Richard Rainesford's Weaknesses In The Most Dangerous Game By Richard Connell

To convey the theme of competition can enhance a person’s character, Richard Connell has Rainsford succeed at the Most Dangerous Game. Rainsford shows through the big hunt growth because he knows strategies and ways to win the big hunt. The frightening event is when he has to build his traps to stay away from the General. The exciting is when he meets him back at the house and kills the General and win the Most Dangerous

In the story, The Most Dangerous Game, by Richard Connell, Rainsford is shown going through the struggles in the game that General Zaroff made. Through a psychoanalytic lens, we can see how the story closely relates to Connell’s experiences in World War I. (Ariffin, 5) Connell was born on October 17, 1893, in New York. Little is known about his childhood, except that he had chosen to follow his father’s footsteps into newspaper editing by the time he was 10 years old. Connell was drafted into World War I when he was 23 years old where he edited the camp newspaper and served in France for a year.

Instead of being fearful and wanting to give up, Rainsford became zealous; a fearless survivor. “ Twenty feet below him the sea rumbled and hissed. Rainsford hesitated. He heard the hounds. Then he leapt far out into the sea.”

In the short story The Most Dangerous Game, the author Richard Connell shows that Rainsford needs control of his emotions, patience , and expert hunting and decision making skills in order to defeat Zaroff. Rainsford needs to gain control of his emotions to outthink Zaroff, who symbolizes Rainsfords "steep hill". When he finds that he is going to be hunted his natural instinct is to run and panic, but then he stops to look around and get a grip on the task at hand. Then at a critical moment when Zaroff finds him in a tree, Rainsford panics again because he realizes Zaroff is on his trail and is toying with him. Once again, he gains control of his emotions and formulates a plan.

Everyone has to overcome adversity in their life. In Richard Connell’s “The Most Dangerous Game” the main character, Rainsford, fell of his boat at night time On the Island, Rainsford finds a home where General Zaroff lives. The problem is that the only way he can leave the island is if he survives a “game”. Where General Zaroff is hunting him. So Rainsford has to survive for three days.

In “The Most Dangerous Game” Connell uses indirect characterization to show that Rainsford is selfish,humane,and highly skilled. The reader gets a better physical description of General Zaroff. There is not a physical description of Rainsford. General Zaroff Is more fully characterized,Richard Connell,planned for Rainsford to be the dynamic character. Zaroff is physically portrayed more than Rainford and his belonging are better depicted.

Most people when they hear “The Most Dangerous Game” they think of bull riding or other dangerous games that don’t involve death. “The Most Dangerous Game” is a suspenseful cliff hanging story that follows the days of a castaway on the island of a crazed hunter. Rainsford is a big game hunter who falls off a boat near the island of General Zaroff, a big Cossack general who is looking for an alternative to hunting dangerous animals but with a twist. Throughout “The Dangerous Game” Rainsford and General Zaroff both show examples of IRony and exert arrogance.

In Richard Connell's short story"The Most Dangerous Game," the protagonist Sanger Rainsford is selfish, unsympathetic, and cruel. In the beginning, Rainsford talks to Whitney about the prey’s, in this case, the animal's perspective while being hunted, like how they feel. Rainsford and Whitney butt heads. Rainsford’s philosophy is much like Zaroff's. Rainsford disagrees with Whitney, who believes that animals can comprehend the fear of pain and death.

In the short story “The Most Dangerous Game” Rainsford was justified for killing General Zaroff. Rainsford was a hunter who had fallen off his boat and found a desserted island. On the island he meets a mad named General Zaroff. General Zaroff knew Rainsford was a hunter and Zaroff asked Rainsford to hunt with him but Rainsford didn’t want to. The reason Rainsford didn’t want to hunt was because General Zaroff hunted humans and Rainsford didn’t believe it was right.

There are several conflicts in “The Most Dangerous Game” by Richard Connell; while person versus person is the most obvious, person versus self and person versus nature are also present. For example, the “jagged crags” upon which Rainsford lands scratch his hands until they are raw, and when Rainsford is trying to survive the hunt, nature once again acts as an obstacle. The muck is like “ a giant leech” and the insects “[bite] him savagely” through the dense vegetation. On the other hand, Rainsford faces an internal dilemma when he is talking to Zaroff about hunting humans for sport: while Rainsford is shocked by the proposition, he feels no revulsion, no disgust. Therefore, because Rainsford does not seem to have an internal aversion to Zaroff’s proposal, that causes a quandary - his lack of moral dilemma in this situation is a dilemma in itself.

Furthermore, if you underestimate your opponent, you will not perform your personal best. This could result in something very dreadful happening. In the story, one of the main characters, Rainsford felt that it was acceptable to hunt jaguars. In his opinion, “The world is made up of two classes the hunters and the huntees (Connell 216)”. As a result of his wrong opinion, the tables turn in the story and Rainsford becomes the one being hunted.

Fear is not real. It is the product of thoughts you create. Danger is very real, but fear is a choice. In the short story “The Most Dangerous Game” the main character Rainsford is being hunted which creates fear in him. He is scared of dying but overcame his fear by facing the danger of the hunting game.

- ‘Even so, I rather think they understand one thing--fear. The fear of pain and the fear of death. ’”(Connell 18) By reading the theme the reader can infer the position Rainsford is in will drastically change. Although, Rainsford is not overtaken by the jaguar

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 most dangerous game” written by, Richard Connell, he uses many devices such as: characterization, plot structure and theme to contribute to the overall meaning of the story. Characterization is a big part of the overall meaning of the story which is that survival is of those who are smart, cunning, and can adapt to their environment. The protagonist Rainsford is at a constant battle with the antagonist General Zaroff. Throughout the entire short story they both have similar minds sets and then farther along the main character 's mind set develops into something more. The reader can almost sense a self centeredness, and that he believes that there are only two type of people in this world, “the hunters and the huntees”, and he believes that he is the hunter.