The short story “The Most Dangerous Game” written by Richard Connell, takes place on an island known to have a curious dread to many others. A big game hunter named Rainsford sits around on a yacht talking with one of his other fellow hunters named Whitney who describes how the hunt may only be best for the hunter in lines of feelings but, Rainsford has a different opinion on that matter. When Rainsford is left on the island, he goes through a series of events that leads to a peril of danger. Rainsford states “he had never slept in a better bed”(Connell 15 par. 2) after experiencing a journey that could’ve put his life in jeopardy. This gives the reader a sense Rainsford is projected as a dynamic character from his progression in thoughts …show more content…
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
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.”
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
When life and death are on the line people will find they could do amazing things.
“The world is made up of two classes - the hunters and the huntees.” In the short story ‘The Most Dangerous Game’ which was written by Richard Connell there are two main characters, Rainsford and General Zaroff. Rainsford thought that General Zaroff wanted to hunt with him when in all reality General Zaroff wanted to hunt him(Rainsford) himself. Richard Connell uses irony, theme and characterization to develop the plot and characters. The use of these literary devices suggests that Connell wanted to make the story more interesting and suspenseful so the reader can enjoy reading it.
In The Most Dangerous Game, Rainsford, who is a hunter, lands on an island where General Zaroff lives. Zaroff has become bored with hunting animals and now lures humans to his island to hunt and kill; but even hunting humans has become too easy for him. Zaroff is a very skillful hunter and he has access to guns, dogs and help from a man named Ivan. He promises to let Rainsford free though, if he can survive three days. Rainsford, being the skillful hunter he is, is able to set traps and survive up until the last day when the dogs corner him and he jumps off the cliff into the rocky water below. What Zaroff doesn’t know is that Rainsford is a great swimmer and surprises him by hiding behind his curtains; Zaroff then challenges him to a fight in which Rainsford wins. This
Then Zaroff explains the rules of the game to Rainsford; the prey is given food, clothes, a knife, and three hour head start, if Zaroff doesn’t catch his prey within three days they’re is declared the winner and is sent home on a boat, so long as Zaroff’s game is not shared with others. If Zaroff catches his prey before the three day are up, they get kills and their head gets mounted on his wall. Then Zaroff tells Rainsford that anyone who refuses to be hunted gets tortured by Ivan and that he hasn’t lost the game yet because he is extremely skilled and uses his dogs if the game starts to look like a loss. Without this scene Rainsford wouldn’t have learned what “the most dangerous game” is; he wouldn’t have figured out why Zaroff created and plays this game, how the game is played, what happens before and after the game, and what happens to the people who refuse to play. Therefore without this scene the story wouldn’t make sense; without this scene there would be no story. That’s why this scene is the most important scene in “The Most Dangerous
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,
After the General allows small glimpses into his psyche, the fact that he is a disturbed person is temporarily forgotten about as the battle between him and Rainsford begins. In “Hunters in the Snow”, the situation with the shooting occurs early on, but the main focus of the story then transfers to the characters' and their issues for the remainder of the story. Rainsford is the typical hero: He is clever and moral, as opposed to Zaroff who is immoral. Though he claims to be "a beast at bay," Rainsford has now fully reverted to hunter mode, swimming across a small bay to Zaroff's chateau to arrive there before the general can make it back through the jungle.… out the shadowy outlines of a palatial chateau; it was set on a high bluff, and on three sides of it cliffs dived down to where the sea licked greedy lips in the shadows”. Rainsford claims that no animal can reason and when he realizes what Zaroff is doing, he calls it cold-blooded murder. Zaroff retreats to the chateau, assuming he has won the game. The General explains, "hunting was beginning to bore him," and reveals that he had to invent a new animal to hunt, one that must have "courage, cunning, and, above all, it must be able to reason. Rainsford survives, winning the game. A story, which relies on action, coincidence and surprise, is precisely the motivation that Connell needs to create a memorable commercial fiction. Rainsford is given the impression that General Zaroff is a wealthy and prominent hunter. "
Richard Connell’s short story, The Most Dangerous Game, tells the story of a famous hunter named Rainsford, who falls off of a yacht and swims to an island called Ship-Trap Island. While on Ship Trap Island, Rainsford encounters a man named General Zaroff, who began hunting humans on the island after becoming bored of hunting animals. One night, Zaroff announces to Rainsford that he will be the next victim in his hunting game. Zaroff informs Rainsford that if he manages to survive for three days without being killed, then he can leave the island. Throughout the plot of this short story, there is a consistent theme of the world being composed of two classes of people: the hunters and the hunted. General Zaroff and Rainsford both find themselves to be divided into this class system, at various times during the hunting game. In this short story, Connell uses foreshadowing to portray the idea that there are two classes of people in the world: the hunters and the hunted, in relation to Rainsford and Zaroff.
