The Hunter In Richard Connell's The Most Dangerous Game

“The Most Dangerous Game” initiates by introducing a hunter by the name of Sanger Rainsford. As Mr. Rainsford gets stranded on the Island of Ship Trap Island, owned by a Cossack by the name of General Zaroff, he discovers a game that he dares not play. As General Zaroff eases Rainsford into his “more dangerous game” (8), Rainsford “[wished] to leave this island at once” (15). After many hints he realizes that the biggest game had to be humans, which were brought in by the great seas or hashes of light leading to humongous rocks. After Rainsford denies Zaroff’s offer to hunt, Zaroff tells Rainsford that “the choice rests entirely with [him]” (15). He can either choose to hunt or get knouted by Ivan, his assistant. The first day of Rainsford’s
This statement led me to believe that the General was a man with a lot of determination. At first the thought I had on Richard Connell wanted to have the same determination as he gave his character, but my mind then wiped that thought as I read that he “began reporting on baseball games when he was only ten years old” (Glencoe 20). When both of these men were only young boys they decided what it was that they both wanted to pursue. As I read “The Most Dangerous Game”, I could see how he initially made his story plot. Richard Connell, “born on October 17th in 1893 in Dutchess County, New York” (Mangold) wrote a book based on “Sanger Rainsford of New York” (Connell 6). In “Richard Connell- Biography”, you read that “over the next 10 years Connell [publishes] three books” and in the story as Rainsford is greeted by General Zaroff he states that he has “read [his] book about hunting snow leopards”(Connell 6). Just as the general introduces himself as “General Zaroff” (Connell 6) implying that at one point he enlisted into fighting in some sort of a war, you can make a connection to “Richard Connell- Biography” as “Connell decided to enlist” (Mangold). As I began to go into deep thought I noticed that Connell could not only balance “working at the newspaper, he wrote an editorial” (Glencoe 20) all at the same time, in the same way that
Once I read this line I went back to think about “The Russian Knout”, an article written in 1895, in which the author stated that “one never knows for certain how much of the knout is left in modern Russia”. This punishment was said to be “left in modern Russia” (The Russian Knout). If the sailors in the short story did not want to hunt Zaroff would “turn [them] over to Ivan” (Connell 13). With the assistance of an “official knouter” (13), “a man under a sentence of 100 lashes might die at the third” (The Russian Knout). In Russia there are people called cossacks which is the word General Zaroff decides to use as he talks about Ivan. As he states that “[Ivan] is a cossack” (Connell 6) and “so is [he]” (6). As the article goes on it tells you that they tried “abolishing the use of the knout for the punishment” as if we wouldn’t think that there would still be some type of physical punishment. This thinking reminds of how Zaroff lets Rainsford know that he “gives him his option” (Connell 13) thinking that he is putting his mind at ease. Though many people, a long time ago, had “statistics… submitted” (The Russian Knout) to the Czar, nothing changed. The peasants were never given their right case but they had people who enjoyed bringing pain unto others decide the amount of lashes being thrown at their body. It just so happened that instead of the