In Richard Connell’s “The Most Dangerous Game,” Sanger Rainsford is forced to test his survival skills while he is intensely hunted by an experienced war general named General Zaroff. In this story, Rainsford exhibits some very helpful characteristics like his resourcefulness, his strategic planning, and his ability to reason. As a result of Rainsford’s questioning the validity of General Zaroff’s hunting methods, he ended up playing in the game. Although I believe Rainsford is a very helpful, interesting, and dynamic character, at the end of the story, he must give up his own personal morals to win the game. In the jungle, Rainsford knows that he must think outside the box. General Zaroff has already read all of Rainsford’s books …show more content…
When he first fell off of his yacht and into the water, he wanted to thrash about like an animal and swim crazily back to shore for help, but instead he started swimming “with slow, deliberate strokes, conserving his strength. He began to count his strokes; he could do possibly a hundred more…” (218). So in that moment, Rainsford was able to reason with himself and control his urge to thrash about the water. Instead, he moved with agility. In another instance, when Rainsford was hiding from General Zaroff, he had to convince himself not to regress to those animal-like instincts that he had developed. The text says “Rainsford’s impulse was to hurl himself down like a panther, but he saw the general’s right hand held something metallic—a small automatic pistol.” (231). As you can tell from the text, Rainsford really wanted to jump down from his hiding spot and attack the general, but he couldn’t. If he had done so, he would end up losing the game. Then, near the end of the story, Rainsford is running from the General and his pack and he sees the ocean shore and it’s deep waters below. “Rainsford hesitated. He heard the hounds. Then he leaped far out into the sea…” (235). Again, Rainsford had to reason with himself. When he heard the pounding paws of the pack and the heavy breathing of the general, he knew that he would have to jump. These reasons are why I believe that Rainsford’s ability to reason is a very important and helpful characteristic and it played a very important role in his survival on Ship Trap
“The Most Dangerous Game,” is a short story written by Richard Connell. Rainsford falls overboard on his boat and lands on on an island with General Zaroff. Rainsford’s abilities are soon challenged by General Zaroff in the ultimate hunt. Due to Connell’s characterization of Rainsford, he seems the least effective of the protagonists. The author characterizes Rainsford as one who is in denial, who does not lose his nerve.
General Zaroff said “I’m going now to have my wound dressed, it is only a slight one, but I shall be back.” (Connell, 26) The author states that Rainsford is very intelligent. He uses his hunting experiences to try and outsmart Zaroff and uses his knowledge to figure out what to
The Most Dangerous Game: Sanger Rainsford Sanger Rainsford, the protagonist of The Most Dangerous Game, truly reveals he is the ideal quarry because of his courage. For instance, Rainsford demonstrates courage in his strength to overcome challenging obstacles. Once the game begins, Rainsford makes an attempt to distract the general by circling around the jungle with a trail of random tracks which are unable to follow, called a fox hunt. As night came, Rainsford grew weary, and gingerly climbed a large tree to rest. Rainsford later hears some birds flying away, an indication the general was heading toward him.
Richard Connell, a now deceased author, has written many books, one of them being the short story “The Sin of Monsieur Pettipon.” Even though many books have had the honor of being written by the hand of Richard Connell, the one most referenced with his name is “The Most Dangerous Game.” Sanger Rainsford is the protagonist of the story that goes up against a psychotic General Zaroff, who kills men for pleasure and sport. Sanger Rainsford has a very particular set of survival skills that helped him persevere through the traumatizing life predicament. First of all, he was notoriously strategic.
He continues to keep a calm head throughout his stay. He knows what the right thing to do is and he does it every time. Rainsford will have to use his intelligence to win, at “The Most Dangerous Game.” Rainsford knows what is right and shows it throughout the story.
Rainsford knew that he was unable to retreat and forced to face danger. Rainsford realized that animals felt and how they had to face the danger just like how he did.
In Richard Connell’s, “The Most Dangerous Game”, Connell utilizes rising action, suspense, and characterization of Rainsford to convey the theme of power of mind against the power of authority. When Rainsford was in the forest being hunted down by General Zaroff, Rainsford had to make a quick decision when he thinks, “He could stay where he was and wait. That was suicide” (p.14). In this quote, Rainsford thinks about his odds of surviving and what he needs to do or what General Zaroff wants him to do, which is to die.
Richard Conell develops the character of Sanger Rainsford in “The Most Dangerous Game” by showing the reader his astuteness, courageousness, and physical strength.
Rainsford escapes being hunted, yet he goes back for revenge and kills the man that was hunting him. When he goes to kill his hunter he states that “[he] is still a beast at bay” (Connell). Similarly to the other story, Rainsford seems to have gone mad as well. Instead of just leaving the island, he chooses to go back for revenge and kill the man that almost killed him. This story is also ironic because, at the beginning, Rainsford makes comments about animals not feeling fear.
He had to struggle and swim in order to stay alive. Once he fell off, he knew he was in danger. On page 174, it says “The cry was pinched off short as the blood-warm waters of the Caribbean Sea closed over his head.” This is the exact moment when Rainsford’s body hit the water, and he was off the ship. Rainsford desperately tried to tell the yacht to come back,
(Connell, 31)By stating this Connell shows Rainsford’s conflict with himself. Secondly, this also presents that Rainsford is incisive and clever in recognition towards what can be an obstacles in his survival. Moreover, going through many hardships at last Rainsford has reached his hunter, who is now his victim. Stated in the story, “I am still a beast at bay, he said in a low, hoarse voice. Get ready, General Zaroff.”
This example shows that Rainsford had to use his wit and mind to survive and out play his foe. Towards the end of the story Rainsford escapes by jumping off a cliff into the ocean to get away from General Zaroff. Rainsford escapes the island in a very clever way: “He reached it. It was the shore of the sea ...
"‘But no animal can reason’ objected Rainsford. ‘My dear fellow,’ said the general, ‘there is one that can.’ ‘But you can't mean--’ gasped Rainsford”(Connell, Paragraph 106-108) He knows that General Zaroff is about to hunt him. When General Zaroff asks Rainsford to “play the game” he immediately reverts to himself as a soldier in World War One, in the sense that he knows he has to fight even if he doesn’t want to.
The Most Important Word “The Most Dangerous Game” is a story about a man named Rainsford who washes up on an island owned by a man named Zaroff who hunts people there. Rainsford is hunted by Zaroff for the majority of the story. In the end, Rainsford defeats Zaroff and ends up sleeping in Zaroff’s bed. It was quite difficult to single out the most important word in the entire story, but some stories do have a word, that if it were not there would affect the entire story. The most important word in Richard Connell's “The Most Dangerous Game” if removed wouldn’t change the whole story, but it would change some of the subliminal messages.
In the short story ‘’The Most Dangerous Game’’, Richard Connell uses irony and human savagery to explain how the character, Rainsford, develops through his thoughts and emotions. Connell used irony to show how Rainsford’s feelings (or emotions) changed throughout the story. At the beginning of the story, Rainsford thought that the prey that he hunted felt no emotion, as if they were unable to feel and emotion while they are being hunted. This all changes when he finds out that he has become the prey when Zaroff starts hunting him. He starts off feeling a bit of fear and anger, but then it escalates to only one thing: fear.