Richard Connell’s “The Most Dangerous Game” (or “The Hounds of Zaroff” if you want to be different) is one of the most popular and famous short stories written in English. Teachers love it because it has got a classic short story structure and lots of great irony. And, students also love it because it is super creepy and weird. “The Most Dangerous Game” as first appeared in Collier’s magazine in January 19, 1924. It is worth reading even today and people love it. This story even won the O. Henry Prize which is a short story award that's still given out today.
In the short story “The Most Dangerous Game”, a man whose name is Sanger Rainsford faces a disagreement which is based on what he thinks about a deserted island. This island was totally unpopulated except the one man who lives there, General Zaroff. General Zaroff loves to hunt but he hunts not only animals but human beings. Actually, General Zaroff got tired of hunting just animals as he claims that it was too easy for him since he was such an excellent hunter. He wanted more than that and wanted to make the hunting a challenge. Rainsford comes to know that General Zaroff has hunted humans before, therefore he is a murderer. A critic has reviewed, “Ironically, General Zaroff’s belief in his invincibility weakens him and causes his defeat.” I agree with this critic several reasons.
Well, it is good to be clever and fearless when somebody is stuck in a bad situation. It can help that person get out of it as soon as he can. However, I believe that having too much courage in these situations is not good at all and is not helpful as well. When you think you are invulnerable in scary situations, this can weaken you and can make you lose the battle. This is the reason why I agree...
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...Splendid! One of us is to furnish a repast for the hounds. The other will sleep in this very excellent bed. On guard, Rainsford."
He had never slept in a better bed, Rainsford decided.
This last sentence, coming after the swordfight which elevated Rainsford from a "beast at bay," Rainsford finds himself the victor,and now one who obviously has tolerated cold-blooded murder" that he contempt at the dinner table with Zaroff on his first night.
So, at the end, Sanger Rainsford changes his opinions about hunting. He alters himself for the feelings of the prey and sympathizes later on, knowing how it feels to be a "beast at bay" as he himself is hunted. Also, he abandons his rejection of Zaroff's "cold-blooded murder" of men and commits a cold-blooded act of murder himself. Rainsford has come to know the pain of the animals he used to hunt and finally he changed.
In the short story “The Most Dangerous Game” Rainsford was justified in killing General Zaroff. Rainsford is a hunter. He was on a yacht that crashed and he was the only survivor. The island that he swam to was named “Ship Trap Island.” This where General Zaroff lived. He is also a hunter. He has hunted anything you can think of. Even… people. He has the survivors from the ship wrecks “play” his “game.” The survivors go out into the jungle and General Zaroff goes out and finds them. They have three days to survive. If they don’t get caught in those three days, they win. If they lose… they are killed. This happened to Rainsford. Rainsford, thankfully, won the “game.” He shot General Zaroff after his win.
Overall, Rainsford doesn’t show much characterization throughout the story but he definitely shows a lot of dynamic change. At first, he is overconfident and cocky. By the end of the story, he learns that the prey he had hunted did feel pain and fear from being
When world renowned hunter, Sanger Rainsford ends up marooned on an island, he finds himself in an unimaginable word. A world full of murder. He must find a way to save himself and the ones around him. Rainsford is the lesser of two evils he may have a passion for hunting but unlike General Zaroff he has limits, Rainsford kills Zaroff to save himself and many future victims.
In the beginning of the story, Rainsford has a conversation with his friend, Whitney, about hunting animals. Rainford does not care about the animals that he hunts. He believes hunting is only a sport to kill innocent creatures. “‘Who cares how a jaguar feels?’” (1) Showing the reader exactly what he thinks of hunting. Rainsford does not understand that the animals he hunts are like the people that Zaroff hunts. They are innocent, and he is murdering them when he hunts them. Rainsford thinks that Zaroff is insane for murdering people, but Rainsford is also a murderer. When Zaroff hunts Rainsford, the protagonist realizes the terror and pain the jaguars must have felt when he hunted them. Now the roles are reversed, and Rainsford is the one being hunted. “The Cossack was the cat; he was the mouse. The general was saving him for another day’s sport! Then it was that Rainsford knew the full meaning of terror.” (17) Rainsford has changed his feelings about hunting animals now, and he has become a better person. He now takes into account how his prey feels. His interactions with people will also be different, because instead of being extremely overconfident, he realizes that he is not perfectly adept at hunting, and everyone has feelings that matter. In conclusion, Rainsford is now more humble and less overconfident than he was when he began his
In “The Most Dangerous Game” the author creates two strikingly similar characters that blur the line of ethics. Rainsford, the protagonist, meets his adversary and leader of an exotic tribe, Zaroff, after falling off of a yacht and swimming to the nearest island. The short story then explores the events that transpires between the strangers – focusing on Zaroff's bloodthirsty hunt against Rainsford. Yet even with the two men on opposite sides of a loaded gun, they both share many common interests and views pertaining to their similar backgrounds, hunting methods, and desired end result.
Rainsford was forced to choose between life and death by Zaroff. Zaroff tells Rainsford that he hunts people as a type of wild game and takes them hunting first then gives them a few survival things and have to survive for three days in order to win.
