The Most Dangerous Game By Richard Connell

From the words of C.S. Lewis, “Hardships often prepare ordinary people for an extraordinary destiny”. Facing hardships and breaking free from their normal world allows the hero inside of people to come out. Many stories document this journey of a hero through the Hero’s Journey Archetype. In the short story “The Most Dangerous Game” by Richard Connell, a man named Rainsford stumbles upon an island where humans are hunted by a crazed man. The hero’s journey archetype is implemented throughout Rainsford’s experiences in the story. Richard Connell used the Hero’s Journey Archetype to structure the plot and develop the theme that with clever thinking and lots of hope, one can succeed at anything.

Underestimation and cruel actions lead to many things. In “The Most Dangerous Game,” author Richard Connell reveals a conflict between the main characters, General Zaroff and Rainsford. Rainsford was to play the most dangerous game created by Zaroff, because the only way to survive, is to win it, otherwise death is the only other option. As demonstrated through the use of personification, symbolism, and repetition in the story, it conveys that one should understand to never underestimate another person and remember that there will always be a consequence for the wicked things that one has done.

C.S. Lewis one said “Hardships often prepare ordinary people for an extraordinary destiny”. Facing hardships and breaking free from their normal world allows the hero inside of people to come out. Many stories document this journey of a hero through the Hero’s Journey Archetype. In the short story “The Most Dangerous Game” by Richard Connell, a man named Rainsford stumbles upon an island where humans are hunted by a crazed man. The hero’s journey archetype is implemented throughout Rainsford’s experiences in the story. Richard Connell used the Hero’s Journey Archetype to structure the plot and develop the theme that with clever thinking and the use of past experiences, one can succeed at anything.

Fear is one of the most powerful killers. Fear is a strong emotion, from the thought of danger or pain. In the short story, “The Most Dangerous Game”, by Richard Connell, fear is demonstrated in 3 different ways throughout the story. Rainsford has to fight against his lack of sleep and anxiety in order to beat general Zaroff. Along with fighting himself, Rainsford must compete against Zaroff to stay alive through the strange game. Without the setup of Zaroff’s island, beating Rainsford would be nearly impossible. Therefore, Rainsford has more than just Zaroff to fight off in this story. Without the three major conflicts of man versus nature, man versus man , and man versus himself, this story would not be possible.

Have you ever been hunted down by a psychopath war general, rabid pack of dogs, and a giant mute knouter named Ivan, and escaped? “The Most Dangerous Game,” by Richard Connell, is about a man named Rainsford who gets stranded on an island with an insane head honcho on a small, isolated island in the Caribbean sea. Behind every work of literature, are literary elements that make it successful. “The Most Dangerous Game” is successful due to descriptive imagery, suspenseful plot, and ability to get to the point.

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 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.

When one is hunting, do they ever stop to think about how it feels to be the prey? In Richard Connell’s short story, “The Most Dangerous Game”, the character Rainsford has a change of opinion and feelings to this very question. In the beginning of the story, Rainsford is on a ship with a colleague and expresses that he is only concerned about the feelings of himself as the hunter and not those of the “huntee”. Not long after falling off the ship and arriving to a nearby island is it that Rainsford experiences what it is like to be the huntee. Connell uses many transitions within in the story that leads the reader in suspense and encourages them to keep reading. The transitions are first when Rainsford falls off the ship and approaches the island, when allows him to come into his house and stay, and when the hunt results in the two going against each other.

For an abundance of stories the conflicts do not include man vs. man, man vs. nature, or man vs. himself. In the story “The Most Dangerous Game” by Richard Connell this is not the case. The main character Rainsford is frequently facing multiple struggles. The story would not keep you on the edge of your seats the same way unless he is constantly fighting through something no matter how big or small the problem is. For example Rainsford the sailor fights nature in this story. In addition to this, he struggles through the toughness and wits of other men. Furthermore, in this story Rainsford puts up with himself as he fights his mind running through the jungle constantly making last minute, and risky decisions. This story shows countless examples of man vs. man, man vs. nature, and even man vs. himself.

In any story, there must be problems that leave the main character in a predicament. That is the case in the short story “The Most Dangerous Game” by Richard Connell. There are three main types of conflicts. One conflict in man versus nature because even though Rainsford is a sailor, he is most hated by the sea. Another, conflict found in the story is man versus himself considering Rainsford must face the toughest challenge of all; himself. Most importantly, the last conflict is man versus man since Rainsford is forced to go head-to-head with General Zaroff. It is crucial that “The Most Dangerous Game” has these three main issues to make the story exciting.

Whenever you hear the word evil or immoral, what pops up into your head? The character General Zaroff from a story called “The Most Dangerous Game” written by Richard Connell pops up into my head. General Zaroff is a man who lives on an island called Ship-Trap Island. Zaroff proves his immorally so many ways in the story. He lures sailors onto this island by using a bright light to trap them into a fake cannel, kidnaps the sailors, and then hunts them. Zaroff is an evil person who kills humans for the fun of it. Zaroff considers killing humans a sport, does not think it is murder, and forced the main character, Rainsford, in the book to be hunted.

“Rainsford heard a sound. It came out of the darkness, a high screaming sound, the sound of an animal in an extremity of anguish and terror” (16). In the shocking short story “The Most Dangerous Game” created by Richard Connell, tension and terror is manufactured in the eyes of the reader. In the chilling story of a hunter and a huntee, the author subjects the audience to Rainsford’s grief and agony of the hunt. Combining suspenseful foreshadowing and vivid imagery, the writer produces apprehension and fashions shock in the eyes of the reader.

This essay will be about the book “The Most Dangerous Game” a book about a hunter named Rainsford who falls from his yacht and swam to an island called “Ship-Trap Island” and finds a huge palace like chateau. Living in that chateau is a hunter of different sorts named General Zaroff. I will be explaining why I think Rainsford bested Zaroff at his own game.

Richard Edward Connell was an American author, who was probably most famous for the short story “The Most Dangerous Game.” Connell started writing at the age of 10 covering baseball games for his father 's paper. By the age of sixteen he had become the editor of the Poughkeepsie News-Press. Connell was a very smart man who studied at Georgetown and Harvard.While at Harvard he was the editorial chairman. Connell 's writing style was usually action-adventure. Some of his works were probably inspired from his time working as a homicide journalist, and serving in World War I. By the time Connell passed away he had published over 300 short stories. Richard Connell was a very unique author from experiences he had through out his life, and so was the writing style that he portrayed.