Presumption of one’s character, lifestyle, or troubles in life is taken from looking at that person and assuming you know all about them. In order to fully understand someone’s pain, you must endure it in their shoes. This is the theme for the short story, “The Most Dangerous Game,” written by Richard Connell. As Rainsford, the main character of the short story, tries to survive in the wild from a psychotic general who hunts humans as game, the reader sees his change in perspective on what it feels to be hunted. This demonstrates the theme of the short-story through the use of situational irony, man vs. man conflict, and internal conflict.
A man gets hunted by another man on the deserted Ship-Trap Island in the middle of the Caribbean. Rainsford, the protagonist in “The Most Dangerous Game”, a short story written by Richard Connell, gets hunted by General Zaroff. Rainsford abounds with fear, making him crazy. General Zaroff’s arrogance causes him to feel that he possesses the right to hunt the people he captures. His arrogance causes him to commit gruesome things; in this case, murder. Prior to becoming another man’s prey, Rainsford feels that animals have no feelings, but he sympathizes for animals being hunted after he himself becomes prey. His feelings and opinions transform after this experience. “The Most Dangerous Game” consists of three central themes: fear makes an individual crazy, arrogance causes hurtful actions, and some experiences have the potential to alter an individual’s opinion.
Human vs Nature, Rainsford being cast off his yacht would be a good example of this struggle.
When many people think of hunting, they often think of searching through forests, jungles, and fields to find certain animals that they will stalk and then kill. However, Rainsford, a character in “The Most Dangerous Game” by Richard Connell, is forced to try a very different form of this sport invented by a mysterious man he meets on Ship Trap Island. General Zaroff, another character in this short story, traps people on his island and hunts with them by seeing if they can survive three nights and evade his attempts at killing them. Before arriving on this obscure island, Rainsford was already an experienced hunter, already heard of by quite a few people. After falling off his yacht and relying on his instincts to safely make it to
Imagine you, a well known hunter, are stranded on a humid, tropical island with no wildlife other than a psychotic man. This psychopath is a fellow hunter, but desires to poach even greater and smarter game with extremely high intelligence, and is the smartest animal of all -- humans. Throughout the story, the author creates a suspenseful mood through several conflicts the main character encounters, while struggling to survive the “most dangerous game.” In Richard Connell’s short adventure story, “The Most Dangerous Game,” Rainsford, a hunter, travels to South America on a hunting expedition, when he carelessly falls off his yacht and into the Caribbean Sea. Struggling to find a place to rest, he swims to an island off in the distance. Upon reaching the island, he comes across a large building where he is warmly welcomed by the owner of the establishment, also a renowned hunter, named General Zaroff, only to find that he is a lunatic. After learning of General Zaroff’s sins, Rainsford is challenged by the general in a game of life and death, and their specialty, hunting. From beginning to end, the author of this short survival story creates a suspenseful mood through the three main conflicts the main character encounters.
At the beginning of the hunt Zaroff followed Rainsford’s trail and found him in a tree, but Zaroff ignored him and kept the hunt on. Rainsford ran into the woods and found a dead tree on a smaller living one and set up his first trap. Zaroff is on Rainsford’s trail like a bloodhound and when he gets to Rainsford’s trap he steps on the trigger. Zaroff knows what he has done, but is too slow to react and the tree injures his shoulder. “Rainsford, if you are within the sound of my voice, as I suppose you are, let me congratulate you. Not many men know how to make a Malay Mancatcher. Luckily for me, I too have hunted in Malacca. You are proving interesting, Mr. Rainsford. I am going now to have my wounds dressed, it’s only a slight one.