From the first step of mankind, men have been in the eternal struggle of reason versus instinct. This point is further exemplified in The Most Dangerous Game, when pitting Rainsford and General Zaroff against each other. Rainsford in his struggle to survive, came to realize that people must rely on fear and instinct to survive, in turn overturning his original notion that human intellect allow men to raise above wild animals, which have no moral principles and act to satisfy their own needs. In the Most Dangerous Game, Richard Connell, the author uses symbolism and the foil character to show that men like animals rely on instinct not reason to survive.

To start with, the story heavily relies on symbolism to show that without society and rules,