He has successfully eluded General Zaroff. He stands in Zaroff 's bedroom where both men have no weapons except their bare fists. Rainsford has struggled with the relationship between the hunter and the huntee throughout the whole story. He has also floundered with what he believes to be right and wrong. The example of where he reaches a conclusion about right and wrong would be after the battle in the bedroom. "He had never slept in a better bed, Rainsford decided" (236). This is when we know Rainsford has overpowered the evil madman. He has killed General Zaroff which he knows is wrong, but he also understands if he hadn 't killed the general, then he would not have lived. The general would have done everything in his power to make sure Rainsford would not have left the island and exploited his secret. Ultimately, Rainsford has to live with knowing he murdered another human being. Rainsford also learned the close bond shared between a hunter and a huntee. Anyone can debate whether or not this change was good or bad. I personally make an assumption about his persepctive being changed for the good. He experienced the ugly truth up close and personal and has now been on both sides of the brutal
In the short story “The Most Dangerous Game”, there are two main characters, Sanger Rainsford and General Zaroff. The story starts off with Rainsford and Rainsford’s hunting partner, Whitney, on a yacht heading to Rio de Janiero to hunt big game animals. Rainsford ends up becoming trapped on Ship-Trap Island, and that is where he and the reader are introduced to General Zaroff. Unfortunately for Rainsford, General Zaroff is not your normal General. General Zaroff and Rainsford are similar and different in many ways, and even though Rainsford believes that Zaroff is a sick individual, at the end of the story he becomes more like Zaroff than he realizes.
Facing hardships, problems, or obstacles shouldn’t discourage one from completing their task or job. Many of authors usually put their characters through tough complications to show the reader that no matter what happens; anyone could pull through. In the short story, “The Most Dangerous Game” by Richard Connel, the main character Mr. Rainsford gets stranded on an eerie island with a bad reputation. He meets General Zaroff and gets thrown into a huge hunting game, where his life is on the line. In the end, he wins the game and will continue to hunt animals, but not people, as the general once did. He will continue to hunt because one, hunting means everything to him. Two, he will not continue the general’s crazy ways, and resort back to the legal and non-dangerous to other humans sport. Third, he feels powerful when he becomes the hunter and not the hunted. Giving up hunting would be like giving up his life, so just because of a minor block he had to overcome, he will not give up hunting.
“One of us is to furnish a repast for the hounds. The other will sleep in this very excellent bed. On guard Rainsford.”
“I suggest to one of them that we go hunting. I give him supply of food and an excellent hunting knife. I am to follow, armed only with a pistol of the smallest caliber and range” (11). Zaroff explains to Rainsford the game which seems unfair since Zaroff had a gun and the other person had a knife. Rainsford thought that something was wrong when Zaroff was explaining him the game, but Rainsford did not pay a lot of attention. “Rainsford did not believe what his reason told him was true, but the truth was as evident as the sun that had by now pushed through the mists. The general was playing him. The general was saving him for another day’s sport. The Cossack was the cat; he was the mouse” (15). Rainsford realized that Zaroff was cheating and lying to him since the beginning. After all the things that happened, Rainsford knew that he should have listened to his instincts. Zaroff showed his real personality which is conceited, rude, crazy, and an hypocrite, even though at the end he ended up losing against
Just like in every society, in every story there are conflicts. What is the line between man and beast? What separates the hunter from the hunted? Where does sport end and murder begin? In the short story, “The Most Dangerous Game” by Richard Connell, the protagonist, a man by the name of Sager Rainsford, is trapped on an island in the middle of the ocean. A simple adventure to the jungles of Rio de Janeiro soon becomes a story of terror, survival and escape when Rainsford realizes he is not alone on the seemingly deserted island. Soon after arriving, he meets the psychopath, General Zaroff, a Cossack aristocrat who is also an experienced hunter. Zaroff entices Rainsford by telling him there is big game on the island, the biggest there is. The Most Dangerous Game illustrates that there are men, and then there are monsters when Rainsford, unknowing of what Zarloff’s true intentions are, becomes entangled in a frightening game of where the hunter, soon becomes the hunted.
Loss of life does not bother him though, in fact nothing really does. This man is insane. He was once an avid animal hunter, but eventually, he got bored because hunting common animals became too easy for him. So he decided to bring men to his island, “the ultimate prey.” When he first meets his victims he treats them nice… right before he locks them in a cellar to train them to be hunted. How gruesome is that? To be stuck in a cellar so that your murderer can train you how to die right. Although inhumane do not mistake this murderer for stupid. This man was a high ranking, respected military officer and avid hunter well known for his skill. While being hunted this how the narrator portrays Rainsford’s experience: “Something was coming through the bush, coming slowly, carefully, coming by the same winding way Rainsford had come.” Zaroff paused, almost beneath the tree; he dropped down and studied the ground. He shook his head and walked away smiling.” (**) The Most Dangerous Game Throughout this twisting book of survival Rainsford repeatedly sets traps for Zaroff and each time somebody with Zaroff is, whether it is his dogs or faithful bodyguard; he barely even blinks an eyelash as each of his loyal followers die. Zaroff is finally outsmarted in the end but he will always be known as a true evil
If animals were humans, then General Zaroff would almost be as bad as Adolf Hitler. General Zaroff, a character in Richard Connell’s “The Most Dangerous Game,” should be considered a negative character because of the way the author portrays him though indirect characterization, such as what he does, what he says, how other characters react to him, and what he looks like. Although there is plenty of indirect characterization, there is little to none direct characterization.
In the story The Most Dangerous Game a character named General Zaroff has a passion for hunting. He has been hunting since he was born. He has hunted every animal known to man, but, then he gets tried of hunting the same animal over and over. So he discovers a new animal human flesh. General Zaroff is person of bad character because he is cruel, cowardly, and untrustworthy.