The Most Dangerous Game Literary Analysis

There are two different classes introduced in this short story—the hunters and the huntees. “The Most Dangerous Game,” by Richard Connell is focused on the hunters and the huntees which is introduced by the main character , Rainsford in the beginning of the story. The beginning of the story starys with rainsford on anyacht talking to Whitney about animals having understanding or not. When rAinsford falls into the ocean when being startled by gunshots, he arrives at a forest that leads into a small village. At the village rainsofrd meets general and is put in a so called game where he has to not be found by the general. In the short story “The Most Dangerous Game,” we can see through a philisophical point of view what it means to be a human and if humans are better or worse than animals. This will be examined through symbolism and plot.

We will analyse through the symbolism that is used in this short story.

The symbolism used in this story shows if humans are better or worse than animals. In the being of the story Rainsford , the main character, is talking to whitney and says “Bah! They’ve no understanding” (Connell 1). This quote indicates that to be a human you need to have understanding and an animal doesn’t have understanding. Although we may have understanding that doesn’t mean that animals don’t have at least one emotion that they feel, which is what Whitney tries to explain to rainsford. Later on when Rainsford when rainsford is running for his life by a pack of hounds he “knew now how an animal feels at bay” (Connell 14) . Rainsford was wrong of thinking animal does not have understanding because he was put in the position of an animal being hunted and realized that an animal does experience emotions. Humans might be more advanced but we have the instinct to survive just like

animals.
We will analyse my theory through the symbolism that is used in this short story. The symbolism in this story shows what it means to be human. When rainsford is speaking to whitney, he introduces two classes when he says, “’… two classes—the hunters and the huntees’” (Connell 1). We can see through symbolism that the hunters and the huntees actually means humans and animals. This shows that this is not just a regular hunting story but the overall theme is humans vs animal. When Rainsford goes to the genrals bedroom after escaping he says “’im still a beast at bay” (Connell 15). Rainsford finally escapes from the genral at the end of the story but comes back and announces that he was “still a beast at bay.” Normally when a person escapes or gets off the hook of something they go away and never come back. This game was not “survival of the fittest” but it was made into a game of only the fittest.
Whats does it mean to be human and are humans better or worse than animals ? We can prove this through the symbolism and plot of “the most dangerous game,” by richard connell. Emotions do not identify rather if you are a human or not, both species experience feelings. Humans are more advanced than animals but we have the need to survive and the fear of dying. In our present day some humans have killed innocent people for no reason, but animals kill only for survival. There are still good people in the world but our world and humans are evil.