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Plot summary of The Most Dangerous Game by Richard Connell
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Analysis "the most dangerous game" connell
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General Zaroff from “The Most Dangerous Game” is a thrill-seeker, a hunter never satisfied with the danger and challenge of the hunt, but also evil, as seen later in the story.
First off, General Zaroff is a thrill-seeker, and is never satisfied with the danger of the hunt. You can see how when Zaroff tells Rainsford, also hunter, “I killed my first bear in the Caucasus when I was ten. My whole life has been one prolonged hunt.” (Connell 386) This shows that Zaroff was a born killer, his hand was “made for the trigger” (Connell 386), as his father told him. Zaroff later says “I wanted the ideal animal to hunt, so I said: ‘What are the attributes of an ideal quarry?’ And the answer was, of course, ‘It must have courage cunning, and
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above all, it must be able to reason’” (Connell 386). The quote tells readers that Zaroff is bored of the game he has been hunting, and needs a greater challenge, so he finds the most dangerous game. After reviewing evidence, we see that General Zaroff is a thrill-seeker, always looking for a more challenging kill. General Zaroff may be a skilled hunter and thrill-seeker, but he is also very evil, and feels no sympathy for his game.
After revealing that he hunts human beings to Rainsford, Zaroff says “Life is for the strong, to be lived by the strong, and, if needs, be, taken by the strong. The weak of the world were put here to give the strong pleasure. I am strong. Why should I not use my gift?” (Connell 389) As you can tell, Zaroff sees himself above most others, and feels the only reason weaker people exist, as he calls them, “the scum of the earth” (Connell 389), is to be hunted by the strong. Zaroff shows Rainsford that he captured humans to hunt: “It’s a game, you see. I suggest to one of them that we go hunting. I give him a supply of food and an excellent hunting knife.” “If my quarry eludes me for three whole days, he wins the game. If I find him, he loses” (Connell 390). The General smiles as he says this, giving an eerie tone to the situation. From this quote you can see that Zaroff thinks that his whole human-hunting scheme is a game, and feels no remorse for what he does. After Rainsford asks what happens if the quarry wins, Zaroff replies only, “To date I have not lost” (Connell 391). From this evidence you can conclude that General Zaroff is a cruel, evil person, and kills humans without a second
thought.
In the short story “The Most Dangerous Game” Rainsford was justified in killing General Zaroff. Rainsford is a hunter. He was on a yacht that crashed and he was the only survivor. The island that he swam to was named “Ship Trap Island.” This where General Zaroff lived. He is also a hunter. He has hunted anything you can think of. Even… people. He has the survivors from the ship wrecks “play” his “game.” The survivors go out into the jungle and General Zaroff goes out and finds them. They have three days to survive. If they don’t get caught in those three days, they win. If they lose… they are killed. This happened to Rainsford. Rainsford, thankfully, won the “game.” He shot General Zaroff after his win.
In “The Most Dangerous Game” by Richard Connell, General Zaroff is shown as crazy, Fearless, and Playful. General Zaroff is shown to be crazy in the story when he traps people on his island and then hunt them. “No animal had a chance with me anymore”(. This quote shows that Rainsford is crazy because during this part, he is hunting real living humans. During the story, General Zaroff is also Fearless. He shows that he is when he is hunting Rainsford and he knows he is in the tree but doesn't kill him because he wants a better fight. “His eyes stopped before they got to the limb where Rainsford laid and he smiled”. General Zaroff shows that he is fearless during this scene because he could get killed if he lets him live for a better fight but
“ Life is for the strong, to be lived by the strong. The weak of the world were put here to give the strong pleasure. I am strong. Why should I not use my fist? If I wish to hunt, why should I not? I hunt the scum of the earth---sailors from tramp ships--lascars, blacks, Chinese, whites, mongrels--a thoroughbred horse or hound is worth more than a score of them.” “He shinned excitedly up a tree and looked back. His pursuers had stopped. But the hope that was in Rainsford’s brain when he climbed died, for he saw that General Zaroff was still on his feet.”(Connell, pg 30 & 39 ). Here we see the views of both General Zaroff and Rainsford. In the first quote we can infer that General Zaroff does not care about what he hunts just like Rainsford. That can be inferred because he says life is for the strong and the weak of the world are here to give the strong pleasure, he is basically saying that he is strong and he is on earth to hunt the weak because nobody cares about them. We can also infer that he does not care about anything else because he says he hunts the scum of the world. He means that he hunts minorities because they mean nothing to society. In the second quote we can see that Rainsford really loves hurting people just like
In the short story “the most dangerous game”, Rainsford was justified in killing General Zaroff.
Another character trait identified in the antagonist’s character would be narcissism. When analyzed, Zaroff is clearly narcissistic, along with other, in my opinion, negative qualities. An example can be recognized when Zaroff expresses his physical attributes: “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. I am strong. Why should I not use my gift? If I wish to hunt, why should I not?” (Connell 19). As it was stated before, this way of thinking causes the plot to, of course, revolve around
In “ The Most Dangerous Game,” Connell portrays several instances in the text indicating that Zaroff is indeed evil. Close to the beginning of the story Connell writes, "I want to show you my new collection of heads. Will you come with me to the library?"” (76). In this quote Zaroff is boasting about his collection of human Heads, this instance in the story shows that Zaroff collecting ...
