The Human Condition In The Most Dangerous Game By Sue Grafton

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.”

In the short story, “The Most Dangerous Game” by Richard Connell, readers are presented with a simple instance of role reversal between the hunter and the prey; Rainsford, a famous hunter, who is also the protagonist of the story experiences what it feels to be the prey. This switch eventually foreshadows the implied moral of the story. Contradictory to Rainsford’s initial apathy towards the game in the literary fiction “The Dangerous Game”, Rainsford from his experience with Zaroff (a fellow experienced hunter) learns to be more emphatic to his prey.

Throughout the past five years, I have indulged myself in a fascinating array of short stories. From stories such as “Rikki-Tikki-Tavi” by Rudyard Kipling to “Song of the Trees” by Mildred D. Taylor, to even ‘The Smallest Dragonboy’ by Anne McCaffrey, just to say a few. All these stories stood out to fascinate me in a variety different ways. They included thrilling adventures, saddening romances, murder, as well as out of this world fantasies. Out of these numerous stories, there is one that will remain a fascinating and thrilling story - that is ‘The Most Dangerous Game’ by Richard Connell. To me ‘The Most Dangerous Game’ encompasses multiple

General Zaroff constantly appears all throughout the story, whether it is in what he says, or the activities he depicts, that he has an exceptionally unsteady personality and is to some degree a psycho. For instance, towards the end of the extensive discussion between General Zaroff and Rainsford, General Zaroff says, "I chase the filth of the earth-mariners from tramp ships, lascars, blacks, chinese, and crossbreeds." (pg.

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

Another way Zaroff is mysterious is that he lives in a mansion on a deserted island with a giant. The text says, “...he saw to his great astonishment that all the lights were in one enormous building…” (Connell 3). It says Rainsford was astonished because he saw a random and huge building in the middle of nowhere. A third way Zaroff is mysterious is that large, fast, and strong animals that normal people think are scary are not scary to him. We know this because in the text it says, “No thrill left in tigers, no real danger” (Connell 5). Zaroff does not believe that tigers, very powerful animals, are a threat to him. Next, Zaroff is evil. The first way he is evil is that he traps sailors and people on boats onto his thought-to-be-deserted island. The book says, “...giant rocks with razor edges crouch like a sea monster with wide-open jaws” (Connell 7). The general traps them to go into the rocks and have their boat torn apart, and then they are stranded on the island. One other way Zaroff is evil is that he hunts humans on his island for his own enjoyment. It says in the text, "Civilized? And you shoot down men?" (Connell 7). Zaroff does not believe that it is crazy to murder people, and this makes Rainsford

In “The Most Dangerous Game,” Richard Connell correlates three common literary devices especially well: setting, suspense, and plot. Connell makes use of an appropriate setting, the literary element of suspense, and an interesting plot in order to strengthen the story’s recurring theme of reason versus instinct within humans, and to blur that line between reason and instinct.

General Zaroff is similar to Rainsford because they are both intelligent, and Zaroff shows this in the story because of his up-bringing and past experiences. This is seen in the story when it says “I, luckily, have invested in American Securities, so I shall never have to open a Tea room in Monte Carlo, or drive a taxi in Paris.” (Connel 48) This proves Zaroff is intelligent because he foresaw the downfall of the Russian economy, and heavily invested in said American Securities. However, Zaroff is different than Rainsford because he is powerful, which he shows when he explains his quarry to Rainsford. An example of this is seen in the story, which states “To date, I have not lost” … “The most elementary sort of problem” (Connel 50.)This proves Zaroff is powerful, because he fears nothing during the hunt. If anything, he thinks it gets quite boring. Zaroff is also different since he can be described as serious, because of his history with the hunt. In the text, this shown when it says “Hunting was beginning to get boring! And hunting, remember had been my life. I have heard that in America, business men often go to pieces…” (Connel ?) This proves Zaroff is about the hunt because it has sparked a new, welcoming,

General Zaroff admits to having read Rainsford's book, and demonstrates great craft in creating the game that he made for this island. He also says directly of himself that he has an "analytical mind ». He claims that  « Now, mine is an analytical mind, Mr. Rainsford. Doubtless that is why I enjoy the problems of the chase, (Connell pg. 100 or 10.) » He has also for a time commanded a division of Cossack cavalry. Which requires someone who willingness allows themselves to be influenced by other people and to share their ideas openly to enhances their ability or apitude, while being psychologically closed can cause problems. Leaders who are psychologically open seek diverse opinions, so they can see and hear more and factor a wider range of information into their decisions (like he did with Rainsford, wanting to know his opinions on him  "hunting" humans). He has also a lot of tricks up his sleeve as he was capable of dismissing Rainsford trap that he equally knew off … « The Malay man-catcher » He had said «Not many men know how to make a Malay man catcher (Connell pg.19 ou 109) ». Luckily, for me, I too have hunted in Malacca Connell pg.19 ou 109.With his knowledge of hunting he was capable of tracing and finding Rainsford not once but twice, which proves that he’s very good at what he does and has an impeccable eyesight ! He could’ve killed Rainsford right away and could’ve won the game but decided not to because he is "just so much fun" and always plays his little « games ». Zaroff just simply has a vicious, sadistic and ruthless mind of physically and mentally torturing his enemies or

Hunting big game animals for sport was a popular pastime with the wealthy classes following World War I. The morality of killing for sport was not questioned in reality, but in this short story the author does question it by taking it a step further and having the protagonist, Sangor Rainsford, hunted by the antagonist, General Zaroff.In a short story full of irony, one of the greatest ironies of Richard Connell’s “The Most Dangerous Game” is that General Zaroff repeatedly tells Rainsford that he maintains a sense of civilization on his island.

In “The Most Dangerous Game”, author Richard Connell uses a variety of literary device to depict the theme. He uses the main character, Rainsford, to be the character which unfolds the theme as he goes through the experience of being treated like a wild animal and becoming the prey of another human for sport. Connell uses three literary devices frequently including foreshadowing, irony and symbolism in order to support the main theme, put yourself in the shoes of the animals you hunt.

Imagine being on an island, with no laws, no society, just the need to survive. When a normal hunter is going to Rio to hunt, the story takes a wild turn and ends up inverted, with the hunter becoming the prey. This is the plot of Richard Connell's short story, ”The Most Dangerous Game”, this short story was unique and interesting to most readers because of the series of unfortunate events. In “The Most Dangerous Game” by Richard Connell, man vs. man, along with man vs. self can lead to an unexpected resolution.

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

Rainsford and General Zaroff are alike in many ways. In the text it said that General zaroff was talking to Rainsford about how god made him a hunter, and how his hands were made for the trigger. Whitney told rainsford that they were big game hunters. They also have unique skills when it come to hunting. For

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