Richard Connell's The Most Dangerous Game

The short story, “The Most Dangerous Game” by Richard Connell, has a plot unlike any other. It begins with Rainsford, a simple man on a yacht. Suddenly, he falls off the yacht and has no choice but to swim to the nearest island: Ship-Trap Island. On the island, he meets General Zaroff, who is the only man (along with Ivan) living on the island. After realizing that Zaroff is a creepy man that hunts humans, he attempts to get off the island as soon as possible; however, Zaroff won’t let him do so without first winning the “game”, which is the battle between Zaroff, the hunter, and Rainsford, the quarry. Rainsford makes it out alive by escaping Zaroff’s grip and killing him. In the end, Rainsford stays on the island. In this journal, I will be analyzing the unique character …show more content…
When explaining how he hunts, Zaroff states, “I give him a supply of food and an excellent hunting knife,” (Connell, 50) Zaroff gives the humans he hunts an advantage that puts his own life in danger: a weapon. The game that Zaroff hunts is obviously clever, which gives them the ability to kill him with their knowledge of traps. But because Zaroff is so audacious, he is willing to take that risk just to satisfy his hunger for danger. Another way that General Zaroff can be described is as intelligent. For example, he knows almost everything there is to know about hunting. Zaroff said, “You see, I have read all books on hunting published in English, French, and Russian,” (Connell __). It is clear that Zaroff must be extremely smart to have read every book on hunting, as well as being bilingual. It is obvious that Zaroff is intelligent from the first word he says. “In a cultivated voice marked by a slight accent that gave it added precision and deliberateness, he said, ‘It is a very great pleasure and honor to welcome Mr. Sanger Rainsford, the celebrated hunter, to my home,’” (Connell __)

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