Essay about The Most Dangerous Game by Richard Connell

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.”

First, evidence from the story shows that Zaroff considers himself civilized. According to the story on (pg.50) it says “oh yes,...I have electricity. We try to be civilized here.”

General Zaroff constantly appears all throughout the story, whether it is in what he says, or the activities he depicts, that he has an exceptionally unsteady personality and is to some degree a psycho. For instance, towards the end of the extensive discussion between General Zaroff and Rainsford, General Zaroff says, "I chase the filth of the earth-mariners from tramp ships, lascars, blacks, chinese, and crossbreeds." (pg.

General Zaroff is uncivilized because he thinks that it is fair and ordinary to kill other humans for his own pleasure. The text shows that he is uncivilized when he replies to Rainsford’s comment about murder and says, “Life is for the strong, and if needs be, taken by the strong” (Connell 14). When Zaroff says that life is for the strong, it reveals that he is a very selfish person who doesn’t care about others. It reveals his perspective on the world. It also shows that General Zaroff is a very one-sided person. Another example that proves that General Zaroff is uncivilized is when he comments

In the text Zaroff justifies that he started to get bored of hunting animals because they were starting to become too easy to hunt. He says, “No. You are wrong, sir. The Cape buffalo is not the most dangerous big game. Here in my preserve on this island, I hunt more dangerous game.” (Connell 4). Zaroff is talking about humans. He kills humans because he was bored of hunting animals. For me this quote says it all. No sane person would hunt a human as a fun game. This is a clear fact from the text that proves Zaroff is a psychopath. General Zaroff believes that, “Life is for the strong, to be lived by the strong, and, if needs be, taken by the strong. The weak of the world were put here to give the strong pleasure. I am strong. Why should I not use my gift?” (Connell 4). This quote is explaining the whole reason why Zaroff thinks it is right to hunt humans. I think that the reason he thinks that's why he should hunt humans is the reason why he’s a psychopath. It makes no sense that a strong person should kill a weak person just because they have more power over them. It’s murder and no one should murder a innocent human just because it's

Zaroff is purely unconscious, and has no compassion or remorse for his actions. His demented mind forces him to believe that it is moral to hunt all living creatures, when in reality he is actually murdering a human soul. The general is sadistic as well as arrogant. He is mentally unstable, insane, and he denies the fact that he is committing something as bad as what he is doing. According to General Zaroff, hunting for him has been consumed by boredom and he no longer sees hunting as a challenge. Consequently, he chooses to hunt a certain “creature” with a higher mental stability of the creatures he has hunted before.(Connell 21) As Zaroff became comfortable with Rainsford, he

In “The Most Dangerous Game” by Richard Connell, General Zaroff is shown as insane, cruel, and arrogant.Zaroff is shown to be insane in the story when he says that he kills humans for fun.“...Did not make me a coldone, cold-blooded murderer.” (Connell 70). This quote shows that Zaroff is psycho because during this part, it is showing that he is a murderer. During the story, Zaroff is also cruel.He shows that he is cruel when He says that he almost makes boats crash into rocks.“Where there’s none: giant rocks with razor edges crouch like a sea monster with wide-open jaws. They can crush a ship as easily as I can crush this nut.”(Connell 70). Zaroff shows that he is mean during this scene because he is making people crash, then giving them hope when

"So I said, `What are the attributes of an ideal quarry?' And the answer was, of course, `It must have courage, cunning, and, above all, it must be able to reason"” (pg12). Zaroff is talking about hunting a human being and he is showing no feelings or remorse about it. He showed a total lack of compassion when describing his new animal to hunt which is a human. Lastly, when he talks about his game “"You'll find this game worth playing," the general said enthusiastically"” (pg16), shows his coldheartedness and cruelness to others.

Throughout this journal, Zaroff can be characterized as mysterious and evil. First off, Zaroff is mysterious. One way he is mysterious is that he knows Rainsford’s name and he read Rainsford’s hunting book. In the book it says, “I’ve read your book about hunting snow leopards in Tibet…” (Connell 3). This quote shows that Zaroff is interested in hunting dangerous animals and knows that Rainsford is good at hunting

