Most Dangerous Game Analysis

In the story “The Most Dangerous Game” by Richard Connell and the poem “Porphyria’s Lover” by Robert Browning, the authors use characterization and imagery to convey that the desire for power can drive man to psychotic actions.

In Richard Connell’s short story “The Most Dangerous Game”, the protagonist character, Sander Rainsford is an adventurous and fearless big game hunter. Rainsford has no remorse for his prey. Over the course of the story Rainsford experiences a sudden change of heart when he finds himself where “The world is made up of two classes—the hunters and the huntees.”

The story The Most Dangerous Game is a short story that portrays terror and fear, a sense of danger, and also the hatred that animals feel for their killer at the same time as making a contemporary correlation to real life. The short story was written during the era when animal hunting was common with the rich folks. The Most Dangerous Game as the name implies, is indeed a dangerous game.

Brief summary: The Most Dangerous Game is about hunter Sanger Rainsford, who washes up on the shore of an island called Ship Trap Island that has a terrible infamy, where he soon meets General Zaroff, who hunts human beings which is the most dangerous game for sport. Zaroff hunts Rainsford, but in the end Rainsford gets the better of him.

It had been a week since Rainsford managed to kill the nefarious General Zaroff. The challenging part was almost over or so it seemed. There was not a clear way for Rainsford to escape. As days passed, Rainsford tried to escape. He tried making a boat from driftwood that he found, he tried swimming, he even tried sending a signal by using a flashlight. Rainsford had become so desperate that he even tried some ridiculous plans like trying to pole vault across the ocean. As a result, Rainsford ended up having huge gashes in his left leg ,which got infected, and he had to amputate it. As days turned into weeks, and weeks into months, Rainsford had lost hope and became bitter.

Richard Connell's "The Most Dangerous Game" is a very exciting story of a manhunt. This story made me think about the morality of hunting: Humans are the cleverest creatures on earth, but does it give them a license to kill the other animals and even human beings weaker than themselves? I give below a short summary of the story to set the scene and then I will explore the ethics involved in hunting as a sport. "The Most Dangerous Game" presents the story of a hunter, General Zaroff, who finds hunting human beings as the most dangerous and fascinating sport.

The Most Dangerous Game was a story made by Richard Connell in 1924, and had a movie adaptation in 1932. The short story tells about a man stranded on an island by the name of Rainsford. He finds Zaroff, a general with a great lust for hunting, who hunts people and Rainsford himself going to be hunted. He then attempts to outwit the general and ends up possibly taking his place. The film tries to encapsulate the excitement and story of the original version with more enticing visual effects and mostly succeeds. Although the film shares many themes and characteristics as the story, it has also changed many key factors.

Stranded, lost, and alone is how Sanger Rainsford felt as he scaled the rocky cliffs of the island. The Most Dangerous Game is a short story written by Richard Connell and published on January 19, 1924. Sanger Rainsford a legendary hunter falls overboard off a yacht on his way to the Amazon. He finds himself on `Ship-Trap Island` where he meets General Zaroff the owner of a mansion on the island and Ivan his servant. General Zaroff invites Sanger Rainsford to hunt with him.

What is human nature? The Bible says in Romans 3:23 “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” We are all fallen, sinful and depraved, all of us are. Humans are evil. Genesis 1-3 shows us that God made us whole and good, but we have ruined his perfect plan. The greatest of men were all sinners. Moses, the leader of Israel was a murder (Exodus 2:11-15), David slept with Bathsheba and then killed her husband (2 Samuel 11-12), Paul murdered christians (Acts 9), and the list goes on and on.

Imagine turning up on an island with a psychotic man, a man who hunts humans. This is what General Zaroff does, on Ship-Trap-Island. General Zaroff is a rich hunter who hunts most animals, even the most dangerous. This is the story written by Richard Connell, called The Most Dangerous Game, It is about a psychotic man with a hunting obsession. Once Zaroff gets bored with the hunting animals he turns to something new, humans. The author thinks that hunting is normal, that people have a killer instinct. That it is our human nature to hunt, and kill. The author also thinks that it is human nature to look for new challenges and to live strong. Much like Zaroff, the author believes life, is for the willing.

Resourcefulness is being able to overcome difficulties quickly and in a clever way. Resourcefulness can also be using one’s surroundings for his/her benefit with prior knowledge and experience. In Richard Connell’s short story “The Most Dangerous Game” the main character Rainsford shows these skills of resourcefulness as he tries to survive the hunt. Rainsford is an experienced big game hunter that is trapped on a tropical jungle covered island with another big game hunter, General Zaroff. Zaroff has gained so much experience in hunting, due to this he has lost interest in hunting animals and now enjoys the hunt of humans. Rainsford is put in the position to be torched or participate in a game of hunting. When Rainsford is challenged to this game of hunting he is forced to try and survive. Rainsford is able to survive the hunt because he uses his resources and prior knowledge to weaken Zaroff helping him win the hunt.

One of the darker actions examined in this unit takes place in "The Most Dangerous Game" by Richard Connell. In this short story, General Zaroff begins hunting a man lost on his island named Rainsford. Bored of the usual game, General Zaroff decides he wants something more exciting and chooses to prey on humans. This ill-judged decision has a domino effect on the plot, ultimately ending in the demise of Zaroff. Nonetheless, an alternate ending besides death could have very well been a possibility. Perhaps, instead of hunting humans, Zaroff decides to open a hunting camp to share his passion for the sport with others. Obviously, his boredom is caused by the island's isolation from society. So, Zaroff could have built homes and started a community or decide to leave the island altogether. Then, the course of this story would have taken a completely different path. Maybe, Zaroff finds a wife, they have children and live happily ever after. If only he was able to overcome his dark side instead of letting it consume him.

“He knew his pursuer was coming; he heard the padding sound of feet on the soft earth… (Connell 32)” The Most Dangerous Game is a story full of adventures and seems to always have the reader on edge. Richard Connell’s story is filled with the theme of ‘will.’ This book is also full of plot twists and makes one mesmerized page by page wanting to know what happens to Rainsford. It also lets the reader to question what happens at the end and it allows the reader to make connections with real life, archetypes, and other literature. The Most Dangerous Game is a compelling hunt full of violence, action, and the theme of ‘will’ in the hunt of a man by a man.

There are survivors all around us, and they all could have faced grave challenges to be standing where they are today. Rainsford, in the "Most Dangerous Game" by Richard Connell, faced intense challenges in a "fight to the death" conflict against one of his most successful supporters, General Zaroff. Lee, from "My escape from North Korea" by Hyeonseo Lee, faced tough challenges while trying to escape the depths of a country that treated her horrendously. Aron Ralston, from "Trapped", a story explaining that Aron himself was hiking alone when the unthinkable happened: Two large, heavy boulders fell on his arm and he had to endure over a hundred painful hours of being trapped in between the two rocks until he did a self-amputation on the arm

In the story The Most Dangerous Game Rainsford’s is going to the Amazon, but ends up falling off a boat near the caribbean. From there he swims the the nearest island. After he reaches the island, he meets General Zaroff. General Zaroff is a hunter. However he enjoys a different type of hunting, he enjoys hunting humans. In the end I think that Richard Connell used foreshadowing very effectively.