In the beginning of the story, Rainsford fell off a large boat in the dead of night, he swam all through the night to get to the nearest island (Connell, lines 75-76, 113-114). Rainsford was determined to make it to safety, so he thought quickly and swam to the nearest island. He swam from the dead of the night to the middle of the afternoon. If he had given up, he might have fallen short to fatigue and not have been able to continue. Falling short to fatigue would have been life or death in the cold Caribbean waters. Rainsford kept his determination when a fellow hunter hunted him in a rural jungle (Connell, page19-22). Rainsford was determined to stay alive, he used his knowledge of hunting to stay alive. Rainsford set multiple traps to try to kill General Zaroff, but only succeeded in killing Zaroffs dogs and henchmen. Since he was not successful in killing General Zaroff with his traps, he thought quickly and tricked General Zaroff into thinking he was dead. Without his determination to stay alive, Rainsford might've died in the three day man