Setting In Richard Connell's The Most Dangerous Game

In Richard Connell’s short story “The Most Dangerous Game” the setting has a significant effect on the story. By utilizing the island as the main setting, Connell forms the story and helps create character development as it goes on. If the story was set anywhere else, it would be a different story.

Through using this specific setting, Connell is able to create and form the plot. The story being set on a secluded island allows General Zaroff to immorally hunt other humans without being reprimanded. If set in another place, the writer may not have been able to effectively achieve this plot. The island allows Rainsford to use his superlative hunting skills to avoid being captured. After finding one of Rainsford’s traps, Zaroff says, “If you are within the sound of my voice, as I suppose you are, let me congratulate you. Not many men know how to make a Malay man-catcher” (76). If the story was not set on an island Rainsford would have no other choice than to walk back to General Zaroff’s house, which would most likely result in his death.

The setting contributes to Rainsford’s growth as a character. Now he is feeling what it is like to be hunted, just as the animals he hunts feel. He is learning what it is like to be stranded and isolated in the woods, while fearing

Even taking place on another secluded island with a different landscape would change the story. The setting allows Rainsford to endure the obstacles it holds. The story tells some of the obstacles, “He knew where he was now. Death Swamp and its quicksand” (76). The jungle-like terrain is allowing Rainsford to descend into more of an animalistic state. Rainsford has to start thinking like an animal. After leaving Zaroff an ambiguous path on the first night of the hunt Rainsford says, ”I have played the fox, not I must play cat of the fable” (75). If he is not able to imitate an animal’s innate actions to survive, he may not escape his