The Most Dangerous Game Elitism Theme

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“No one is born hating another person because of the color of their skin or his background or his religion” -- Nelson Mandela. In Richard Connell’s short story “The Most Dangerous Game,” the character of General Zaroff believes that he is superior to all “common” people and therefore leads to finding a “new” species that have the ability to reason; which happens to be humans. Further along, another hunter named Rainsford lands on the General’s island and is then hunted by Zaroff but manages to escape his death. This short story illustrates the theme that elitism and racism allow violence to become acceptable. Although there are many current issues in society, the theme that violence is unfolding is the most relevant to the issues of today because …show more content…

To follow up, BBC News talked about how the gunman was angered at seeing two men who expressed PDA which led to the loss of many lives. According to the article, “... after seeing two men kissing… A gunman opened fire at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, killing at least 49 people…” (BBC News). This is similar to the conversation that Rainsford and General Zaroff had in “The Most Dangerous Game” because the general did not seem to find anything wrong with murder just as the gunman in the nightclub shooting either. One example from the story is the conversation between the two main characters, Rainsford, “‘Thank you, I'm a hunter, not a murderer.’” and General Zaroff, “‘Dear me… again that unpleasant word. But I think I can show you that your scruples are quite ill founded.’” (Connell 225). This proves that racism against anyone became acceptable. Both in the story and in real life, the thought of murder is quite ordinary to General Zaroff and the gunman. Their deficiency in scruples then led to the unfortunate end of innocent

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