Techniques In The Most Dangerous Game By Richard Connell

The Most Dangerous Game Techniques ¨Even so, I rather think they understand one thing - fear. The Fear of pain and the fear of death.¨(Connell, The Most Dangerous Game) I chose the story The Most Dangerous Game, written by Richard Connell. The story is a suspenseful tale of how a famous hunter, Sanger Rainsford, finds himself washed up on an island´s shore. He is then found by another big game hunter, General Zaroff, who invites him to his home, and instantly welcomes him. As time goes on he finds out Zaroff bought the island to place wild animals on so he can hunt them. Only, the animals became boring, so he has lured in sailors for more of a thrill. Rainsford is then forced to be hunted for three days, and at the final day, he kills

It begins when Rainsford falls off the boat, and winds up on the island, and hears screeches of pain. ¨Rainsford heard a sound. It came out of the darkness, a high screaming sound, the sound of an animal in an extremity of anguish and terror.¨(Connell, The Most Dangerous Game) The words he used to describe the sound of the pain makes the reader even more engaged in the story. Another point of suspense is when Rainsford discovers the animal that he has been going on about as a perfect game, was in fact a human. The reader can feel the horror, as Rainsford gasps and cries out Zaroff is a murderer. Zaroff is offended by his word choice, saying it's not murder, it is hunting, showing the reader how twisted and evil the man is. Rainsford then goes through several trails as he his being hunted. The first complication is when he hears the footsteps of Zaroff below him as he hides up in a tree. As his heart races and the smoke rolls up around his face from Zaroff´s pipe below. The suspense makes the read hold their breath along with Rainsford. Rainsford later sets two traps to try to kill Zaroff. To his disappointment, both failed partily. One killed one of Zaroff's bloodthirsty hounds, and the other killed his servant, Ivan. The last point is when Rainsford jumps off a cliff to escape Zaroff, making it seem as if he fell to his death. Only, Rainsford hid in Zaroff´s home until he returned. Then he ended the ¨game¨

The setting is the most crucial part to the story. The majority of the story takes place on an island isolated away from any people, known as Shiptrap island. It's a small island surrounded by sharp deathly rocks and rough waters, where Rainsford first began after he fell off the boat. The island has a thick jungle like appearance. Trees and brush are everywhere, and Rainsford discovered one smashed and covered in blood from an animal. On the coastline of the island, there is a gigantic mansion surrounded by a spiked iron fence where Zaroff and Rainsford first met. Rainsford mistakes it for a village at first, because there are so many windows showing light. Inside the mansion, there are huge game mounted everywhere like elephants, lions, tigers, and many more. On the southeast corner of the island there is a swamp like place, made of quicksand. That is where Rainsford tried to set a trap for Zaroff, but instead the quicksand trap swallowed up one of Zaroff´s hounds. There are hills with cliffs, where he had to dive off of to escape Zaroff and his hounds. The setting being on the island gave Rainsford even more conflicts than what he would have endured if he was somewhere else. It restricted him from running away from Zaroff, since Zaroff knew. the island so well, Rainsford had nowhere to