The Most Dangerous Game
Since the earliest time that I can remember one of my favorite short stories to read was “The Most Dangerous Game” by Richard Connell. To many literary experts this is seen as a man vs man type of short story, my take on it is a little different there is more then meets the eye and there are elements to the story that often go over looked. The perpetual theme of man vs man is not all that is visible in the story, one cannot just take this singular meaning and not look deeper into the different variables that manifest themselves speaking to the reader indirectly about further significance. The journey of the yacht, the island setting's representation of General Zaroff, the various animals Zaroff has hunted, the most dangerous game and the longing from past animals these hunters have killed collectively wanting for these two hunters to be pitted against one another and find themselves being hunters and huntees.
Sanger Rainsford is a renowned hunter and author he sets off on a yacht heading for the amazon where he is on a mission to hunt jaguar with his assistant Whitney. They enter a philosophical conversation about huntees having feelings where Rainsford says “Who cares how a jaguars feels?” it is assumed that they have no feelings while being hunted this is a ideology that will return back to the situation Rainsford will find himself in, when he is hunted by the General. Rainsford's initial walk around the island he is faced with dense jungle that blocks out the sunlight and is tangled with trees and underbrush, eventually he comes upon a village and finally a chateau the general's house. These layers of trees and jungle are a manifestation of the general's true personality underneath the aristocrat their lurks a killer. The General is a man with no conscious, no heart, no sense of wrong, a man who kills for satisfaction, a man who murders for the thrill. The General's military roots have made him numb to the thought of spilling...