On an island that will put strength and sanity to the test, self preservation is the only thought you have to survive even if it means forgetting your morals. In the short story ‘The Most Dangerous Game’ by Richard Connell, self preservation is the only thing on Rainsfords mind as he fights to survive. Fear and peril push everything you have to the limit, physically and mentally it can destroy even the strongest of men and lead them to do drastic things including killing. Rainsford must survive being hunted like an animal, but his morals and sanity stop him from becoming what he hates, he needs to overcome his morals in order to survive and go from hunter to hunted. Rainsford in the story must choose whether he is going to fight and survive or give up and die. His first thought is to get as far away as he can, ‘His first idea was to put as distance between himself and General Zaroff.’ But as he calms down and starts thinking rationally, he realizes he needs to try to survive and outsmart Zaroff and play along with his game. As the days go by he starts losing his morals and tries to kill Zaroff, first by dropping a log on him, ‘The dead tree, delicately adjusted to rest on the cut living one crashed down and struck the general.’ Rainsford has started losing his morals and getting more in touch with his beast. …show more content…
Rainsford has killed before in war but states, ‘In times of war it is different’. He wants no part in the killing and cannot accept needing to. He only decides he needs to kill when he realizes that the only way to get away he needs to kill or be killed
The short story “The Most Dangerous Game,” by Richard Connell has two main characters that exhibit distinct traits throughout the story. The protagonist, Rainsford, expresses aloofness, fearlessness, and experience. The story’s ironic plot twist has a small effect on Rainsford’s ways. During the rising action Rainsford experiences becoming the prey and shows fearlessness. He uses his experience to survive being the prey, but continues to express aloofness.
Heroes come in many shapes and sizes, but what really makes a hero a hero? In the short story “The Most Dangerous Game”, by Richard Connel, our course hero was introduced. He showed several characteristics of a hero, but some may argue he could also be a villain.
Although in this story it can be be debated if this was a selfless move. Rainsford was only willing to kill General Zaroff to save himself. If he wanted to do it for the others being hunted, he would have attempted it in the house, when he first met Zaroff. Rainsford does show the self-sacrificing trait, but it’s more just for himself rather than for others around him. To add, Rainsford also does not show that he is unafraid of negative consequences.
In the story, The Most Dangerous Game, by Richard Connell, Rainsford is shown going through the struggles in the game that General Zaroff made. Through a psychoanalytic lens, we can see how the story closely relates to Connell’s experiences in World War I. (Ariffin, 5) Connell was born on October 17, 1893, in New York. Little is known about his childhood, except that he had chosen to follow his father’s footsteps into newspaper editing by the time he was 10 years old. Connell was drafted into World War I when he was 23 years old where he edited the camp newspaper and served in France for a year.
“The Most Dangerous Game,” by Richard Connell, is a story about Sanger Rainsford, a big game hunter, on his way to the Amazon who accidentally falls overboard of the side of the yacht and ends up on Ship-Trap Island. He soon finds a house belonging to General Zaroff and his servant Ivan. Rainsford learns that Zaroff is hunting humans. Zaroff tries to convince Sanger to hunt with him, but he declines in outrage. The General is furious and decides to make Rainsford play the game.
Rainsford does anything to get away from General Zaroff. In the story :” The Most Dangerous Game” the author says “ then he leaped far out into the sea. . . .” (connell 235) This quote basically means he jumped into the ocean just to get away from Zaroff. This proves Rainsford will do anything to get away from General Zaroff.
All he was set out to do was hunt jaguars, but that all went down the drain after meeting his hunting guide Zaroff; listening to what they were actually going to be hunting change everything. A battle for survival strikes Rainsford suddenly. As a result, Rainsford is forced to go out of his comfort zone to win a battle he never thought he 'd be in. While playing this dangerous game Rainsford demonstrates that he 's smart, serious, and he also shows perseverance throughout the story. For a duration of the story, Rainsford displayed smartness by creating a variety of plans to secure a win for the game he was playing.
For Rainsford, killing Zaroff could have been just to win “The Most Dangerous Game” or for survival because General Zaroff would have definitely killed Rainsford if he saw him again. Was Rainsford’s murder justified?
At first he didn’t want to play the game, “Thank you, i’m a hunter, not a murder”, but in the end he did try. An example was that he tried to set the traps for the general. Rainsford dug a hole with sharpened stakes in the bottom that was intended for the general to fall in, “ He knew his pursuer was coming;.... Then he felt an impulse to cry aloud with joy, for he heard the sharp crackle of the breaking branches as the cover of the pit gave way; he heard the sharp scream of pain as the pointed stakes found their mark.”
At the beginning of the story, Rainsford is apathetic towards hunting animals and sees no problem with doing so. In the exposition of the story, Rainsford is a big-game hunter, and enjoys hunting
Everyone has to overcome adversity in their life. In Richard Connell’s “The Most Dangerous Game” the main character, Rainsford, fell of his boat at night time On the Island, Rainsford finds a home where General Zaroff lives. The problem is that the only way he can leave the island is if he survives a “game”. Where General Zaroff is hunting him. So Rainsford has to survive for three days.
He had to fight himself to stay on track. He was so scared in the jungle while the General was trying to hunt him. On page 186, it says “He could not say where he was. That was suicide.” This shows the reader that Rainsford may be thinking of what could go wrong, and is not thinking on the positive side of things.
Rainsford has no way to live unless he kills General Zaroff because Zaroff would most likely continue to force Rainsford to
With Rainsford’s strong passion to stay alive, he properly executes Zaroff and beats him at his at his own game. A major theme in this story is “A person will to survive should never be underestimated”. Firstly, People might do things that they have never done before when they have no other choice. “Rainsford, with fear again gripping his heart, heard the general's mocking laugh ring through the jungle…
When your life is on the line, it can be very unforgettable. Fortunately, not everyone goes through these situations. There are people who, however, have been through these situations, and those people will never forget what has happened to them. In Richard Connell's the short story "The Most Dangerous Game," big game hunter Sanger Rainesford is tested in the following ways: strong versus the weak, the value of life, and becoming what he fears. First off, Rainesford will discover his strengths versus his weaknesses.