Sanger Rainsford is a celebrated hunter from New York City with a passion for hunting big game and a “predator versus prey” worldview. He is traveling on a yacht with his friend Whitney to hunt jaguars in the Amazon, when he falls overboard into the sea just off the coast of Ship-Trap Island. After he swims ashore, he comes across General Zaroff’s enormous mansion on the island and soon learns that he has entered the trap of a sadistic serial killer. Although both men enjoy hunting animals, Rainsford draws a hard line at hunting humans. Given the choice between being Zaroff’s latest prey or Ivan’s torture victim, Rainsford takes to the jungle and attempts to outwit Zaroff for the three-day contest. While running from Zaroff, Rainsford realizes how hunted animals must feel and experiences true terror for the first time in his life—though, instead of inspiring thoughts about the sanctity of all life, his terror motivates him to respond with violence. Although he resisted the game at first, when forced to fight for his survival, Rainsford eventually kills both Ivan and Zaroff, winning “the most dangerous game” and crossing the ethical line he drew at the beginning of the story. Rainsford’s transformation from proud hunter to terrified prey and then to cold-blooded murderer reveals that mankind is not so different from animals, and without the social contracts of a community, men will resort to brutal violence.
In order to continue enjoying our site, we ask that you confirm your identity as a human. Thank you very much for your cooperation.
In order to continue enjoying our site, we ask that you confirm your identity as a human. Thank you very much for your cooperation. In Richard Connell's short story"The Most Dangerous Game," the protagonist Sanger Rainsford is selfish, unsympathetic, and cruel. In the beginning, Rainsford talks to Whitney about the prey’s, in this case, the animal's perspective while being hunted, like how they feel. Rainsford and Whitney butt heads. Rainsford’s philosophy is much like Zaroff's. Rainsford disagrees with Whitney, who believes that animals can comprehend the fear of pain and death. Rainford exposes his selfishness and lack of empathy by saying, “‘Be a realist. The world is made up of two classes-the hunters and the huntees. Luckily you and I are hunters’”(2). His actions throughout the story show his cruelty too. Rainsfords profession is killing animals, and while he does…show more content… |