The+Most+Dangerous+Game


 * Short Stories - Literary Devises Title: ** __The Most Dangerous Game__

**Point of View:** Third person

**Protagonist:** Sanger Rainsford

**What type of character is the Protagonist?** The protagonist is a round, dynamic character. We know this because his opinions of the prey he hunts change over the course of the story, and we are given a bit of background information.

**Antagonist:** General Zaroff

**Describe the setting:** The setting is an island in the Caribbean that is owned by General Zaroff. It is warm on the island, and there are plenty of trees and even some quicksand. Zaroff also has a mansion on the island, with all the modern luxuries, including electricity. The story is set in the 1920’s or 1930’s.

**Type of Conflict:** Man vs. Man

**Describe the main conflict:** The main conflict is when Zaroff sends Rainsford out to hide, and goes after him, trying to track him down and kill him.

**Describe the Climax of the Story:** The climax of the story is when Rainsford is setting the traps, and Zaroff is evading them, and chasing him down, until eventually Rainsford dives off a small cliff to save himself.

**How does the Protagonist change over the course of the story?** The Protagonist’s opinion of the things he hunts changes over the course of the story. At the beginning of the story, Rainsford scolds Whitney for thinking about how animals might feel about being hunted. As the story goes on, though, and he becomes the prey, he starts to feel more empathy towards the game he hunts, because he now knows what it’s like to have an armed human chasing you and trying to kill you.

**Describe the relationship between the title and the theme.** The relationship between the title (the most dangerous game) and the theme (entertainment before humanity) is in the wording of the title. The most dangerous game (as in prey) is a human, because they can reason, instead of lashing out blindly, as an animal does, with no forethought. because humans are the most dangerous game, this is what Zaroff hunts, which shows how little he cares about his fellow humans. The most dangerous game (as in monopoly), though, is the one Rainsford, and more commonly, the sailors, play against Zaroff. The word “dangerous” most often applies to the sailors ( because the “game” is dangerous for them), but in Rainsford’s case, “dangerous” applies first to him, but later to Zaroff.

**How does the main conflict help to illustrate the theme?** The main conflict is when Rainsford is living life minute to minute, trying desperately to stay one step ahead of Zaroff and his dogs. The theme is entertainment before humanity. The conflict helps to illustrate the theme because Zaroff is enjoying every minute of the chase, without a care in the world about how Rainsford feels about being stalked through the jungle by a man with a gun and dogs. In this way, he shows how he cares more about his own enjoyment than he does about his fellow humans.

**How does the climax help to illustrate the theme?** The climax is when General Zaroff tries to hunt down Rainsford and kill him. this helps to illustrate the theme (entertainment before humanity) because Zaroff quite literally puts his own enjoyment ahead of the survival of other people. He puts himself at the top of the food chain, and claims it is his right to kill everything below him, just for “sport”


 * Give examples of each of the following literary terms in the story (use quotes): **

**Simile:** An example of a simile is the quote “and like a giant, prehistoric beaver, he began to dig”, describing Rainsford digging the Burmese tiger trap.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16.1333px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">**Metaphor:** An example of a metaphor is “As the blood-warm waters of the Caribbean closed over his head”, describing when Rainsford falls off the yacht.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16.1333px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">**Personification:** An example of personification is in the quote “trying to peer through the dank tropical night that was palpable as it pressed its thick ,warm blackness in upon the yacht”, describing the darkness Rainsford and Whitney are sailing through.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16.1333px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">**Symbol:** An example of a symbol is the pistol that General Zaroff carries while hunting Rainsford. It serves a purpose, as a gun, but also symbolizes danger and death to Rainsford.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16.1333px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">**Foreshadowing (give both elements):** A big example of foreshadowing is when Rainsford scolds Whitney at the beginning of the story for caring about how game feels. This foreshadows the part when Rainsford becomes the prey, and is chased all around the island. You could tell when he was scolding Whitney at the start of the story, that something would change his mind as the story went on.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16.1333px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">**Irony:** A big chunk of irony happens in the story when Rainsford first arrives. General Zaroff tells him “we will hunt tomorrow”, which Rainsford takes to mean that they will be hunting one of the sailors, when in fact, Rainsford winds up as the prey. This reminded me of the old cannibal-pot joke, where cannibals ask a passer-by to have dinner with them, and the passer-by turns out to be the dinner.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16.1333px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">**Imagery:** An example of imagery is in the quote “He was a tall man past middle age, for his hair was a vivid white; but his thick eyebrows and pointed military mustache were as black as the night from which Rainsford had come.”

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16.1333px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">**Describe the relationships between the class theme and the story.** The relationship between the class theme (humanity) and the story is that the class theme is humanity, and being kind and caring to others, and the story is about a man who doesn’t see his race as anything but something to be disposed of for his entertainment. General Zaroff doesn’t care how anyone feels while being hunted, because he is too selfish to care about how his actions affect others (in this case, permanently).


