locked in a conflict with another person, however, through external encounters with another, an internal conflict ignites within them which shapes the story as a whole.
An understanding of an internal conflict is not possible without first setting up the ideas within the individual that will ultimately be at odds.

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

morality.
Morality is something that comes into question when discussing internal conflict. Certainly that is the case when dealing with a sport such as hunting. With an experienced hunter such as General Zaroff, one would certainly not describe him as a moral figure. Despite his apparent lack of morality, he appears to be quite educated and shares a similar ideal with Rainsford about the world and hunting. He described to him how “Hunting had ceased to be what you call ‘a sporting proposition’. It had become too easy. I always got my quarry. Always. There is no greater bore then perfection… Rainsford leaned across the table absorbed in what his host was saying…” When Rainsford discovered that General Zaroff ended the boredom he was experiencing by hunting men, he called it murder to which the General responded “Life is for the strong, to be lived by the strong, and if need be taken by the strong. The weak of the world were put here to give the strong pleasure…” The General’s ideas were thus extremely similar, if not identical, to the one Rainsford had expressed earlier about the world being made up of the hunters and the hunted. While it may have appeared in the story as though Rainsford was arguing with the General, it is apparent through the similarity of their shared ideals that he was really struggling within himself regarding his intrigue with the game of “outdoor chess”.
An outdoor chess game would not be appropriate way to describe “Interpreter of Maladies”; rather it is more like a fencing match, a back and forth between what Indian culture demands of its subjects and the promise of freedom by western civilization. The main character, Mr. Kapasi, at first appears to be ignorant as to his internal feelings about his life and his yearning for the liberties of the west. However, after observing Mrs. Das, he realizes his true feelings about his life and his lack of accomplishment, creating feelings of disappointment and conflict within himself. This internal war is set up when Mrs. Das notices the “romantic” nature of Mr. Kapasi’s job as the interpreter of maladies in a doctor’s office. Mr. Kapasi creates scenarios in his head about how “In time she would reveal the disappointment of her marriage, and he his” which causes him to have a revelation about the woman he had just met and how she made him feel. “As his mind raced Mr. Kapasi experienced a mild and pleasant shock… In those moments Mr. Kapasi used to believe all was right in the world, that all struggle were rewarded, that all of life’s mistakes made sense at the end.” Mrs. Das made Mr. Kapasi feel special, he did not feel as though she was ignoring him as had many others, including his own wife. Mrs. Das stirred up Mr. Kapasi’s feelings of finally being wanted and unique, therefore initiating a conflict within him about the decisions that he had made in his life so far. These feelings represent the clash in Western and Eastern culture. Mr. Kapasi dreams of developing a romantic relationship with the attractive Mrs. Das, that perhaps they will engage in a lively correspondence of letters once she returns home. However, the more he learns about Mrs. Das, the less attractive she appears, and his fantasy of bridging the gap between them dissolves just as the slip of paper containing her address drifts away. Mr. Kapasi's crush could perhaps symbolize the East's attraction to the West, which only at a distance seems desirable.
Mr. Kapasi’s internal disappointment was specifically focused on his inadequate marriage, schooling, and job. He believed that he failed in all three of these areas. His marriage is loveless; he had quit school before graduating, and settled for an average job. Mrs. Das made him feel special. He thought about how “Mrs. Das was different. Unlike the other women, who had an interest only in the temple, and kept their noses buried in their guidebook, or their eyes behind the lens of a camera, Mrs. Das had taken an interest in him.” She made him feel needed in a way that his wife or his boss never did. She believed that he had the unique ability to help her out with a problem that she did not confide in anyone else. Therefore when it was time to finally bring the Das’s back to their hotel, Mr. Kapasi who “Ordinarily he sped back to Puri using a shortcut eager to return home…The thought of that silence, something in which he’d long been resigned, now oppressed him.” This oppression is what the Indian culture imposed upon Mr. Kapasi as he was part of a common practice of arranged marriage, and like so many others forced to drop his personal interests in order to provide a living for himself. While it may appear in the story as though Mrs. Das is the one who creates these conflicts within Mr. Kapasi as though she was the antagonist, in reality these were feelings he had been carrying for a while and her presence merely ignites the conflict that had stirred within him for so long.
In conclusion, while both Mr.

Kapasi and Rainsford appeared to be locked in conflict with other people, these people really only represented or instigated what they had been previously feeling. While they both eventually resolved their internal conflicts, it was only after they experienced an epiphany about the realities of their situations and saw what they had initially thought was entirely false. For Rainsford, this false thought was his “romanticized” view of hunting and how what General Zaroff was doing was wrong but eventually begins to understand the thrill that the General experienced and therefore becomes the new hunter of men. Mr. Kapasi also saw Mrs. Das in an almost too perfect light causing a war within himself about his own life. However, when he realized how damaged she and the Das family were, he finally understood that his life was not as bad in comparison to theirs and that he should appreciate his own life. Both Kapasi and Rainsford appear to be locked in a conflict with another person, however, through this encounter with another person, an internal conflict ignites within them eventually leading them to have a revelation about themselves and who they are. In both “Interpreter of Maladies” and “The Most Dangerous Game”, the main characters are locked in conflict, but not with others, rather it’s a conflict that they have within themselves that is represented by others such as Mrs. Das and General

Zaroff.