In “The Most Dangerous Game,” General Zaroff isolates himself on his own private island, to prey on the most dangerous prey, humans. He decides to purchase this island as his own for a couple reasons, to lure future game in and to be isolated. The island itself is a perfect place to hunt a human. An island being, a mass of land in the middle of a body of water, allows General Zaroff to hunt with the peace of mind that the game can not escape. General Zaroff was an amazing hunter and planned his game perfectly on his very own island.
Do you know the definition of a serial killer? Maybe you have your own definition, such as: a person that mass murders people in the grocery store. Or: a crazy human being that kills people more than once. According to Dictionary.com, a serial killer is defined as “a person who carries out a series of murders, often with no apparent motive and typically following a characteristic, predictable behavior pattern.” General Zaroff from the story The Most Dangerous Game fits almost exactly into that definition. He makes the worst decisions over all of our short stories because he takes innocent lives with great intention, he takes immense pleasure in doing so, and he does it repeatedly.
General Zaroff used hunting tactics when they were eating “the last supper” at Zaroff’s house. Every time Rainsford looked up, he said, “he found him studying him, appraising him narrowly” (Connell 66). By this, the reader can tell that Zaroff is trying to notice Rainsford’s tendencies. Knowing these can make hunting him easier. Also at dinner, Zaroff explains to Rainsford that “God made him a hunter” and how his father believed that “his hand was made for the trigger” since he was ten (Connell 85). Zaroff sharing this with Rainsford is proof that this man is a talented hunter and has been for a long time. Rainsford is quite the hunter himself. So much so, that Zaroff knew who he was when he arrived. The General stated, “It is a very great pleasure and honor to welcome Mr. Sanger Rainsford, the celebrated hunter, to my home” (Connell 52). Also during the hunt when Rainsford set up the Burmese tiger pit and claiming one of Zaroff’s dogs, Zaroff tells him, “You’ve done well, Rainsford” (Connell 194). If his enemy believes that he is a great hunter, then he must be. Especially because Zaroff thinks so highly of himself. Going back to when Rainsford was
Richard Connells “The Most Dangerous Game” is a short story which illustrates that calm analytical thinking can increase your odds of survival and controlling panic.
G. Zaroff is untrustworthy because in the end after Rainfords has beaten him he still has to fight him. He shows this when Rainsford meets him in the bedroom the General says “I see, Splendid! One of us is to furnish a repast for the hounds. The other will sleep in a very excellent bed. On guard, Rainsford…..” This means that he didn’t keep his promise of letting him go after three days and still made him fight.
Once he became the huntee, he had full recognition of the horror and anxiety of being the hunted. Rainsford utters, “I will not lose my nerve. I will not,” (13), in an attempt to stay calm. Rainsford began to see the world of hunting in a new frame of mind. Zaroff’s opinion of his prey does not change throughout the story, and continues to lack empathy. Zaroff begins the story with the desire to, “Hunt the scum of the earth: sailors from tramp ships-- lassars, blacks, Chinese, whites, mongrels,” (9). Zaroff’s proclamation depicts him as shallow and racist. Zaroff is disappointed in Rainsford’s lack of initiative and desire in Zaroff’s game. Zaroff continues to tempt Rainsford into his deadly game, although Rainsford wants nothing to do with Zaroff’s twisted game. Then Zaroff deems Rainsford as weak and begins to force Rainsford into a hunt for his life. As Zaroff continues to hunt Rainsford, he is amused by Rainsford’s struggle for survival. Zaroff’s arrogance and over estimation of his own abilities leads to his death. In the short story, “The Most Dangerous Game,” Sanger Rainsford and General Zaroff are
Zaroff’s claim that “instinct is no match for reason” is wrong. Instinct is both more important and more powerful than reason. Reasoning is scientific. Humans go through a step-by-step process through their head when they reason. This process is easily influenced by a person’s values, biases, or desires. Instinct is an animal’s automatic and natural response to a situation. However, it is not a random guess; it is based on patterns in a person’s life experience. Our subconsciousness goes through its own reasoning process. Then, it comes to a conclusion we call “instinct”. When reason and instinct contradict each other, instinct is more accurate. Under pressure, our judgment may be clouded, but our instincts do not change. The successful person has a good instinct which he uses over his reason.
For Rainsford, the “huntee” class is limited to animals, however Zaroff’s prey extends into the human population. Zaroff believes that God creates people with certain traits, for example, he has been created “a hunter” (Connell pg 18). This thinking can be extended to explain the belief that some humans are “created” as prey, which may be how Zaroff justifies his choice of quarry. Zaroff also states that “the weak of the world were put here to give the strong pleasure,” which serves as further proof that Zaroff disagrees with Rainsford’s belief of every human life inherently having value (Connell pg 24). While Rainsford and Zaroff both enjoy conquering their prey and have somewhat similar justifications for their actions, they have vastly different motivations. Rainsford hunts for sport and thrill, and justifies his actions through the belief that animals are not capable of emotion and are simply in a class of “huntees.” Zaroff hunts for danger and a way to test his wit, and justifies his actions through the belief that he was created a hunter, and he should therefore be allowed and encouraged to use his talent against those who he finds to be
In The Dangerous Game, General Zaroff decides to do what many would consider immoral and wrong when he begins hunting humans because he no longer feels the same thrill that he once did while hunting regular animals. Zaroff himself states."the hunt no longer fascinated him"(Connell, 7) when he attempts clarifying why he hunts humans. While most would consider murdering someone else or even looking at them rudely wrong, General Zaroff does not. Instead, he is more focused on doing what will satisfy his needs and if it does he will do it. This is just one example where acts of greed correlate with evil.