Dangerous Game Vs Rainsford

“Inside each of us, there is the seed of both good and evil. It 's a constant struggle as to which one will win. And one cannot exist without the other,” these are the words of Eric Burdon that summarize the events that took place in Lord of the Flies by William Golding and The Most Dangerous Game by Richard Connell. In Lord of the Flies, young boys were stranded on a deserted island during a world war and were striving to survive in a civilized manner. Similarly, in The Most Dangerous Game, a man named Rainsford found himself on an isolated island owned by a man who enjoyed hunting humans for fun, and so this man forced Rainsford to become the prey of his hunting game. Though the plot of the stories differs, one concept persists in both texts

After landing on an island through a series of unfortunate events, Rainsford found himself on what he believed was a stranded island. Prior to coming to the island, Rainsford was a man who was civil and was accustomed to the laws of society and principles of sane humans. After seeing signs of human life on the island, he found a general named Zaroff who elegantly told Rainsford that he enjoyed hunting humans and talked in a nonchalant manner as if it was a game to him. With fear, Rainsford tried to back away but was ultimately forced to play the prey of the hunter’s (Zaroff’s) game. Similar to Lord of the Flies, this story was also set on an island which helped induce the savagery within Rainsford. General Zaroff lived on a remote island that was feared by Rainsford’s friend before she abandoned Rainsford and said “The place has a bad reputation – a bad one” which implies people avoid the area. This meant that general Zaroff was free to do whatever he pleased and this allowed his vicious fantasies to become reality. Zaroff’s sadistic game transformed Rainsford into a savage beast, as exemplified in the text “Rainsford did not smile. ‘I am still a beast at bay.’” Rainsford started as a sane human being who changed after coming to the island due to Zaroff’s influence. All this happened because general Zaroff lived in a secluded area and no one was there to stop his barbarity. By living on an island, he was able to carry out his games and practice his savagery without

In Lord of the Flies, Golding believed that civilization was a social construct and to illustrate that, he took a group of boys who were originally sophisticated but then altered due to moving from a normal place to a place without social constructs. Richard Connell however thought that savagery was learned as the prey of Zaroff’s game embodied animosity when they were being hunted as Rainsford did. Zaroff’s games however could have only been done in a place without laws, so choosing an island was ideal. Because of this choice, he was able to inflict people with savagery. Setting the story in an island without society is very convenient because it is easy for the characters to do what they would not be able to do in a public place, therefore making it perfect for chaos which can combat the experiences of civilization they had