The Most Dangerous Game Conflict 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.

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.”

To begin with, Richard Connell successfully writes a compelling short story through plot. One example of the exciting plot used in “The Most Dangerous Game” is when it states, “You'll find this game worth playing," the general said enthusiastically. " Your brain against mine. Your woodcraft against mine. Your strength and stamina against mine.

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.

Some stories do not have many different conflicts in the story. For example, in “Little Red Riding Hood” there is only one conflict which is Man vs Wolf or Man vs Man, but in some stories like “The Most Dangerous Game” there are all three conflicts throughout the book. Having more conflicts gives the story a bigger theme of suspense. In “Little Red Riding Hood”, the only conflict is getting to her grandma’s house where in “The Most Dangerous Game” there are many different conflicts that give the story more suspense and make it more interesting. Furthermore, there are many examples of conflicts in the short story.

In the story The Most Dangerous Game one conflict is man vs nature. Rainsford is fighting nature because he is on a ship and he came across an island. Rainsford falls overboard and has to swim for safety. “All he knew was that he was safe from his enemy, the sea and the other was weariness on him”. In order to survive rainsford hast to swim to the island and find shelter. In the conflict man vs nature this shows Rainsford bravery.

What is human nature? The Bible says in Romans 3:23 “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” We are all fallen, sinful and depraved, all of us are. Humans are evil. Genesis 1-3 shows us that God made us whole and good, but we have ruined his perfect plan. The greatest of men were all sinners. Moses, the leader of Israel was a murder (Exodus 2:11-15), David slept with Bathsheba and then killed her husband (2 Samuel 11-12), Paul murdered christians (Acts 9), and the list goes on and on.

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.

Rainsford in ‘The Most Dangerous Game,’ Della in ‘The Gift of the Magi,’ and Lizabeth in ‘Marigolds,’ are all faced with adversity in different ways. However, all three characters demonstrate that the very best way to handle adversity is by remaining valiant. In ‘The Most Dangerous Game’ Rainsford is faced with adversity when he is launched off a ship. “The cry was pinched off short as the blood-warm waters of the Caribbean Sea dosed over his head. He struggled up to the surface and tried to cry out, but the wash from the speeding yacht slapped him in the face and the salt water in his open mouth made him gag and strangle” (Connell). In ‘The Gift of the Magi’ Della faces adversity when she does not possess enough money to buy her husband a

What do you think the phrase beast at bay means? Why is this appropriate for the story?

All stories have at least one of three different kinds of conflict, man versus man, man versus nature, and man versus himself. Some stories, like Richard Connell's “"The Most Dangerous Game"”, use all three conflicts uniquely and clearly. When each conflict is put to a test of strength in the story, man vs man is the strongest. The weakest is man vs himself. And the final conflict is man vs nature. The three conflicts are used evenly so they end up being as significant as each other.

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.

All stories must have a conflict in them. Some have only one but the narrator and author of the short story “ The Most Dangerous Game’’ by Richard Connell has not only one but three to give the story a little rage . Man vs man, man vs himself and man vs nature are all included in the story. They all exist in the story and these are some of the examples the author puts on the story when writing it.

Every author creates some type of conflict to have the reader sitting on the edge of their seats whether the conflict be man versus man, man versus self, or man versus nature. The novel The Road by Cormac McCarthy wrote a story about both a man and a boy who have particularly conflicting characteristics when it comes to decision making. The boy in the story is very optimistic about everything and the man can be pessimistic when either deciding on what to do or when thinking about life or the future. In addition, both characters have different outlooks and personalities that can sometimes collide.

He is put into a situation where he has to swim until he finds shelter. He swims, and “for a seemingly endless time he fought the sea” (Connell 42). After a while, he found an island called Ship Trap Island. So, this shows how he fought against nature. Another example of conflict in this story is when Rainsford has to fight against General Zaroff, who is an expert at hunting humans on Ship Trap Island. As Rainsford gets challenged by Zaroff, he says, “‘Thank you, I’m a hunter, not a murderer’” (49). This shows an example of another external conflict. But, this one is a man verses man conflict because Rainsford is facing a problem with another character in the story. Therefore, Rainsford faces many situations where he has to choose between life or death.