Category: The Most Dangerous Game

“The Most Dangerous Game” (1924), a short story written by Richard Connell, is one of the first literary pieces to tell the tale of human hunting – a subject highly popularized in the contemporary popular culture. The story is frequently viewed as an entertaining “hunter-becomes-the-hunted” tale filled with suspense and thrill (Thompson 86). However, despite this popular interpretation, the story conveys a deeper socio-political message about the impact of war and violence on people, by juxtaposing two representatives of the New and Old World in a dark and menacing setting.

The two primary characters in the story are a world-famous American hunter Sanger Rainsford and a Russian Cossack General Zaroff, who meet on an isolated island where the Russian expatriate resides in solitude, together with his mute servant Ivan (Connell 15). Once the reader learns about the men’s characters, it becomes clear that their names are, in fact, charactonyms. Rainsford’s first name is a play on the word “sanguine,” meaning lively, optimistic, and cheerful – all these adjectives are representative of the “great American democratic ideal” (Thompson 87). Ominously, his name also sounds similar to the Latin word for blood, “sanguis.” On the other hand, the Cossack’s name, apart from having the –off ending to signify his Russian roots, bears a particular resemblance to the word “tzar,” which denotes the authoritative leader of the pre-revolutionary Russia. Thus, the very names of the characters imply a clear contrast between the democratic New World and the aristocratic and violence-ridden Old World.

This distinction is further highlighted through the story’s secondary characters. Apart from the tale’s protagonist and antagonist, only two other people are mentioned in the story, each one of them associated with Rainsford and Zaroff, respectively. However, the interactions between the main characters and their associates are highly indicative of their personality. In the case of Rainsford, his brief conversation with Whitney in the beginning of the story sounds casual and informal, yet respectful – a kind of interaction that two amicable equals would have (Thompson 89). Zaroff and Ivan, on the other hand, present a completely different kind of relationship. First of all, Ivan is both deaf and mute, meaning that he is unable to provide a human connection for Zaroff. However, it appears that the latter treats him like nothing more than a useful object. When Ivan dies, the only thought of him that occurs in Zaroff’s mind is that “it would be difficult to replace him,” and even this thought does fully occupy him as he immediately starts reflecting on his other concerns (Connell 44).

The symbolism that Connell uses to describe the character of Zaroff is also highly significant in terms of capturing his evil personality. The first symbol is the color red that repeatedly occurs in the situations that involve Zaroff, be it the rich Russian borsht, Zaroff’s bright lips, or his servant’s crimson sash (Connell 16, 17, 35). This color is typically associated with violence which even Zaroff admits is his main hobby in life (Connell 17). Similarly, darkness is another story’s leitmotif surrounding the character of Zaroff. Since the very beginning of the story, the author talks about the night’s blackness that is so thick it is almost “palpable” (Connell 4). The color describes not only the story’s setting – the gloomy and isolated Ship-Trap Island – but also the protagonist’s appearance, with his black eyebrows, military mustache, and eyes (Connell 15). Similarly, Ivan is depicted wearing a black uniform (Connell 14). These repetitive mentions of black and red create not only a rather menacing portrait of the general but also an overall sinister atmosphere.

However, even though initially the main characters are significantly contrasted, this clear distinction between them fades away as the story progresses, so as to emphasize the effect that war and violence have on people. As Rainsford swims to the island in the beginning of the story, he hears a “high screaming sound” of an animal “in an extremity of anguish and terror” (Connell 9). As the audience learns later, this animal is, in fact, a human being. However, Rainsford is so innocent at this moment that even he, an experienced hunter, does not realize that the scream comes not from an animal, but from a person. Later in the story, when Zaroff proposes to Rainsford to hunt sailors together, the man is clearly disgusted and appalled by the proposal (Connell 33). Being involuntarily drawn into Zaroff’s cruel game, Rainsford is completely transformed under the influence of fear and desire to survive. The abrupt ending of the story captures this transformation by emphasizing that Rainsford is happy to be alive, and does not have any concerns about the violence that transpired at the island.

