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

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

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