Peyton Bucksbee
Mrs.Magarian
English
“The Most Dangerous Game” Conflict Essay
Conflict is defined by the Cambridge Dictionary as an active disagreement between people with opposing opinions or principles. There are four forms of conflict in stories including but not limited to, man versus man, man versus self, man versus nature, and man versus society. In the short story “The Most Dangerous Game” by Richard Connell the three conflicts that show up most are man versus nature, man versus man, and man versus self. In “The Most Dangerous Game” Rainsford has to outwit General Zaroff after he gets trapped on his island nicknamed Ship Trap Island.
One conflict found in the short story “The Most Dangerous Game” is man versus nature. Man versus nature
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He was going into the jungle ‘blind’ and he didn’t know what to expect. “Then, as he stepped forward, …show more content…
Towards the end of the story Rainsford starts feeling hopeless, feeling like he can’t beat Zaroff at his game. “It was flight now, a desperate, hopeless flight, that carried him on for some hours.” (Conell 14) Rainsford feels that he can’t go on, and that everything is going on for a long time; hopeless. He’s experiencing the hopelessness that prey feel. Another example of man versus self is Rainsford fearing about the jungle and the things he didn’t know about it. “At daybreak Rainsford, lying near the swamp, was awakened by a sound that made him know that he had new things to learn about fear.” (Conell 14) Rainsford has very little prior knowledge about the jungle he is in. He doesn’t know what kind of animals are out there, or what food he can get. That fear could cause him to get up. The final example of man versus himself is when Rainsford knows he might die playing General Zarrofs game. He continuously tells himself “I will not lose my nerve.” (Conell 13) Rainsford knows in order to end his fear he must end the game. Man versus self is the final conflict in “The Most Dangerous
In "The Most Dangerous Game" by Richard Connell, the external conflicts faced by Sanger Rainsford, the protagonist, create an internal conflict within him. The external conflicts include his struggle to survive on a remote island, his pursuit by General Zaroff, and his participation in the deadly game of hunting humans. These external conflicts force Rainsford to question his beliefs and values, leading to an internal conflict about his own humanity and the morality of the hunt. At the beginning of the story, Rainsford is a successful big-game hunter who believes in the thrill of the hunt.
In the short story, Rainsford did not want to believe what his reason told him was true, but the truth that Rainsford was playing with him was greatly evident. Rainsford’s inner conflict involves him not becoming panicked but if he faced the reality, the outcome of the “game” could have turned out better for him. As a
For a moment he stood there, thinking” (15). This brings out Rainsford’s fight-or-flight instinct that every animal
Consequently, when they stumble upon a life or death situation they are being forced into fight-or-flight mode. This reaction is the body's natural instinct based on the ingrained need to survive and save themselves from fatalities. Simultaneously, as shown in the short story “The Most Dangerous Game,” by Richard Connell, the main character, Rainsfords, becomes washed up on an island and stumbles upon a general, General Zaroff, who hunts humans for fun. Even though Rainsford has been in fatal situations before, never behind these circumstances where he is being forced to protect himself from being hunted for 3 days by a human, during which time he endures pure life-or-death situations. The character recognizes his situation fully; “The general was playing with him!
After forcefully being thrown into the deadly contest, Rainsford knows he must stay calm and prepare himself for what is to come. Rainsford tells himself, “I must keep my nerve, I must keep my nerve” (Connell). He understands that once he panics, he will only put himself in a more dire situation. Quickly, Rainsford took control of his situation and began creating a plan. He knew a straight line would prove vain in his efforts to throw off his “predator”, so he began making a trail filled with intricate loops to confuse the psychotic killer.
This quote, spoken by Rainsford, suggests that the jungle represents not just a physical location, but also a mindset of primal instincts and the struggle to survive. The final example of man versus nature conflict is Rainsford versus quicksand. This is a conflict for Rainsford because when he gets trapped in the quicksand he doesn’t know if he is going to get out. Rainsford has to persevere through and put in all of his strength to get free of the
Conflicts occur frequently in literature and life, but are they necessary? In my opinion, we do need to have conflicts so we could learn from them. We will analyze the short story “The Most Dangerous Game” by Richard Connell and how the author uses external conflict or man vs. nature, external by man vs. animal and external conflicts or man vs. man to reveal character motivation or development. This short story is about a guy (Rainsford) who falls off a ship and swims to an island and finds out that Zaroff hunts people for entertainment. As Richard Connell states on page 7 .
In the short story The Most Dangerous Game, the author Richard Connell shows that Rainsford needs control of his emotions, patience , and expert hunting and decision making skills in order to defeat Zaroff. Rainsford needs to gain control of his emotions to outthink Zaroff, who symbolizes Rainsfords "steep hill". When he finds that he is going to be hunted his natural instinct is to run and panic, but then he stops to look around and get a grip on the task at hand. Then at a critical moment when Zaroff finds him in a tree, Rainsford panics again because he realizes Zaroff is on his trail and is toying with him. Once again, he gains control of his emotions and formulates a plan.
Rainsford faces many conflicts along his journey on the island, such and man v.s nature, man v.s. himself, and man v.s man. He has to overcome all of this in order to keep calm, and survive. One of the conflict in “The Most Dangerous Game”, was man v.s. nature. This conflict presented itself at the beginning of the story, when Rainsford fell into the water.
“At daybreak Rainsford, lying near the swamp, was awakened by a sound that made him know that he had new things to learn about fear” (Connell 14). He realized that he could no longer rely on his skills as a hunter and instead had to use strategy to win the game. “I have played the fox, now I must play the cat of the fable” (Connell 12). As Rainsford's isolation changed his self-confidence had a
Not only was rainsford in a conflict with General Zaroff he is in conflict with himself as he is finding his way to Ship Trap Island. “‘I must keep my nerve, I must keep my nerve,’ he said through tight teeth” (12). Rainsford also had a conflict with himself on the island when he was deciding what to do to get away from Zaroff. Rainsford was able to overcome the internal conflict when the dogs were chasing him and he needed to make the decision to jump into the water, fight the dogs, or climb a tree and hide. Man versus himself is very important to Connell’s story.
External conflict is something that some characters from the second unit struggle with. Rainsford, Mathilde, and Georg and Ulrich all experience external conflicts that create an unexpected turn of events. The title “The Most Dangerous Game” is significant to the text because it helps readers to understand that the game will not be easy. It also reflects the truth in this text because Rainsford underestimated his opponent, and this could cause the game to be dangerous.
Man against himself first takes place when the general tells Rainsford the two choices he has, to fight General Zaroff in the hunting game or to go straight to Ivan where he will be immediately killed. The general says, ‘“The choice rests entirely with you. But I may not venture to suggest that you will find my idea of sport more diverting than Ivan’s?”’(10). Rainsford then has a big choice to make, if he goes and hunts with General Zaroff then he has a slim choice of winning but he could die. If he goes straight to Ivan he will die right then and there.
- ‘Even so, I rather think they understand one thing--fear. The fear of pain and the fear of death. ’”(Connell 18) By reading the theme the reader can infer the position Rainsford is in will drastically change. Although, Rainsford is not overtaken by the jaguar
In another instance, when Rainsford was hiding from General Zaroff, he had to convince himself not to regress to those animal-like instincts that he had developed. The text says “Rainsford’s impulse was to hurl himself down like a panther, but he saw the general’s right hand held something metallic—a small automatic pistol.” (231). As you can tell from the text, Rainsford really wanted to jump down from his hiding spot and attack the general, but he couldn’t. If he had done so, he would end up losing the game. Then, near the end of the story, Rainsford is running from the General and his pack and he sees the ocean shore and it’s deep waters below.