The 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.

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.

“Impossible is not a fact. It’s an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It’s a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing”-Muhammad Ali. In situations where it seems death himself is looking you straight in the eye, people need three imperative qualities that can and will save their life: grit, faith, and intelligence. The strength you have inside yourself, the ability to overcome adversity, the hope that can drive out fear, and the wit that can make you insurmountable are what creates a survivor.

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.

In the short story by Richard Connell, The Most Dangerous Game, Sanger Rainsford finds himself in a sticky situation when he meets General Zaroff. General Zaroff is a very talented hunter and had become tired of hunting the same old animals as always, they bored him as he explained in the story, he had now moved on to the best prey he could find, a prey that could fight and think for themselves, and that prey was humans. Rainsford is taken aback by this confession and is alarmed, he asks Zaroff to let him go, but Zaroff has other plans. In order for Rainsford to get off the island alive he must survive three full days on the island while being hunted by General Zaroff. Rainsford agrees, knowing that if declines this choice his life would have a much more unpleasant future. And so the the hunt began, but Rainsford had some tricks up his sleeve.

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

He ran for his life when seeing a man and a other man with dogs. When seeing one image fall he ran straight for the water to get away from the hunter. In the short story, "The Most Dangerous Game" by Richard Connell, Sanger Rainsford was a hunter taking a boat ride. When Rainsford fell off the boat and hearing a pistol shot swam toward the shot to get help him find his way home. Then met Ivan the giant, and General Zaroff who live in a big house. General Zaroff talks about hunting and the deadly hunting game. Rainsford is forced to play the game and kills General Zaroff and Ivan. Rainsford kills both of the people not because he wants to but to escape and he is forced to.

People’s lives depended on how well he could think on his feet … Training had taught him to cope with stress and how to handle the tools. The rest was all improvisation” (Chapter 1 137). This quote was an awakening for the audience because it displayed other methods and necessities for fighting other than the physical acts such as shooting and throwing RPGs. The mental challenges that come hand-in-hand with the rescues as displayed in the quote is

“One of us is to finish a repast for the hounds. The other will sleep in this very excellent bed. On guard Rainsford.”

One of the most significant characteristic of a survivor is being brave. Brave can relate to being a survivor because the quote “ Tonight said General Zaroff we will hunt - you and I” (Carroll 73). This quote proves brave can be part of survival because Rainsford never

In “The Most Dangerous Game,” by Richard Connell, the characters encounter many life-changing problems. This fictional, but suspenseful, piece contained a variation of conflicts for each character. Whether it was a character vs. character, nature, or himself each one shows the person’s true colors, and shapes them to be who they are. From the start Rainsford believed hunting was completely justifiable. However, once he had that experience with Zaroff his opinions changed. Rainsford encounters many conflicts and because of that, many aspects of his feelings and thoughts toward a variety of subjects is revealed.

In the short story “The Most Dangerous Game” by Richard Connell, Sanger Rainsford outsmarted General Zaroff during the crazy man-hunt. Rainsford managed to outsmart Zaroff when he hid in the tree from him. Then when he set a trap on Zaroff, and lastly when he swam around the island so he could go hide from Zaroff in the Chateau. These three things will explain how Sanger Rainsford was successful.

One of the significant characteristics of any survivor is selfish. An example of this is the story “Most Dangerous Game,” when Rainsford says, “I’m a hunter not a murderer. Thank You”. He does not hunt will kill anything even if he has to murder someone. Another example is on page 53 when the narrator writes, “The door opened then, opened as suddenly as if it were on a spring, and Rainsford stood blinking

What would you do if you were put into a life or death situation? You could be stranded on an island, lost in the desert, or you could even be lost at sea. There have been many incredible stories of people surviving the most bizarre circumstances, but how they did it is very intriguing. In order to survive against the odds, a person must possess courage and endurance.