The Most Dangerous Game

The Hunter and the Hunted

The short story The Most Dangerous Game by Richard Connell is about the hunter and the hunted but later in the story it becomes ironic because it turns into a game were the hunter becomes the hunted. It turns into a chase of competition and of survival. The theme for this story is “the wiliest fox provides the best hunting.”
Two sailors, Rainsford, and his partner Whitney, sail in to the darkness of the sea. Their purpose is to hunt; they call it the "greatest sport." They sail to an island called Ship-Trap Island. Suddenly he hears three gunshots that are fired, and hears them again and again. Then, he hears a scream while smoking a pipe when suddenly, the pipe falls and as he tries to reach for it, he goes down into the sea. Rainsford swims towards the screams and ends up on the Island. He walks on the shoreline and later finds a place that looks like a mansion. There, he meets General Zaroff, who bought the island to hunt. He is a sportsman who invented a new kind of the hunting game. His game is to train those men whose ships are wrecked and ended up on that island, and then provide them with food and a knife for three days. Once they are trained, they were led out into the island as a head start while Zaroff chase after them and tries to hunt them down. If they survive during these three days, they win the game and they are let free. But, in the other case, if they are found, they are killed. Rainsford rests and the next morning has a dispute with Zaroff and tells him that this hunting style is too brutal. In this argument, Zaroff got mad and at this point in the story, Rainsford becomes the hunted. He is let loose into the island where he is to prepare himself for the most dangerous game of his life. Rainsford’s first trick is, he hides on top of a tree. Another trap was, he sets up a trap but Zaroff doesn’t fall for it and he is almost caught when Zaroff is right next to the bushes where Rainsford was hiding. The last day, a...