In the story Zaroff thinks it's not a problem if he kills the innocent people for fun. This mindset of his is openly showing signs of being a protagonist and going to do evil things throughout the story. In his conversation with Rainsford he clearly states that, "Life is for the strong, to be lived by the strong,, andif needs be, taken by the strong.” He states that he should be aloud to kill just because in his mind only the strong people in the world have the will to live. When Zaroff says "Thank you, I'm a hunter, not a murderer." Also states that he thinks that he's not a murderer he's simply a hunter. Which means in his way of thinking or the way he looks at it what he's doing is not wrong he's hunting them, trying to figure out whose strong and who is not. He decides to hunt humans because he says there the only match for him no other animal is enjoyable for him to hunt. He has the sense of superiority that humans were the only thing left. Zaroff then states “The weak of the world were put here to give the strong pleasure.” He thinks his actions are justifiable and that that's what the weak people are here for to give the more stronger and equip people pleasure. Zaroff then says “I am strong. Why should I not use my gift? If I wish to hunt, why should I not?” In his mind since he is a good strong hunter why should not he be able to hunt he calls this a gift and takes a lot of pride in it. This is another statement he says showing he thinks what he is doing is good, eliminating what he says “scum of the earth” so the strong are the ones to live.

General Zaroff is clearly not under control with his hunting habits. General Zaroff creates for himself, a dangerous hunting game. More dangerous than all the rest, an animal can reason and feel.This animal is a human. The general has gone over the edge. By following his instincts and making his desires reality, general Zaroff now has access to this dangerous game. He hunts and kills them with a pistol, disregards their feelings, and treats them like animals. Some people, such as Rainsford, have decided that obeying the law and sticking to the principles is better than following nature. Rainsford says,“Thank you, I'm a hunter not a murderer.” Rainsford chooses to be civil and lawful. Rainsford quite obviously has more control over his actions than the general. The general gives into his dark side and gives into his guilty desire to hunt animal that has reason, courage, and cunningness. Rainsford chooses not to because he knows wrong from right. But perhaps, when dealing with your human nature you must succumb to your darkest

General Zaroff states, “ Be a realist. The world is made up of two classes- the hunters and the huntees. Luckily, you and I are hunters.” ( pg 49) In this quote General Zaroff doesn’t think of hunting as a sport but as a correlation straight to real life. The quote shows that General Zaroff has an incredibly disgusting way of looking at life and everybody in it. General Zaroff’s insanity is shown because he think of everything besides himself as huntees and this shows he is a murderer. “ I hunt the scum of the earth- sailors from tramp ships, lascars,blacks, chinese, and mongrels.”( pg 49) This quote is saying that General Zaroff thinks that murder is a game, and he doesn’t feel bad about killing anyone of his hunts. This tells us that hunting/killing humans is a normal hobby for him and he does it often. The quote shows that General Zaroff’s mind is unstable and his thoughts are very distasteful. “ This is why I use them. It gives me pleasure. They can reason, after a fashion.” ( pg 50) General Zaroff is basically saying that he likes using humans for the hunt because it gives him pleasure. He is unbothered at the fact he is taking a human life away for a exhilarating game. When he says killing people because it brings him pleasure since they try to reason with him, but he puts himself in a position where he looks insane and murderous. It shows General Zaroff’s insane way of thinking and his thoughts on

Connell first demonstrates the General’s proud heart on page seventy. There is a conversation between Rainsford and General Zaroff and Rainsford starts with the question, “But the animal, General Zaroff? Oh, it supplies me with the most exciting hunting in the world… But no animal can reason, … there is one that can. But you can’t mean - And why not?” The General is referring that he resulted into hunting humans. Earlier, he expresses how this sport was becoming tedious and needed something that can reason, which no animal can do, except humans; without reluctance, he turns to them to fulfill his personal needs. General Zaroff is a part of World War I before he returns to hunting. Because of his experiences in the war, he believes that it is acceptable to murder human beings out of pleasure, while Rainsford disagrees. Overall, General Zaroff is betraying his egotistic side by being willing to kill humans for his

I remember the first time I ever met General Zaroff, back when this was his domain, his kingdom where he played god for sport. Many deaths came out of his thrill-seeking on Ship-Trap Island, and I took it upon myself to avenge the unfortunate souls that died at the hands of this seemingly sociopathic Cossack. I had been forced to elude him for three days, winning his awful, twisted “game”, if it could be called that. The word “game” gives off an aura of innocence, and this was in no sense innocent. He was wholeheartedly condoning cold-blooded murder, but I digress. His game went like this: He would arm his prey (which washed up from wrecked ships, hence the name “Ship-Trap Island”) with a hunting knife and a fair amount of food. Then, he would have them head off into the jungle with a three hour head start. After the three hours would run out, he would track them down and kill them. If they eluded him

Evidence from the story shows that Zaroff considers himself civilized, Rainsford considers Zaroff civilized, and Rainsford considers himself civilized.