Short Story Character Analysis Essay Character traits of Zaroff in Richard Connell’s The Most Dangerous Game Thesis: (arrogance/cockiness, skillful, insanity): The character General Zaroff, the disturbed antagonist from The Most Dangerous Game, portrays prominent traits including arrogance/cockiness, skillful, and insanity. The complex character seems like just an extreme hunter but figure out a horrifying fact, that he clearly is proud of, and doesn’t regret pursuing. General zaroff redefines hunting when he restocks his island with a new type of life.
Finally Zaroff drives the theme by portraying how little difference there is between us and the animals we hunt. When Zaroff is starting to tell Rainsford about his new prey, he say refers to humans being animals; with the only difference of our ability to
She recognizes other attributes of this time, for example, she states that during Connell's era the big game hunting in South America was done in the Safari and one of the most prized wins was the jaguar. Also, she relates General Zaroff with President Theodore Roosevelt due to his hunting hobby. Roosevelt and his son killed more than 512 animals in Africa. This is related to General Zaroff because he also went on hunting sprees with his father which ultimately shaped how he was in the story. This allows the reader to see how Rainsford reacts to
Hunting is fun for some people, until you're being hunted. “The most dangerous game” is a short story written by Richard Connell. Zaroff demonstrates that he is confident, anxious, talented. First Zaroff is a very rich individual, i know he is talented because on ( pg.221) Rainsford was describing how big and nice zaroff house was “It was a huge, beam-ceilinged bedroom with a canopied bed enough for six men that Rainsford followed the silent giant.” Another way Zaroff is very rich because he also has his own island where he hunts more than just animals.
But General Zaroff avoids a direct answer, yet hints at possibilities telling Rainsford, “I’ll tell you… you will be amused I’m sure”. Later on though in the conversation, General Zaroff tells him, “I had to invent a new animal to hunt“. The people reading are beginning to wonder what he is talking about. Readers will try to guess, but more pages have to be read to get the answer. During the hunt Rainsford is in a tree with the general stalking him.
Imagine thinking about another society that all had handicaps and you being able to keep that thought in your head and not them. This is why I would not like to live in a utopia like this. In “The Most Dangerous Game” General Zaroff gets bored with hunting animals and decides that he can hunt humans that get trapped on his island. When a world renowned hunter gets caught on his island he decides to treat him like a friend instead of prey.
In the short story, “The Most Dangerous Game,” Rainsford fits the category of Zaroff’s ideal animal to hunt, because Rainsford displays the attribute to reason by being able to make many life saving decisions throughout the story. Rainsford has the ability to reason from the very beginning of the story, because he was able to remain calm to make a life saving decision in an unnerving situation, which proves that he fits the quarry for Zaroff to hunt. As he was in the water, he recalls the gunshots he heard while he was still on the yacht, “they had come from the right, and doggedly he swam in that direction, swimming with slow, deliberate strokes, conserving his strength” (Connell 14). Whereas most people would have panicked in the situation
He honestly wanted to befriend Rainsford, but once things go opposite of how he wanted, he decides to try to kill him. Zaroff believes that he is the top of the food chain, above humans that he considered “scum of the Earth”. Zaroff is not well mannered or respectful when it comes to fellow humans. Zaroff even captures humans and keeps them
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
People ignore how merciless hunters and businessmen are when they hunt and make those furs as goods for selling. With time going, people start to realize that killing uncommon creatures for people’s privacy desire is not a good thing. One of those people is the Dalai Lama. He declares, “We must be willing to be revolted when science—or for that matter any human activity—crosses the line of human decency, and we must fight to retain the sensitivity that is otherwise so easily eroded. ”(139)
Nikita Khrushchev once claimed, “If you live among wolves you have to act like a wolf.” Khrushchev means that if a person lives surrounded by those who are ferocious or voracious, then that person is obligated to behave like them. Similarly, Richard Connell addresses this idea in the short story “The Most Dangerous Game” by displaying a change of mentality within a character when that individual is put into a fearful situation. Specifically, he uses conflict in order to develop the theme that the one’s will to survive outweighs one’s will to be civilized if life depends on it.