Criminal Sentences In The Most Dangerous Game, By Richard Connell

One of the most powerful factors of criminal sentencing is proving they are remorseful for the wrongdoing of the action they may have committed. If you were a judge in a court of law, and you had to decide the sentences of two different people who committed the same action, one who looked and proved remorse versus one who did not care about their crime and proved no regret; you would most likely dismiss or sentence the person who proved sorrow less than the other non-remorseful person. Except for the crime that you are delivering a verdict on is the sentencing of someone being held accountable for their actions taken in a life-or-death situation. People should not be held accountable in life-or-death situations because they could have been

Consequently, when they stumble upon a life or death situation they are being forced into fight-or-flight mode. This reaction is the body's natural instinct based on the ingrained need to survive and save themselves from fatalities. Simultaneously, as shown in the short story “The Most Dangerous Game,” by Richard Connell, the main character, Rainsfords, becomes washed up on an island and stumbles upon a general, General Zaroff, who hunts humans for fun. Even though Rainsford has been in fatal situations before, never behind these circumstances where he is being forced to protect himself from being hunted for 3 days by a human, during which time he endures pure life-or-death situations. The character recognizes his situation fully; “The general was playing with him! The general was saving him another day’s sport! The cossack was the cat; he was the mouse. Then it was that Rainsford knew the full meaning of terror. ‘I will not lose my nerve. I will not’” (Connell 195). This passage indicates he had been forced into self defense mode, which proves in his defense he would not be accountable for any fatal actions moving forward. Additionally if one were to be in this scenario of many, they should not be held responsible for their action taken to save their life by

To give an illustration, in the novel “Life of Pi,” by Yann Martel, the main character, Pi, was stuck on a life-boat after his ship full of zoo animals sank, leaving Pi and a tiger named Richard Parker on the boat alone. To survive, nevertheless, Pi is forced to kill a fish with his bare hands to feed the tiger so he himself does not get eaten alive, though it is against his morals. “I wept heartily over this poor little deceased soul. It was the first sentient being I had ever killed. I was now a killer…I was sixteen years old, a harmless boy, bookish and religious, and now I had blood on my hands. It’s a terrible burden to carry. All sentient life is sacred. I never forgot to include this fish in my prayers” (Martel 26). This quote expresses the guilt and remorse Pi feels for the life of the fish, even as insignificant of a life the fish had. As well as goes against his own religion and ethics to survive, but he still feels remorse for the small fish. The intention of survival is to survive, defend, and to feel remorse, which all three of such is