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The Most Dangerous Game By Richard Connell

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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. During the Departure stage of the archetype, the author introduces the conflict the hero must overcome in order to learn his lesson. The hero is first introduced to the problem in the Call to Adventure. To illustrate, Mr. Connell expresses the moment Rainsford starts to realize the sinister happenings on the island, as General Zaroff explains that “Every day I hunt, and I never grow bored now, for I have a quarry with which I can match my wits”(7). This portion of the archetype adds information about the hero and the setting to the exposition of the plot, which helps the reader understand what problem the hero has to fix. The conflict of the story is introduced in the Call to Adventure as General Zaroff describes what exactly he hunts: humans, the only animals that can reason for

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