Lack Of Empathy In The Most Dangerous Game By Richard Connell

Have you ever wondered what it’s like to lose your humanity? It could happen at any time. You can suddenly stray away from humanity tomorrow, or you can slowly distance yourself from it day by day. Losing your humanity can be self-inflicted by having an obsession that can spiral into much more. Humans need communication and touch to function correctly, but if you don’t get these needs then threatening effects can take place. Straying from humanity can result in many dangerous effects such as a lack of empathy toward others and abandoning one's moral compass. Once a person has been distanced from humanity they start to express a lack of empathy, or that they have never had a sense of empathy in the first place. In “The Most Dangerous Game”

Zaroff asks “why should [he] not use [his] gift?” and “if [he wishes] to hunt, why should [he] not?” (Connell 70). According to Zaroff, “ [He hunts] the scum of the Earth - sailors from trapships - lascars, blacks, Chinese, whites, mongrels” (Connell 70). Zaroff believes that empathy is outdated and old-fashioned which is why he never gained a sense of it. Zaroff wanted to find the “ideal animal” to hunt (Connell 69). He wanted an animal that could reason with him. Unfortunately, the only animal that can do that is humans. He started to kill humans because of his boredom with hunting animals. Zaroff deliberately isolated himself from society so he could fulfill his satisfaction of wanting to hunt humans. He doesn't value the lives of humans and slaughters them for pleasure. He thinks, because he is stronger, he can kill weaker people. He believes killing people is not murder because he gets fulfillment from it. This shows a loss of humanity because he has explicitly shown he doesn’t care for the people he is killing. He sees hunting humans the same as hunting animals, a sport. In Frankenstein, Victor made a promise to the monster that he would create his mate, but when

In “The Most Dangerous Game” Rainsford entered into a life-or-death game against Zaroff. He continues to play the game and experiences many scary situations. After Ranisford had completed the challenge he was given, he won. Once Rainsford found this out, he decided to fight Zaroff to truly see who was best. Zaroff agreed to this offer but under one condition. Zaroff said that “one of [them] is to furnish a repast for the hounds. The other will sleep in [a] very excellent bed” (Connell 80). Zaroff continued to say “ On guard, Rainsford” (Connell 80). Not long after that Rainsford said, “he had never slept in a better bed, [he] decided” (Connell 80). From this quote, an implication is made that Rainsford won and killed Zaroff. Meaning Zaroff got fed to the hounds and Rainsford got to sleep in the bed. The fight and Rainsford winning, indicates that Rainsford is going to think and act similarly to Zaroff because he might have gotten the thrill of killing humans. This shows a lack of humanity because Rainsford may become like Zaroff and start killing humans for entertainment. Rainsford might lose empathy for humans and start to devalue human life which leads to abandoning his moral compass. At the beginning of the book, Rainsford said that he thinks what Zaroff is doing is murder. Zaroff disagreed and said that he thought Rainsford would agree with him because of how