The Most Dangerous Game Literary Analysis

A Dangerous Analysis of “The Most Dangerous Game” One of the most popular sports in the country today is hunting. Richard Connell’s “The Most Dangerous Game” creates a tale of life and death in which the main character, Sanger Rainsford, a famous hunter that is lost at sea, is being hunted by the estranged General Zaroff for the general’s pleasure. In Connell’s “The Most Dangerous Game”, the author uses plot, irony, and setting to convey the theme of inhumanity. The plot of “The Most Dangerous Game” helps portray inhumanity as the theme of this short story. In the beginning scene of the story, Rainsford and fellow hunter Whitney are talking about the Amazon hunt that is coming soon. Whitney brings up the subject that even jaguars still have a fear of death and pain, and then Rainsford laughs the point off (Connell). This shows inhumanity that Rainsford has because he does not care whether or not if a jaguar can feel these things. After Rainsford meets General Zaroff on the island, the general goes into a long dialogue about his hunting experiences, and how he quickly became bored with the hunting of normal animals. The general explains how he believes that it is because animals cannot reason, and the …show more content…
The main action of the story, the sport of hunting, can be described as inhumane because hunters are killing defenseless animals for sport. At the beginning of the story, the rough sea waters around Ship-Trap Island show that the island and waters around the island have claimed the lives of many men. The fog is described as “moist black velvet” because it is so dense and hard to see through (Connell). The wild jungle on the island where the men go to die is described as a horrible place, full of wild creatures. But perhaps the darkest area of the island is the “Death Swamp”, where quicksand surrounds the region. Zaroff explains how one person tried it, which led to the poor man’s