Rainsford: Big Game Hunter

Rainsford will hunt again because hunting is all he has ever done, so he will never stop. Hunting is Rainsford’s career, and he writes books about his experiences to tell people what happens on the hunts like his “book on hunting snow leopards in Tibet”(Connell 23). Rainsford is passionate about hunting, he calls it the “[b]est sport in the world”(Connell 19). Rainsford tells Whitney “you're a big game hunter, not a philosopher” (Connell 19). Rainsford is a hunter, and he doesn't understand opinions against hunting. Rainsford tells Whitney that they “ should have some good hunting up in the amazon” (Connell 19). Rainsford enjoys hunting and he looks forward to more hunting trips, for example, the amazon.

Earlier Zaroff, took an enormous blow, he almost fell over, but due to his almost ape like agility dodged the bullet. He proves his arrogance when he says that his wound is only a slight one, when really it would put a normal person out for several days. Zaroff is hunting Rainsford once again. Rainsford uses his intelligence and builds a burmese tiger pit, the General loses his nest dog because of it, but Zaroff isn't harmed. “ You’ve done well Rainsford, the voice of the general called.

General Zaroff eventually sees Rainsford but decides not to kill him just yet and walks past the tree Rainsford was perched upon. Rainsford becomes an emotional wreck in the tree. He struggles to keep his nerve majorly at this point when he describes his current state when he says, "Rainsford held his breath. The general's eyes had left the ground and were travelling inch by inch up the tree. Rainsford froze there, every muscle tensed up for a spring. But the sharp eyes of the hunter stopped before they reached the limb where Rainsford lay." (Connell 231). One can just imagine how much stress and pressure was placed on Rainsford. Rainsford tries to stay calm but later has to remind himself to stay calm in order to conceal his location. Rainsford manages to escape the grasp of General Zaroff but comes across the deaf and blind Ivan with his hounds. Rainsford builds a pit in the ground that has stakes at the bottom of it. He lures the dogs and they fall into the hole. The next tactic Rainsford uses is when he sees Ivan and General Zaroff walking near his direction. He attaches a knife to a vine and Ivan catches it and dies. Rainsford still has to repeat the phrase, "Nerve,nerve, nerve" to keep himself calm (Connell 235). General Zaroff's cruel ways of hunting and the success of killing Ivan mentally scar Rainsford for the rest of his time on

Zaroff finds him easily, but decides to play with him like a cat would a mouse, standing underneath the tree Rainsford is hiding in, smoking a cigarette, and then abruptly departing. After the failed attempt of eluding Zaroff, Rainsford builds a Malay man-catcher, a weighted log attached to a trigger. This contraption injures Zaroff's shoulder, causing him to return home for the night, but not before he shouts out that Rainsford laid a good trap that few hunters can make. The next day Rainsford creates a Burmese tiger pit, which kills one of Zaroff's hounds. He sacrifices his knife to make a Ugandan knife trap; Ivan is killed when he stumbles into this trap and the knife plunges into his heart. To escape Zaroff and his approaching hounds, Rainsford dives off a cliff into the sea; Zaroff, disappointed at Rainsford's suicide, returns home. While enjoying a celebratory dinner, Zaroff is preoccupied with two issues: Ivan would be hard to replace and that Rainsford had evaded his

No family or friends of Zaroff are mentioned, and the only emotion he shows in the story is when his doorkeeper, Ivan, is killed by Rainsford. This seems to indicate that Zaroff has no emotional ties to anyone, and puts himself first (Connell’s The Most Dangerous Game).

Zaroff makes sure that he can play the game with an opponent but he also makes sure that the opponent does not win. He thinks he is playing fair but the truth is, he does not play by the rules, as players of a game should. Zaroff uses his wealth to get whatever he wants to please himself. He has a butler named Ivan, who is a Cossack, which are strong yet deaf and dumb Ukrainians. He also knows his way around the island so he will know which direction to go and he has his home as a safe house. He has about a dozen dogs for even more protection and a gun. As a result, if anything might happen to Zaroff while playing the game, he will result in receiving help from his advantage.

The author uses Rainsford’s perception of the island and the hunt to formulate uneasiness and tension throughout the story. As Rainsford approaches the perimeter of the “snarled and ragged jungle”, he sees that the jungle turf is oddly “thrashed about”, “lacerated”, and “stained crimson”(3). Connell objectifies Rainsford’s first impression of the island to increase tension in the onset of his story. By this time

Rainsford is disgusted and sickened at the fact that General Zaroff’s idea of hunting means hunting humans. In return for his passage off the island Zaroff forces Rainsford to participate in his hunting game where he is the hunter and Rainsford is the prey. The main characters,

"Hurled me against a tree," said the general. "Fractured my skull. But I got the brute” (R’Connell). This just demonstrates how ruthless Zaroff is because he fractured his skull but he just doesn't care. "Oh," said the general, "it supplies me with the most exciting hunting in the world. No other hunting compares with it for an instant. Every day I hunt, and I never grow bored now, for I have a quarry with which I can match my wits” (R’Connell). Zaroff is never too tired to hunt or too sick, no matter how he feels he will always hunt. All of Zaroff’s behaviors are what make him relentless.

At the beginning of the story Rainsford is talking to Whitney about how a jaguar cannot feel anything and is only an animal to be hunted and killed, by the end of the book Rainsford has become the huntee and now feels the true fear of being hunted.

Although, the only way Zaroff allowed was to take part in his game or get turned over to Ivan. Rainsford prepares for the hunt and on the following day they set out into the jungle. During the hunt, he makes many traps such as false trails, a Malayan mancatcher, a covered pit of wooden stakes, and a knife tied to a sapling. Throughout the hunt, Rainsford becomes creative of using his resources and figures out how to trick the mind of others. For the trail, Zaroff found Rainsford pretty quickly but wanted to enjoy the hunt so he lets him go. The Malay mancatcher only injures Zaroff’s shoulder but usually kills, which made the hunt harder. The wooden stakes trap kills one of Zaroff's best dogs, impressing Zaroff of Rainsford’s skills but makes sure he needs to improve ending Rainsford because that dog was really important to him. The knife tied to the sapling kills Ivan however, Zaroff’s has little to no care of losing his guard rather than losing his best hunting tool. During the hunt, Rainsford and Zaroff trade places of who is the hunter and the huntees. Rainsford fully experiences the fear of being hunted when being held at the edge of the cliff by dogs. He pants ”Nerve, nerve, nerve” ( Connell 14 par. 7) struggling trying not to get killed. Rainsford finally jumps off the cliff and swims around the island to get back to the chateau because it was quicker than walking through. When Zaroff

General Zaroff’s cool headedness adds to the various textual evidence that he is not, in fact, insane. When he is introduced to the story, he praises Rainsford's hunting ability with a seemed preparedness. Rainsford observes that the General seems to read his mind at times. He is prepared for every question that Rainsford has, and even answers some that were never asked. His actions seem calculated to make Rainsford more comfortable with him, however, as a fellow hunter, Rainsford observes, “whenever he looked up from his plate he found the general studying him, appraising him narrowly.” This makes Rainsford uncomfortable, sets him on edge for the information that Zaroff is about to reveal. During the hunt, Zaroff

In the beginning of the book,Rainsford does not care for the animals he hunts.Rainsford and whitney were talking about what it would be like to be the hunted and how a Jaguar feels.

When Rainsfords finds out that General Zaroff likes to hunt humans, he feels very shocked. Rainsfords what's to get off the island before he gets killed

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