 * <span style="font-family: 'Times-Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">1. What is meant by “He lived a year in a minute”? /2 **<span style="font-family: 'Times-Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">What the author meant was that Rainsford was terrified, and every second felt like centuries to him. One of the by-products of fear is that time seems to slow down, prolonging the anxiety that comes with things like being hunted.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times-Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">2. What is meant by “I am still a beast at bay”? /2 **<span style="font-family: 'Times-Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">What Rainsford means is that he is not finished the "game". He intends to kill the general before the general can kill him.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times-Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">3. In which sea has Connell set Ship-Trap Island? /1 **<span style="font-family: 'Times-Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Ship-trap island is set in the Caribbean Sea.


 * <span style="font-family: 'Times-Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">4. How is Zaroff able to finance his life style? /2 **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Zaroff had invested heavily in American securities, by which he means stocks or bonds that went up and earned him lots of money. This pays for all of his hunting ventures.


 * <span style="font-family: 'Times-Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">5. If Rainsford wins the hunt, what does Zaroff promise him? /1 **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;"> Zaroff promises to put him on a boat back to the mainland.


 * <span style="font-family: 'Times-Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">6. What happened to Lazarus? /2 **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;"> Lazarus was General Zaroff‘s best hunting dog, who fell into the quicksand on the island. He was following some "game", and he went in after the "game" and drowned, too.


 * <span style="font-family: 'Times-Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">7. Where does Rainsford spend the first night of his hunt? /1 **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;"> Rainsford spends the first night in a tree where General Zaroff finds him the next day.


 * <span style="font-family: 'Times-Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">8. How many acres did Zaroff’s father have in the Crimea? /1 **<span style="font-family: 'Times-Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Zaroff‘s father had 250,000 acres in the Crimea.


 * <span style="font-family: 'Times-Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">9. Why does Zaroff suggest Rainsford wear moccasins? /1 **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;"> Zaroff suggests that Rainsford wear moccasins because they leave less of a trail for him to follow, and therefore makes him more challenging game.


 * <span style="font-family: 'Times-Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">10. What caused Rainsford to believe Zaroff knew he was hiding in the tree? Do you think he was right? Give reasons. /3 **<span style="font-family: 'Times-Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;"> I think Rainsford was right in believing that Zaroff had found him, because he probably would not have stopped and lit a cigarette if he thought his quarry was getting away. He also had no conceivable excuse to stop looking up the tree, or turn away and smile, except that <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">he had seen Rainsford, and intended to let him get away to prolong the hunt.


 * <span style="font-family: 'Times-Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">11. How does Zaroff stock his island with “game”? /2 **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;"> Zaroff has lights out in the channel, and when he turns them on, sailors try to follow them and crash their boat on the rocks. He then either retrieves them, or they swim to shore, and he then puts them in his training program to make them "more challenging game".


 * <span style="font-family: 'Times-Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">12. What happened to General Zaroff at the end of the story? /2 **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;"> When Zaroff goes up to bed, he finds Rainsford hiding in his bedroom. He praises him on winning the game, but Rainsford is done being the prey, and kills him and takes his bed.


 * <span style="font-family: 'Times-Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">13. In spite of being hurt, Zaroff congratulates Rainsford on his “Malay Man-catcher,” why? /2 **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;"> Zaroff congratulates Rainsford on his "Malay Man-catcher" because, despite the fact he is on the run and fearing for his life, he managed to put together a trap good enough to hit Zaroff, who is a practiced hunter, and is perfectly calm. Zaroff was impressed because a man with very little made a trap that even he fell for.


 * <span style="font-family: 'Times-Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">14. How do we know Rainsford is an exceptionally fit man? /2 **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;"> We know Rainsford is exceptionally fit because he can easily climb trees, is an excellent hunter, and is able to get away from Zaroff for three days. He is very smart, but only an incredibly fit person could stay ahead of Zaroff while living in the wild, when Zaroff has fresh meals and a comfy bed to go home to after the hunt, as well as a gun.


 * <span style="font-family: 'ArialMT','serif'; font-size: 16px;">15. Discuss the state of mind of Rainsford before he lands on the island versus that after he meets the General. What is different (Especially about how he perceives animal feelings)? /5 **<span style="font-family: 'ArialMT','serif'; font-size: 16px;"> Rainsford‘s state of mind changes drastically over the course of the story. When he is on the boat, he is scolding Whitney for thinking about how the jaguars they intend to hunt might feel about being hunted. He believes that animals have no feelings, and that because he is a “step above” animals, they don’t feel. When he meets General Zaroff, realizes what he hunts, and goes hunting with him (or rather against him), he realizes that it is not at all fun to be on the wrong end of a hunter’s gun, and that the things he hunts do, in fact, have feelings, and feel fear and pain. If the story had continued, and Rainsford had returned to the yacht, I believe he would feel entirely different about hunting, and how his game feels.


 * <span style="font-family: 'ArialMT','serif'; font-size: 16px;">16. How does Connell inspire fear without obvious bloodshed/grotesqueness? /3. **<span style="font-family: 'ArialMT','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Connell, the author, inspires fear without obvious bloodshed in the same way that Alfred Hitchcock did, which was by <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">creating suspense. First, he has Rainsford fall off a boat, and you wonder if he will survive. Then Rainsford meets Zaroff, which creates suspense because we don't know what Zaroff plans to do with him. Finally, he is sent out hunting against Zaroff, and the suspense is wondering who will win, how, and when.

Completion 5/5

Effort 5/5

Content 5/5

Questions 32/32

total 47/47