Conflict In The Most Dangerous Game By Richard Connell

Conflict. It’s what we all deal with everyday. Problems, dilemmas, discords, it all seems like there’s more problems than we can solve. In a short novel called “The Most Dangerous Game” by Richard Connell, a man named Sanger Rainsford is left facing a bombardment of conflicts as he is accidentally stranded on an island, occupied by a mysterious man named General Zaroff. Rainsford is compelled to survive three days on the island as he is forced to play Zaroff’s game. Richard Connell uses many ways to arouse conflicts in “The Most Dangerous Game.” The use of conflicts in stories creates suspense, creates the plot, and allows the characters to develop as the story goes on. One of the very first suspenseful settings in this novel is set up by

He had been washed up on an island, the same island that he had previously heard gunshots from. He was in desperate need of food, and he figures that if there are gunshots, there has to be people, and if there are people, there must be something to eat. However, he thought to himself, “But what kind of men, he wondered, in so forbidding a place?” (Connell 3). This leaves the reader and the audience also with the same question, wondering if the island will be dangerous or friendly to Rainsford. The island seemed friendly at first as Rainsford meets a friendly man named General Zaroff. Zaroff was a cordial and an affable man, and he served Rainsford cocktail and dinner. Rainsford finds Zaroff to be thoughtful and a cosmopolitan man. He also discovers that Zaroff was a great hunter, as he had a great deal of experience at hunting throughout the world. But Rainsford’s perspective of Zaroff was short-lived, as he runs into conflict with the Russian General during dinner. Both men were great-skilled hunters,

The General wanted Rainsford to play the game, where the General will try to hunt him down as Rainsford tries to eludes him on the island. Rainsford defiantly refuses, so the General gives him a choice as he has given others when they refused. He says to Rainsford, “‘...may I not venture to suggest that you will find my idea of sport more diverting than Ivan’s?’” (Connell 9). He threatens Rainsford to either play his game, or to be turned over to Ivan, the General’s deaf and dumb assistant, who is large and will torture and kill the captives if they do not comply to Zaroff’s desire to hunt them. Invariably, Rainsford will unwillingly play Zaroff’s game. This conflict will continue the story and will show Rainsford on the island, trying everything he can to avoid getting killed by the General. Compared to if there were no conflict and Zaroff just letting Rainsford go, then there will be nothing to continue the story. In addition, while Rainsford is trying to escape the General, he is faced with yet another conflict as he accidentally runs into a the swamp and into quicksand. Rainsford’s, “...foot sank into the ooze. He tried to wrench it back, but the muck sucked viciously at his foot as if it were a giant leech” (Connell 12). This conflict creates a new plot, giving the storyline action and intensity as Rainsford is trying to get out of the quicksand. This engages the reader even