General Zaroff's Philosophy In Most Dangerous Game By Richard Connell

The harsh truth of island life reveals that Zaroff’s idea of civilization includes personal pleasure derived from murder .Zaroff explains his “game.” Zaroff has become bored with hunting because the animals do not provide a challenge for him, so hunts the only animal that can think and reason—man (Connell 74).He believes that he deserves the challenge, so it is morally right to hunt men. This is not civilized behavior. It is murder. He tries explains why it is right. “‘If I wish to hunt, why should I not? I hunt the scum of the earth—[…]’”(Connell 75).Zaroff believes that his social status and wealth give him the right to kill those in lower classes. This

General Zaroff is ruthless in his hunt. He hunts sparingly with his prey, dangerous prey. ‘“Here in my preserve on this island, he said.” In the same low tone ”I hunt more dangerous game”’ (Cornell 5). Zaroff is ruthless, because he doesn’t care about the animal he cares about the kill. Even though he is ruthless he is bloodthirsty for his

known as the antagonist. Although he acts civilized and polite, he is actually an evil man. From

In the story, “The Most Dangerous Game” by Richard Connell, Sanger Rainsford outsmarts General Zaroff in multiple ways. One of the ways he outsmarts him is by crawling high up in a tree and finding shelter there. Two other ways he outsmarts him is by using a Malay mancatcher to attempt and catch General Zaroff, the other tactic he uses is by creating a trap out of a knife and some grapevine to stop the hounds from attacking him. He also uses his top physical condition to jump off the cliff and into the sea to get even farther away from the hounds.

General Zaroff is a psychotic man. He was hunting with Rainsford and he found him but he decided to wait so he could have a better challenge to kill Rainsford. In the short story, it states, “I refuse to believe that so modern civilized a young man as you seem to be harbors romantic ideas about the value of human life.” This shows that he has no value for anyone else's life except his own life.

Matteo Romano Mrs. Armor World Literature I November 13, 2014 General Zaroff General Zaroff from Richard Connell's "The Most Dangerous Game", is mentally unstable and shows many maniacal behaviors in the story. These behaviors come in the form of intentionally trapping ships to stock his island with humans. He then hunts said humans because he finds it dangerous and exciting, and he also lives in isolation, only having contact with Ivan his servant. All of these aspects of his life contribute to his semi-insane traits which he demonstrates in the story.

If not for these similar hunting experiences then General Zaroff would’ve been killed early on in the hunt.The characters also have some similar beliefs on the classes of the world, initially. The belief that there are two classes, one superior and one inferior, is a belief shared by Rainsford and Zaroff. According to Rainsford Whitney, his hunting partners, should,”Be a realist. The world is made up of two classes--the hunters and the

He is a philosopher and shares his view of the world with others; “Life is for the strong, to be lived by the strong and, if needs to be, taken by the strong.” He imposes his ideology of how the world works. Zaroff looks positively on the cruel and foul acts he committed with reasoning: “I assure you, I do not do the things you suggest… I treat these visitors with every consideration…” He justifies his acts and tries to convince Rainsford that he is right. He makes it sound like he is not setting his victims to their deaths and that it is all fun and games. However he puts it, Zaroff is still an evil yet ingenious mass

In the text Zaroff justifies that he started to get bored of hunting animals because they were starting to become too easy to hunt. He says, “No. You are wrong, sir. The Cape buffalo is not the most dangerous big game. Here in my preserve on this island, I hunt more dangerous game.” (Connell 4). Zaroff is talking about humans. He kills humans because he was bored of hunting animals. For me this quote says it all. No sane person would hunt a human as a fun game. This is a clear fact from the text that proves Zaroff is a psychopath. General Zaroff believes that, “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 4). This quote is explaining the whole reason why Zaroff thinks it is right to hunt humans. I think that the reason he thinks that's why he should hunt humans is the reason why he’s a psychopath. It makes no sense that a strong person should kill a weak person just because they have more power over them. It’s murder and no one should murder a innocent human just because it's

Survival of the fittest is shown throughout the entirety of the story as well. It is the true belief of Zaroff. Zaroff believes that “fittest” is not only the body, but also the mind. He loses interest in his game when it is no longer a challenge. He wanted to hunt something that could predict his next move and make him work for the kill. This is when he decided to hunt humans. Up until the day he hunted Rainsford, he had never met his match. Rainsford used a series of traps, decoys and hiding places in order to outthink and escape Zaroff. The first day that Zaroff did not successfully find Rainsford, he accepted his defeat and thanked Rainsford for the joy of the hunt. When he was struggling to find him, he sent out his hunting dogs with the thought that they would be able to track him down and make his hunt easier for him. He was proved wrong when Rainsford outsmarted him, proving that he was more “fit” than the dogs. (Connell’s The Most

