Throughout this journal Zaroff can be characterized as malevolent, and dastardly. First of all he is malevolent. A reason that he is malevolent is the fact that he takes sailors from shipwrecks. He uses his advantage of the currents bringing ships into a shallow, rocky area of the sea, causing shipwrecks. When the sailors go to land and start looking for residents of the island they encounter Zaroff's house in the jungle. After these people go into his house, he gives them two choices, either they try to survive the hunt or Ivan beats them to death. He thinks that humans are better prey than any animal, because animals can’t reason like people can. He allows the people a three-hour head start to run in the jungle, and try to avoid being killed.
