Survival Of The Fittest In The Most Dangerous Game, By Richard Connell

Do you know about any famous scientific theories? Do you understand Darwin’s theory of “Survival of the fittest?” In 1859, famous scientist, Charles Darwin, published a theory that says an animal will do whatever it takes to survive in the wild. This is especially true when it is trying to protect its offspring. It is willing to kill anything threatening it; Darwin called this natural selection. In the short story, the protagonist, Sanger Rainsford, converts from predator to prey as he attempts to get away from a maniacal murderer. He must embrace his animal instincts and try to kill General Zaroff. In “The Most Dangerous Game,” Richard Connell incorporates man versus man, self, and nature. Man against man can be defined as someone verbally or physically clashing with another. In the story, Rainsford creates an Ugandan knife trap; he

General Zaroff is an intricate person; he thrives off of competition. However, boredom consumes him entirely when he realizes that hunting has become less like a challenge and more like a childish game. He begins to ponder about what species of animal might make hunting fun again; the insane Russian feels as if hunting is his only purpose in life. No animal seems to have the mindset and intelligence to match Zaroff’s skillset, except for one. General Zaroff explains to Rainsford, “So I said: ‘What are the attributes of an ideal quarry?’ And the answer was, of course: ‘It must have courage, cunning, and, above all, it must be able to reason,’” (21). Zaroff has a struggle that he knows no one else can help him solve. This shows his thinking process; he takes this internal problems, and he maps out exactly what he needs in order to be satisfied. He finally comes to this gut-churning idea to hunt humans; they are the only species smart enough to match Zaroff’s skillset. This drives the Russian to buy this island, capture humans, and murder them for