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Chapter Summary: The Most Dangerous Game By Richard Connell

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Richard Connell outdoes himself in “The Most Dangerous Game”. The story opens with a shared conversation between both of the main characters—Whitney and Rainsford. They were on a Yacht heading towards Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Both men are big-game hunting gurus. At this time of the story they are discussing an animal’s of a hunt. Rainsford disagrees with Whitney by arguing that animals are unable understand emotion or feeling. Shortly after their discussion, Whitney retires and is awoken to gunshots being fired, and in attempt to see where the source of the sound—falls into the water. After Rainsford falls off the boat he swims to shore and meets a German man named Ivan, who was a deaf guard to General Zaroff. General Zarroff offers Rainsford …show more content…

Rainsford arguably states that animals are unaware they are being hunted and their fleeing from a hunter is biological. He then falls overboard and after being awoken in the night by gunshots. Automatically this made me think of when we ambush larger animals. When poachers hunt elephants or rhinos they wait until they’re in their most vulnerable state—which is usually at night when they are resting. When Rainsford swims to shore he sees a puddle of the blood and bloody foot prints treading up the island. This factor also reminded me of animal-like tendencies. Animals are natural-born investigators and sometimes will follow tracks nearby dead animals. Richard Connell turned Rainsford into an “animal”, by using the dynamics of him being awoken by the sound of gunshots, falling overboard, and swimming to shore—ultimately making him vulnerable.
Richard Connell then switches the role of Rainsford once more from the hunter to the hunted. Zarroff hunts Rainsford, while Rainsford flees for three days. As Rainsford is being preyed upon Zarroff he makes correlations to his previous statement. After the allotted time is up, Rainsford returns to Zarroff’s home where he is ambushed in a bed room. Again, makes me think of Rainsford as an “animal”. When people hunt deer, they usually hide out in a camoflauge stand near the deer’s

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