In Richard Connell 's The Most Dangerous Game, its main character Sanger Rainsford is an example of a protagonist whose character has evolved throughout the story.
Sanger Rainsford is a dynamic character as a result of being the protagonist of Connell’s story. Reading the material, a reader can determine that Rainsford is a major character because the author made substantial effort to his traits and characterization. Rainsford is given the spotlight in the piece and with the author’s efforts, readers are drawn to him. As the story progresses, Rainsford role as a protagonist gives him the opportunity to be a dynamic character – an identity that gives him berth to become the focus of the story, change and overcome his conflicts.
To clearly
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While speaking to Whitney, he was a hunter and regarded the prey he hunted and killed as inferior in the parameters he set. His dismissal of the life he killed didn’t make him think as superior to them but it shows his contempt of life towards those he hunted.
His perspective on killing might also have been drastically changed. When he was invited to the hunt by General Zaroff, he begged off and said that he was a hunter and not a murder. He views the killing of animals as acceptable but not killing of humans. His insistence on him being different from Zaroff enables him to be on higher moral ground compared to his host. After his experiences in the forest and the constant fraying of his nerves, he might have been turned into the very person he had called a murderer.
The author concludes the story with Rainsford, sleeping on the bed and notes that Rainsford never had a better one. Readers are unaware of the thoughts inside the character’s head - it may be a dreamless sleep or flashback of his earlier life. It is difficult to be certain of the duel’s effect to Rainsford’s mind. Even at that moment, it is unclear whether Rainsford is just a tired man or an animal at
In the beginning of the story during a discussion between Whitney and Rainsford he shows aloofness. While talking to Whitney he says, “Who cares how the jaguar feels?... They’ve no understanding,” (Connell 8). He has no sympathy for how his prey, because he believes they do not have sense.
The mood in another scene is happiness because Rainford actually had what it took to win the big hunt. Rainsford ended that night laying in general Zaroff’s bed. “A man, who had been hiding in the curtains of the bed, was standing there. " Rainsford!" screamed the general,” (14). In both scenes Rainford had to out smart General Zaroff to win the big hunt.
Hook: There are many situations where you would have to be a survivor. Aron Ralston, Hyeonseo Lee and Mr. Rainsford, a fictional character from “The Most Dangerous Game”, are all survivors. Ms. Lee had to leave North Korea illegally, Rainsford had to survive a murders game and Aron Ralston had to somehow find a way to get his arm out of a huge boulder. To be an extraordinary survivor you need three traits: determination, knowledge and hope. T:To begin Aron Ralston had determination.
Being able to overcome something in life is a great pleasure. When he wants to give up, his mind and body is telling him not to. For him to be able to get over the feeling of giving up is not easy. In Richard Connell's short story "The Most Dangerous Game," big game hunter Sanger Rainsford is proven in the following ways: strong verses the weak, the value of life, and becoming what he fears. First, Rainsford will reveal his powers and flaws.
The mind of Rainsford The distinguishing characteristics of mind are of a subjective sort; we know them only from the contents of our own consciousness - Wilhelm Wundt. Sanger Rainsford, in the story The Most Dangerous Game showed the characteristic of being intelligent, having strength, and him being a round character. Sanger Rainsford was in a shipwreck, washed up and in the mysterious remote island ran by a general who had a “disturbed” psychological state. The general tries to swindle Rainsford by making him the prey or entrapment.
Rainsford was a hunter but he became a hunted. Rainsford is faced with the challenge in the middle of the story. Also, the importance of empathy is shown through the changes that occur in Rainsford in the beginning, middle, and end of the story. Moreover, it seems that Zaroff considers himself a god who can snuff out life as he pleases.
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.
Both Rainsford and Zaroff share common passions, skills and ideology. Initially, there is admiration between both characters, but their similarities become the cause of the conflict. Rainsford murders Zaroff and has put an end to the murderous human
Rainford exposes his selfishness and lack of empathy by saying, “‘Be a realist. The world is made up of two classes-the hunters and the huntees. Luckily you and I are hunters’”(2). His actions throughout the story show his cruelty too. Rainsfords profession is killing animals, and while he does
We can infer that while on the yacht, feeding a human being to animals would never have occurred to him, and if it had, that he would have treated it like “grisly...cold-blooded murder.” Revenge also did not seem to be an important aspect to him before becoming the subject of Zaroff's dangerous game, but when he returns and encounters Zaroff in his bedroom, he soon resumes the hunt, this time with Zaroff as the prey. Rainsford compromises his own morals by continuing the game, and he even seems to enjoy killing his new human prey, resting comfortably in Zaroff's “very excellent” bed after killing the general and feeding him to the hounds. Thus, the reader realizes that perhaps Rainsford may have decided that hunting humans is not so “barbaric” after
When placed in this situation, Rainsford has transformed from being the hunter to becoming the huntee, and is now in the position of all the animals he has carelessly killed before. Towards the end of the story, while Rainsford is being hunted by Zaroff and his pack of dogs, the narrator describes how Rainsford feels by saying that: “Rainsford now knew how an animal at bay feels” (22). The sensation of extreme fear and worry had finally gotten to him, and he can relate to how the animals he hunt may
It is now hard for him to trust anyone after being forced to be hunted. “The pit grew deeper; when it was above his shoulders, he climbed out and from some hard saplings cut stakes and sharpened them to a fine point. These stakes he planted in the bottom of the pit with the points sticking up” (Connell 34) because of this flashback Rainsford starts to get scared about himself hurting another human being. He won’t hunt again because he remembers his times of desperation and how he felt while trying to kill a living person. Another factor of Rainsford’s nervousness is when he told that the man being hunted the day before lost his head.
Rainsford has to start thinking like an animal. After leaving Zaroff an ambiguous path on the first night of the hunt Rainsford says, ”I have played the fox, not I must play cat of the fable” (75). If he is not able to imitate an animal’s innate actions to survive, he may not escape his
Hunters believe animals are not capable of reasoning and they see them as something lesser than humans. Throughout time, these positions can change. The short story, “The Most Dangerous Game” written by Richard Connell, consists of General Zaroff being the hunter and Rainsford being the hunted. During the story, their positions change to the complete opposite.
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.