Undoubtedly, Connell’s story is a classic “hunter-becomes-the-hunted” tale that excites the readers’ senses by keeping them in suspense. It is, however, important to examine the story’s historical context to understand its deeper meaning: wars and violence are capable of transforming even the most democratic countries into brutal and aggressive societies.

Works Cited

Connell, Richard. The Most Dangerous Game. North Charleston, South Carolina: CreateSpace, 2014. Print.

Thompson, Terry W. “Connell’s The Most Dangerous Game.” The Explicator 60.2 (2002): 86-88. Print.

The destructive power of the conflict in terms of human history is vividly manifested in The Most Dangerous Game novel written by Richard Connell in 1924. It is a strangely unique short narrative, depicting multiple conflicts throughout the entire plot with the battling nature of the main characters. More specifically, Rainsford, a big-game hunter from New York and Zaroff, a Russian aristocrat, and the society itself. As the man who fought in the war himself, Connell created a story where one can sense the disastrous effect of the experienced violence. Considering this, the novel conveys the overall impact of the brutality on the minds of human beings, as part of society, by raising a question of the justifiable murder.

Critical points of Richard Connell’s biography

The celebrated American writer Richard Connell was born in Poughkeepsie, New York. He was a Harvard-trained newspaper reporter and an insatiable reader. Connell started writing since his early years and became an editor volunteer for the newspaper. He created an abundant heritage with more than 300 short stories over his comparatively short 30-year writing career (Grobman et al., 2016). At an older age, he published many novels and short stories, among which was The Most Dangerous Game that brought him imperishable fame (Babamiri, 2017, p.1). The idea of the literary masterpiece is about losing self-control, about fear and frustrations, about the culture forming and civilization issues, as well as the adverse outcomes after the passage of the war.

Summary of the novel and the analysis of Sanger Rainsford

The story portrays the protagonist Sanger Rainsford, a young American writer and a world-renowned big-game hunter with the adventurous spirit. Rainsford, with another hunter Whitney, is sailing through the Caribbean on their way to Brazil, where they aimed to hunt jaguar up the Amazon River. As a combat veteran of World War I, Rainsford courageously endures the unfortunate accident of the shipwreck that occurs late one night and brings him to the rocky shore of the island.

After the deepest sleep of his life and more exploration, Rainsford discovers, what seemed a mirage, a remarkable vision of northern European luxury and excess (Thompson, 2018, p. 2). He meets General Zaroff in his mansion, the man, who is passionate about only one thing in life, the hunt, and is already familiar with the Rainsford’s achievements. Considering him as a new victim, Zaroff is genuinely honest about his passion as he opens up about his preference for hunting the kind of animal that brings reason, which he called the “big game.” The next morning Rainsford is being told about the Zaroff’s mission to be hunted and, petrified, Rainsford departs and decides to outsmart the Russian aristocrat. After a continuing cat-and-mouse play with each other, several traps and injuries, Rainsford defeats General Zaroff in his mansion.

Connell’s novel challenged the basic principles of morality with its gruesome plot. According to Romagnoli, the novel is addressing the conflict in all of its flavors and is used as a literary trope (2017, p. 27). The writer conveyed the strong battling nature of both of the characters. Sanger Rainsford is an ardent big game hunter, who is swimming to the shore with the firm will to survive and is fully prepared for such an experience based on his past. He meets Zaroff, the island’s only civilized inhabitant, a man who is as much passionately devoted to hunting as Rainsfordand is. He gives Sanger an intimidating ultimatum to withstand a three-day deadly fight of human versus human or more accurately hunter versus hunted. Another case of the battling nature is manifested when Rainsford doubts his ability to avoid being killed.

The analysis of antagonist General Zaroff

General Zaroff, on the other hand, is a man who also experienced the war and seen a lot of dead people in front of himself. Consequently, his past affected his mental health and psych, however, in a very contrary way. Zaroff does not hesitate to become a murderer and shows no respect for other people’s lives, which makes him potentially dangerous for the protagonist Rainsford.

