The Most Dangerous Game Literary Analysis

In How to Read Literature Like a Professor, Thomas C. Foster teaches readers about the most commonly used symbols and their meanings and the similarities between stories.

How to Read Literature Like a Professor is a book Thomas C. Foster uses to expose his thoughts and feelings of many literary terms and devices. Such ideas can be found in James Joyce’s short story, “The Dead”.

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.”

Richard Connell’s The Most Dangerous explains multiple theories, such as nature versus nurture, and survival of the fittest. This short story also seems to have an underlying theme of Social Darwinism (Of Two Classes). Throughout the entirety of the short story, Connell shows a character change of a main character, Rainsford, who is at a constant battle with General Zaroff, the antagonist. This character change shows the importance of the mindset of characters, and how it can be applied to everyday life.

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.

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.

What is the point of literary devices in stories, books, and poems? What do they accomplish? Could you use them properly if you knew what they were? In the short story, “The Most Dangerous Game”, author Richard Connell uses many of these devices, namely: simile, metaphor, personification, imagery, foreshadowing, irony, and allusion. Some well used devices in this story are personification and irony.

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.

Thomas C. Foster in ‘How to Read Literature like a Professor’, references the different literary devices that authors use in literature, in order to enhance the reader’s ability to critically analyze literature from any time period. Foster expands the reader’s understanding of literature by exploring the profound impact of symbols and common themes on literature.

Between the movie and story in “The Most Danger Game” there several things that are taken and some added. When they added the Lady in it made the story more interesting. It was more suspenseful because it felt she was slowing Rainsford down and you weren’t sure if they would get killed. An omission that took away from the story was that Ivan did not hold the gun to Rainsford’s heart in the beginning. So Rainsford did not know what was coming until later and it was not as suspenseful during the beginning of the story. These additions did effect the theme it made it even more known that animals feel pain and fear when hunted.

Rainsford woke up to the booming sinfony of dozens of hungry hunting hounds and a satisfied look soon materialized on his face. With a prolonged yawn, he rose sleepily from the luxurious bed to find the body of General Zaroff staring blankly at the ceiling. He was the hunter, his hunter, that he had just murdered. Rainsford realised he had finally and truly won the most dangerous game. He remembered what the Cossack had said before their fight, “One of us is to furnish a repast for the hounds. The other will sleep in this very excellent bed.” Rainsford silently walked over to the window and gazed down towards the dogs below. As if know what Rainsford was thinking, the hounds barked viciously at him, salivating at their mouths. He ceremoniously picked up the still body of General Zaroff and threw him out the window with a crash! He put a fresh pair of clothes on while listening to the now satisfied canines eat their meal. determined he needed to get

How to Read Literature Like a Professor: A Lively and Entertaining Guide to Reading Between the Lines by Thomas C. Foster is a book that explains there is more to literature than just a few words on a paper or a few pages in a book. Thomas Foster’s book portrays a relatable message to a wide based audience. This book is relatable for two reasons, the way it is written and the examples it uses. The book is written in a conversational manner, as if the reader was in a group discussion about books and writing. As for the examples, they are informative, descriptive, relative, and entertaining.

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.

How would it feel to suddenly go from being the hunter to becoming the prey? That is exactly what happened to Rainsford, one of the main characters in The Most Dangerous Game by Richard Connell. Rainsford was a big game hunter who accidentally fell of of his yacht. He swam to a nearby island, and there he met General Zaroff, a cruel man who hunts humans for sport. In exchange for release from the island, Rainsford agrees to be hunted by Zaroff. Consequently, Rainsford is a survivor because he kills Zaroff and wins the game. Rainsford is also a survivor because he demonstrates the qualities that a person must have to be considered a survivor. Although Rainsford is a survivor, Zaroff is not. To be considered a survivor, a person must go through a traumatic or life-threatening experience but still demonstrate resilience and determination.

I will be comparing the video verion of The Most Dangerous Game to the story.