How Is Rainsford Uncivilized

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Civil or Uncivil In “The Most Dangerous Game” by Richard Connell, the main character, Rainsford, has a wide range of decisions he has to make. This short story shows Rainsford’s thoughts through his actions as he works through his external conflicts against General Zaroff. The conflicts range from various levels of being civilized to various levels of being uncivilized. For instance, Ship Trap Island, the island that General Zaroff lives on, is very civilized. However, most would agree that hunting humans instead of animals is barbaric and uncivilized. In that case, that qualifies General Zaroff as an uncivilized man due to the fact that he hunts humans for entertainment. Irony comes into the story when the hunter becomes the hunted. General …show more content…
Once Rainsford discovers that General Zaroff hunts humans, his immediate reaction is disgust. Rainsford handles this situation in a very civilized manner. Rainsford spends one night and in the morning, Rainsford approaches General Zaroff to tell him that he wants to leave: ‘“General”, said Rainsford firmly, “I wish to leave this island at once”’ (Connell 51). If General Zaroff was a civilized person, then perhaps he would have let Rainsford leave. However, General Zaroff is he exact opposite of a civilized person. Instead of allowing Rainsford to leave, General Zaroff manipulates him and forces him to play his game. Even though he is in such a civilized place, Rainsford has no choice but to be uncivilized. After beating General Zaroff at his own game and accidentally killing his servant along the way, Rainsford has the chance to be the civilized man he once was. However, that is not what happened. While Rainsford could have just asked General Zaroff to leave, he killed him instead. Rainsford kills General Zaroff in an unexpectedly uncivil way. Rainsford kills General Zaroff mid-sentence by pushing him out of the window and feeding him to the dogs: ‘“One of us is to furnish a repast for the hounds. The other will sleep in this very excellent bed. On guard, Rainsford…”’ (Connell 57). Even though Rainsford had the chance to be civilized again, he had to be uncivilized long enough to put an end to General Zaroff’s
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