Zaroff is purely unconscious, and has no compassion or remorse for his actions. His demented mind forces him to believe that it is moral to hunt all living creatures, when in reality he is actually murdering a human soul. The general is sadistic as well as arrogant. He is mentally unstable, insane, and he denies the fact that he is committing something as bad as what he is doing. According to General Zaroff, hunting for him has been consumed by boredom and he no longer sees hunting as a challenge. Consequently, he chooses to hunt a certain “creature” with a higher mental stability of the creatures he has hunted before.(Connell 21) As Zaroff became comfortable with Rainsford, he

In the story Zaroff thinks it's not a problem if he kills the innocent people for fun. This mindset of his is openly showing signs of being a protagonist and going to do evil things throughout the story. In his conversation with Rainsford he clearly states that, "Life is for the strong, to be lived by the strong,, andif needs be, taken by the strong.” He states that he should be aloud to kill just because in his mind only the strong people in the world have the will to live. When Zaroff says "Thank you, I'm a hunter, not a murderer." Also states that he thinks that he's not a murderer he's simply a hunter. Which means in his way of thinking or the way he looks at it what he's doing is not wrong he's hunting them, trying to figure out whose strong and who is not. He decides to hunt humans because he says there the only match for him no other animal is enjoyable for him to hunt. He has the sense of superiority that humans were the only thing left. Zaroff then states “The weak of the world were put here to give the strong pleasure.” He thinks his actions are justifiable and that that's what the weak people are here for to give the more stronger and equip people pleasure. Zaroff then says “I am strong. Why should I not use my gift? If I wish to hunt, why should I not?” In his mind since he is a good strong hunter why should not he be able to hunt he calls this a gift and takes a lot of pride in it. This is another statement he says showing he thinks what he is doing is good, eliminating what he says “scum of the earth” so the strong are the ones to live.

General Zaroff states, “ Be a realist. The world is made up of two classes- the hunters and the huntees. Luckily, you and I are hunters.” ( pg 49) In this quote General Zaroff doesn’t think of hunting as a sport but as a correlation straight to real life. The quote shows that General Zaroff has an incredibly disgusting way of looking at life and everybody in it. General Zaroff’s insanity is shown because he think of everything besides himself as huntees and this shows he is a murderer. “ I hunt the scum of the earth- sailors from tramp ships, lascars,blacks, chinese, and mongrels.”( pg 49) This quote is saying that General Zaroff thinks that murder is a game, and he doesn’t feel bad about killing anyone of his hunts. This tells us that hunting/killing humans is a normal hobby for him and he does it often. The quote shows that General Zaroff’s mind is unstable and his thoughts are very distasteful. “ This is why I use them. It gives me pleasure. They can reason, after a fashion.” ( pg 50) General Zaroff is basically saying that he likes using humans for the hunt because it gives him pleasure. He is unbothered at the fact he is taking a human life away for a exhilarating game. When he says killing people because it brings him pleasure since they try to reason with him, but he puts himself in a position where he looks insane and murderous. It shows General Zaroff’s insane way of thinking and his thoughts on

For more than two thousand years anti-Semitism has plagued the Jews, however, the term has only been around for about thirty years (Strack 594). Due to the hateful accusations and of those who did not understand their religion, Jews, as a scorned people, gradually became more exclusive and intolerant of other religions. Because of Judaism’s strict adherence to their own beliefs and unwillingness to consider any alternatives, Muslims and Christians have scorned and persecuted Jews.

“ Instinct is no match for reason” This is true according to general Zaroff, but does the author of the story agree? Yes, the author of “ The Most Dangerous Game” believes that reason is no match for instinct. Throughout the story he gives examples of how reason has out smarted instinct. Reason is the explanation or justification of a certain action or event;the reason is not affected by force of habit. It is a process of very analytical thinking. Instinct, instinct is action woven into your mind for long periods of time; it is a second nature for you. For example a professional basketball player following through after your shot, they do not have to think about what they are doing they just do it. Instinct is done by a force of habit, you do not think of instinct; it just comes naturally.