Zaroff hunting Rainsford and his “perverted philosophy of how hunting people are not ethically justified by society” is another sign of the battling nature (Romagnoli, 2017, p. 27). He claims that God made him a hunter, and his hand was made for a trigger, which was initiated by his father at the very young age of Zaroff. His sickly passionate hunting made it boring for General Zaroff to hunt animals and led him to hunt the people instead. While the protagonist and antagonist are equally matched in skills, for the “antagonist, who was hunting animals had long outlived his challenge, and only a new animal capable of reasoning would test his skills” (Grobman et al., 2016, p.191). Human beings amuse Zaroff in the way that they bring reasons, and he can demonstrate his power to them.

The symbolic undertone of the plot

The events of the novel take place in the jungle, which the author symbolically interprets in order to show the corrupted civilization. Following the ideas of Babamiri, the wild and ungovernable habitat of the jungle assumes the role of the “powerful symbol of Zaroff’s tangled psyche, and the chaos within the island” (2017, p.284). It also symbolizes the constraint and loss of control by Rainsford, as it disrupts his attempt to return to civilization. With the lack of rules, the jungle is not the place for humans to inhabit, because it makes them forget that they are first of all humans.

Under the absence of any societal rules, the hunter is more likely to lose both his moral and human principles. Besides, in such conditions, he inclined to nurture the atrocity into his soul. Such an outcome was a direct post effect of the war that made General Zaroff a real animal with no sympathy for others (Babamiri, 2017). Passing through the war ruined the power of civilization and its cultural values. Even though civilization existed for a long time, it was modified by new cultural values. Babamiri states that “culture is the advancement in a civilization, but civilization is a state of social culture” (2017, p.280). Referring to the question of the war effect on the minds of the main characters that embody the writer himself, it caused them to eliminate the limits of self-restraint that were respected before.

The central concept of The Most Dangerous Game, as intended by the author, is the notion of the absolute most dangerous game, which is human versus human. Rainsford versus Zaroff is the central conflict in the novel of two adventurous and courageous men, unified by the passage of war but separated by fundamentally different effects of the violent interpersonal background. Considering the wild environment issues of the jungle, one can trace the striking impact and gap of human manifestation. Connell is questioning the role of civilized society, as a good impact on Rainsford, despite his passion for animal hunting. Thus, the absence of it was a bad impact on Zaroff, who voluntarily chose the solitude in ungovernable habitat, which led to the horrific violence towards humans that was paid off in terms of justice.

Reference List

Babamiri, N. (2017) ‘The revival of the underscored value of life and lost civilization in The most dangerous game.’ International review of humanities and scientific research, 2(2), pp.279-286.

Grobman, S., Cerra, A. and Young, C. (2016) The second economy: the race for trust, treasure and time in the cybersecurity war. New York: Apress.

Romagnoli, A. (2017) ‘The man with identities’, in S. Eckard, (ed.) Comic connections. Analyzing Hero and Identity. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, pp.23-28.

Thompson, T. (2018) Potemkin Redux: Richard Connell’s “The Most Dangerous Game”. ANQ: A Quarterly Journal of Short Articles, Notes and Reviews. Web.

The story of ‘The Most Dangerous Game’ revolves around General Zaroff’s untiring bizarre hunt for Rainsford. In this book by Richard Connell, the story plot includes three types of conflicts which are Rainsford vs nature (social), Rainsford vs himself (psychological) and Rainsford vs General Zaroff (physical) which were essential elements of this terrific short story. There were situations in this story where Rainsford confronted with him the conflict within himself which he had to struggle with for survival.

Rainsford went through an internal conflict when he was in the ocean and had to keep stay focused by not panicking and realizing that his clothes were not helping his strokes and he ‘wrestled out of his clothes’ otherwise he would have drowned. Another situation where Rainsford kept his composure was when Ivan had his gun pointed at him and he had to use his coolheaded approach or Ivan would have him dead. Also when General Zaroff told Rainsford regarding hunting men looking, Rainsford had to think over whether he should or should not attack General Zaroff. Rainsford faced another internal conflict when he was in the jungle for three days and he kept reminding himself ‘I will not lose my nerve. I will not’. Furthermore, Rainsford sought a tree as his hiding place when General Zaroff and had to struggle to keep himself noiseless and motionless.

All of his internal conflict management and prolific approach helped Rainsford to fight himself to keep going without getting much-needed rest and conquer himself and General Zaroff to survive and fight his enemy.

