Most Dangerous Game

The Human Will to Survive
How far would one go to survive? In a life or death situation, would any person know what to do? Human nature is a shared trait of all humans. These are certain internal qualities and necessities all people possess. Part of human nature is the need to survive. Humans will do anything to survive, and will stretch the boundaries of human capability in order to stay alive. “The Most Dangerous Game” by Richard Connell is about a man, named Rainsford, who is stranded on an island. While roaming the new found land, he finds a house, and a man, named General Zaroff. The General has invented a game he plays with people who stray onto the island. He lets them run deep into the jungle, then he savagely hunts them. Rainsford

Rainsford continues to thrive in the forest, pressing on and assuring he will not lose the General’s “game”. As he runs into the night, the forest becomes deeper and the obstacles become increasingly more difficult to overcome. Rainsford keeps pushing forward and continues to survive. “The Most Dangerous Game” shows how people will do anything to live and that survival instincts are a part of human nature:
Rainsford took up his flight again. It was flight now, a desperate, hopeless flight, that carried him on for some hours. Dusk came, then darkness, and still he pressed on. The ground grew softer under his moccasins; the vegetation grew ranker, denser; insects bit him savagely.(Connell

Every single person on planet Earth shares the same traits. One of these traits is the will to survive. When faced with a life or death situation, a human’s mentality changes. They will use their survival skills and advanced mind to work their way out of a problem. In “The Most Dangerous Game”, Rainsford has the odds completely stacked against him. The general believes he has killed Rainsford, and returns to his home at night. To the general’s surprise, Rainsford is in his room, waiting for him. Although he knew he had won the game, “Rainsford did not smile. ‘I am still a beast at bay,’ he said, in a low, hoarse voice. ‘Get ready, General Zaroff’”(Connell 21). Rainsford used his survival skills and his wit to survive “the most dangerous game”. This was not easy, and required extreme mental and physical fortitude. In the real world, people possess the same type of will and perseverance. Soldiers fighting for their countries have to make decisions that shape their fate. Decisions that decide the outcome of the lives of themselves and others around them. For some people in the world, every day is a dangerous game. These people show the same grit and sheer determination to survive as Rainsford. This will and urgency to survive is part of human nature. Both Rainsford and people in the real world will go beyond their limits and do anything in order to