On an island that will put strength and sanity to the test, self preservation is the only thought you have to survive even if it means forgetting your morals. In the short story ‘The Most Dangerous Game’ by Richard Connell, self preservation is the only thing on Rainsfords mind as he fights to survive. Fear and peril push everything you have to the limit, physically and mentally it can destroy even the strongest of men and lead them to do drastic things including killing. Rainsford must survive being hunted like an animal, but his morals and sanity stop him from becoming what he hates, he needs to overcome his morals in order to survive and go from hunter to hunted. Rainsford in the story must choose whether he is going to fight and survive or give up and die. His first thought is to get as far away as he can, ‘His first idea was to put as distance between himself and General Zaroff.’ But as he calms down and starts thinking rationally, he realizes he needs to try to survive and outsmart Zaroff and play along with his game. As the days go by he starts losing his morals and tries to kill Zaroff, first by dropping a log on him, ‘The dead tree, delicately adjusted to rest on the cut living one crashed down and struck the general.’ Rainsford has started losing his morals and getting more in touch with his beast. …show more content…
Rainsford has killed before in war but states, ‘In times of war it is different’. He wants no part in the killing and cannot accept needing to. He only decides he needs to kill when he realizes that the only way to get away he needs to kill or be killed