Works Cited

Connell, R. The Most Dangerous Game. Filiquarian Publishing, LLC, 2006.

Introduction

The importance of the setting in literary context can be seen among the most important factors, driving the direction of the work. In that regard, the setting in a work is not merely an indication of place and time, rather than it is their impact on the plot, the interactions of the characters, and its theme. Nevertheless, the degree of such influence might vary where there are stories in which the setting might be replaced in without affecting the development of other elements. In that regard, it is not a reference to the setting as a measurement for the quality of the essay. It is an indication that such element despite being equally present in different literature works might serve different purposes.

Analyzing the setting in two different short stories, “The Destructors” by Graham Greene and “The Most Dangerous Game” by Richard Connel, the differences in the significance of the setting can be specifically evident. In Greene’s short story, the setting serves as a partial explanation for the story’s conflict, being a major element of influence, around which the story was built. In Connel’s work, it can be stated that the main element is mainly the theme, whereas the setting is mainly insignificant. In that regard, this paper analyzes both works in the context of their setting, arguing that the perception of Greene’s story is linked to the setting in which it takes place.

The Theme

The differences in the themes of the short stories become apparent when they are analyzed as stand-alone elements. In that regard, the theme in Connel’s story can be considered self sufficient, explained and understood through the main the interactions between Rainsford and the protagonist Zaroff, which is violence and cruelty. The theme in Greene’s work, on the other hand, cannot be considered self-sufficient, where the interactions of the characters and the conflict in the story cannot be understood at once. In that regard, the purpose of the Connel in demonstrating the violence and its condemnation is directly related to the theme, while in Greene’s story it is not. Summarizing the plot of “The Destructors”, it is revolves around the destroying the house of “Old Misery”. The interactions of the characters, in that regard, are neither sufficient to explain the purpose of the author, nor to connect it to the purpose of the story. Other elements were necessary to outline the author’s main theme, which explains the actions of the story. In that sense, one important element is the setting.

The Setting

The setting in “The Destructors” is London nine years after the end of the World War II (Greene 1), where the city still contains traces from bomb blasts, with most buildings being destructed by the blitz. Accordingly, the whole story can be seen built around representing the influence of the setting on the main characters of the play. In that regard, it can be stated that even the choice of the characters are directly related to the setting, where the author chose kids to indicate the severity of such influence. It can be assumed that the behavior of adults in such setting would not be questioned. In that regard, the impact of the setting can be amplified by the fact that most those kids were not old enough to comprehend the war.

In Connel’s story, it can be stated that the setting is largely neutral. Taking place presumably somewhere in the Caribbean, the only aspect that can be seen significant in the setting is its remoteness form civilization. Such remoteness only serves to indicate the desperation of the situation. However, such remoteness does not explain the motives of the characters actions. In that regard, it can be stated that the theme of the story and its purpose would have been clear with another setting being selected. Accordingly, the time period does not play a role in the story, with the theme being explored and understood in the modern time as well.

The Setting as a Driving Force

The role of the setting as a driving force in the story can be seen in “The Destructors”, where the narration shows the shift in the values of the society due to the war. In that regard, while there are characters that create expectation opposite to what occurs, e.g. Trevor and Old Misery, the setting, on the contrary makes the events of in the story common, which can be seen through the Trevor’s reactions to the surprise return of Old Misery or the reaction of the lorry driver to the destruction of the house.

In “The Most Dangerous Game”, the narration is driven by climatic moments in the story, e.g. falling from the yacht, finding people on the island, realizing Zaroff’s game, and the moment in the bedroom. The emphasis on the setting between these moments is descriptive, rather than symbolic. The same can be said about the actions of the characters. Thus, it can be stated that the setting does not drive the plot of the story.

Conclusion

Analyzing the setting in both stories, it can be stated that despite its importance in both cases, its significance is more evident in the Greene’s “The Destructors”. In that story, the setting is not only a sense of place and time, but also an explanatory background, outlining the story’s them and purpose.

Works Cited

Connel, Richard. “The Most Dangerous Game”. 1924. Pearson Custom Publishing. Web.

Greene, Graham. “The Destructors”. 1954. Pearson Custom Publishing. Web.