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What Is The Loss Of Innocence In The Most Dangerous Game

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Both “ Young Goodman Brown” and “ The Most Dangerous Game” have themes of a loss of innocence, yet each store employs a different way of getting there. The exact meaning of this loss of innocence also differs in each story. In “ Young Goodman Brown”, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, shows us a man that loses his innocent view of the world. By the end he is a man with now hope and no faith. In “ The Most Dangerous Game”, written by Richard Connell, we watch as a man falls from a powerful hunter into a savage murderer.
Hawthorne tells us the story of Brown, a young man that is married to his wife of three months. (Hawthorn, pg 91). The name of his bride is faith, a name that should not be ignored. He leaves her to go to the towns communion. …show more content…

“What a wretch am I, to leave her on such an errand!” (Hawthorne pg 91) He is angry with himself, he doesn't know that something sinister is happening within the town. This will be this characters downfall. He has trust for the people in the town that he grew up in.
Moving over to “The Most Dangerous Game”, we see a different kind of Innocence. An Innocence of beliefs and character. It is never said that Rainsford is young. We know from the story that he is old enough to be well traveled and been on many hunts against man types of different prey. He treats “ The Hunt” as a game, but has respect for it. He enjoys making them “understand one thing- fear. The fear of pain and the fear of death.” (Connel, pg1). It is a sport against animals, he would never heart an animal.
This belief is challenge when he is introduced to General Zarroff. A man that tells him “ I wanted the ideal animal to hunt....It must have courage, cunning and , above all, it must be able to reason.” (Connel, pg 7). The General was hunting humans. Rainsford cannot believe that Zarroff is doing this. He even tells the general that he is committing murder. We see in their exchange the innocence of Rainsford. He is a hunter, but has never committed a crime such as murder. He is highly against the idea of hunting actual people.
The Climax is where we are introduced to a loss of innocence. This looks different for each character. Goodman Brown has it happen in and instance, where Rainsford

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