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Hopeless Mood In Richard Connell's The Most Dangerous Game

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Hopeless Mood in “The Most Dangerous Game” In the paragraphs before the climax of “The Most Dangerous Game”, Richard Connell creates a hopeless mood by invoking the use of discouraging diction and demoralizing details to immerse the reader into Rainsford’s predicament. The reader loses hope of Rainsford ever escaping from Zaroff when Rainsford “was awakened by a sound that made him know that he had new things to learn about fear. It was a distant sound, faint and wavering, but he knew it. It was the baying of a pack of hounds.” (647-650). The phrase of “new things to learn about fear” suggests that Rainsford heard something that will drastically reduce his chances of survival thus telling the reader that Rainsford is in a dire situation. The …show more content…

Rainsford being the brilliant hunter he is, knew that “he could do one of two things. He could stay where he was and wait. That was suicide. He could flee. That was postponing the inevitable… [then] an idea that held a wild chance came to him” (651-654). Connell further creates a sense of hopelessness and dread with the phrase “postponing the inevitable” since it is only a matter of time before Rainsford gets brutally murdered by Zaroff. This phrase also gives the reader a glimpse into Rainsford’s thoughts and makes sure that the reader understands the situation. The fact that Rainsford thinks of an idea with a slim chance of success can only mean that he is on the verge of giving up and succumbing to Zaroff and his dogs. Rainsford commits to his plan and starts running until he reached “the shore of the sea. Across a cove he could see the gloomy gray stone of the chateau. Twenty feet below him the sea rumbled and hissed. Rainsford hesitated. He heard the hounds. Then he leaped far out into the sea….” (678-680). At first, Connell fools the reader into thinking that Rainsford is so hopeless that he believes he can pull off a miracle by tricking Zaroff and the pack of hounds into thinking that he committed

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In the story, “The Most Dangerous Game”, by Richard Connell, the darker action was when Rainsford killed General Zaroff. Richard Connell’s characters in the story follow the actions that were based off Charles Darwin’s theory of survival of the fittest. In “The Most Dangerous Game”, the darker action was Rainsford killing General Zaroff. The intention for this was because of their agreement.

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In the short story The Most Dangerous Game, the author Richard Connell shows that Rainsford needs control of his emotions, patience , and expert hunting and decision making skills in order to defeat Zaroff. Rainsford needs to gain control of his emotions to outthink Zaroff, who symbolizes Rainsfords "steep hill". When he finds that he is going to be hunted his natural instinct is to run and panic, but then he stops to look around and get a grip on the task at hand. Then at a critical moment when Zaroff finds him in a tree, Rainsford panics again because he realizes Zaroff is on his trail and is toying with him. Once again, he gains control of his emotions and formulates a plan.

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Instead of being fearful and wanting to give up, Rainsford became zealous; a fearless survivor. “ Twenty feet below him the sea rumbled and hissed. Rainsford hesitated. He heard the hounds. Then he leapt far out into the sea.”

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Everyone has to overcome adversity in their life. In Richard Connell’s “The Most Dangerous Game” the main character, Rainsford, fell of his boat at night time On the Island, Rainsford finds a home where General Zaroff lives. The problem is that the only way he can leave the island is if he survives a “game”. Where General Zaroff is hunting him. So Rainsford has to survive for three days.

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Twenty feet below him the sea rumbled and hissed. He heard the hounds, then he leaped out into the sea…”(Connell 57). Both Odysseus and Rainsford devised good plans to escape from their captors who were trying to kill them. Rainsford used his prior knowledge of hunting and traps to outwit and beat General Zaroff at his own

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“Rainsford knew he could do one of two things. He could stay where he was and wait. That was suicide. He could flee. That was postponing the inevitable” (Connell 21).

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Did you know that authors use many different literary devices to tell a story? A literary device is a technique writers use to make their stories unique and interesting. Literary devices like simile, metaphor, suspense, personification, allusion, irony, foreshadowing, and imagery are used in lots of stories. In the short story ¨The Most Dangerous Game”, Richard Connell uses literary devices such as suspense and simile to help the reader gain a clear understanding of the story. In this essay, I will provide two examples of literary devices used throughout Richard Connell’s short story.

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In another instance, when Rainsford was hiding from General Zaroff, he had to convince himself not to regress to those animal-like instincts that he had developed. The text says “Rainsford’s impulse was to hurl himself down like a panther, but he saw the general’s right hand held something metallic—a small automatic pistol.” (231). As you can tell from the text, Rainsford really wanted to jump down from his hiding spot and attack the general, but he couldn’t. If he had done so, he would end up losing the game. Then, near the end of the story, Rainsford is running from the General and his pack and he sees the ocean shore and it’s deep waters below.

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How will this turn out for rainsford read the story to find out. hunts something so very unusual. Throughout the story connell uses Mood irony and suspense . Mood is used in this story a lot but here was a really amazing version of it that I found. When Rainsford is on the island and approaches the mansion that contains the hunter of

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Throughout the story the reader sees how Zaroff “plays” with Rainsford as he hunts him and not once does Zaroff think he will lose to Rainsford. This is a clear example of the theme to never underestimate your opponent skills or the underdog may overtake you. Connell illustrates this theme through foreshadowing, irony, and, man vs. man. To help us visualize, foreshadowing shows how Rainsford, being the underdog, will overtake Zaroff who underestimates Rainsford. Although Rainsford is not seen as being the weaker link, Rainsford showed he did not pity those below him: “‘Who cares how a jaguar feels all they understand is fear.’

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It is now hard for him to trust anyone after being forced to be hunted. “The pit grew deeper; when it was above his shoulders, he climbed out and from some hard saplings cut stakes and sharpened them to a fine point. These stakes he planted in the bottom of the pit with the points sticking up” (Connell 34) because of this flashback Rainsford starts to get scared about himself hurting another human being. He won’t hunt again because he remembers his times of desperation and how he felt while trying to kill a living person. Another factor of Rainsford’s nervousness is when he told that the man being hunted the day before lost his head.

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In Richard Connell's short story"The Most Dangerous Game," the protagonist Sanger Rainsford is selfish, unsympathetic, and cruel. In the beginning, Rainsford talks to Whitney about the prey’s, in this case, the animal's perspective while being hunted, like how they feel. Rainsford and Whitney butt heads. Rainsford’s philosophy is much like Zaroff's. Rainsford disagrees with Whitney, who believes that animals can comprehend the fear of pain and death.

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Connell uses foreshadowing to create suspense throughout the story. The first instance of foreshadowing is right in the third paragraph. As Rainsford and Whitney are chatting on the boat, on their way to a hunting trip, Whitney points out an island. Whitney says about the island “ ‘The old charts call it Ship-Trap Island... suggestive name isn’t it?’

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In “The most dangerous game” written by, Richard Connell, he uses many devices such as: characterization, plot structure and theme to contribute to the overall meaning of the story. Characterization is a big part of the overall meaning of the story which is that survival is of those who are smart, cunning, and can adapt to their environment. The protagonist Rainsford is at a constant battle with the antagonist General Zaroff. Throughout the entire short story they both have similar minds sets and then farther along the main character 's mind set develops into something more. The reader can almost sense a self centeredness, and that he believes that there are only two type of people in this world, “the hunters and the huntees”, and he believes that he is the hunter.

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He had to fight himself to stay on track. He was so scared in the jungle while the General was trying to hunt him. On page 186, it says “He could not say where he was. That was suicide.” This shows the reader that Rainsford may be thinking of what could go wrong, and is not thinking on the positive side of things.

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