Comparing Most Dangerous Game And The Sea Devil By Arthur Gordon

The short stories, “The Most Dangerous Game” by Richard Connell and “The Sea Devil” by Arthur Gordon, both share similar concepts. In “The Most Dangerous Game,” Sanger Rainsford, the protagonist and celebrated animal trapper, is stranded on an island in the Caribbean with a deranged huntsman named General Zaroff, who is trying to kill him. Rainsford’s goal is to avoid Zaroff for three days, and if he does, then Zaroff will let him off of the island. “The Sea Devil” features an unnamed fisherman being dragged out to sea by a vicious manta ray, and the man struggles and fights to break free. These two stories emphasize the main character, the hunter, becoming the hunted when presented with an extremely dangerous predator. The protagonists in

In the face of overwhelming conflict, both Rainsford and the fisherman use cleverness to survive. To trick General Zaroff, Rainsford uses his extensive knowledge of hunting and traps. Rainsford ties a small tree, which has a giant tree leaning on it, to a “protruding bough” (Connell, 15), so that if it is triggered, the bulkier tree will fall on the person and fatally crush them. When General Zaroff tries to track Rainsford, he is so focused on stalking the trail that he activates the snare, but his agility causes him to only injure his shoulder. Afterwards, he congratulates Rainsford and says, “[n]ot many men know how to make a Malay mancatcher” (15). To earn a compliment from Zaroff, one must be exceptionally clever. Zaroff has hunted humans for a long time, and Rainsford is the first one he meets who manages to outwit him. Rainsford’s brilliant ambush offers him a higher chance of survival. In “The Sea Devil,” the man uses many shrewd strategies to delay the manta

At the end of “The Most Dangerous Game,” Rainsford warns Zaroff, “I am still a beast at bay… Get ready” (17). By declaring this, Rainsford threatens to kill Zaroff. Previously in the story, when the two men were chatting over dinner, Zaroff reveals to Rainsford that he hunts humans. Astounded, Rainsford accuses Zaroff of being a murderer. Now, he is just the same. Rainsford changes for the worse and devolves into the character which he formerly despised, the very one who tried to assassinate him. Even though Rainsford experiences the terror of the hunted, he disregards his new knowledge when he chooses to murder Zaroff. Instead of becoming a better person, Rainsford becomes more immoral than he was at the opening of the story. However, unlike Rainsford, the fisherman in “The Sea Devil” learns an important lesson from his encounter with the manta ray. After the incident is over, he “[knows] how the fish must feel when the line tightens and drags him toward the alien element that is his doom” (3). He comes to this realization when the manta ray drags him across the bay, because in that moment, he experiences the desperation and agony that a fish feels when the line drags it out of the water. Overwhelmed with gratitude after he severs the rope, the man realizes the fine line between life and death and how easily the roles can be reversed