The+Most+Dangerous+Game

Short Stories - Literary Devises Title:__The Most Dangerous Game

Point of View: This story is written in Omniscient form because it comes from the point of view of an all knowing narrator.

Protagonist: Mr Sanger Rainsford.

What type of character is the Protagonist? The protagonist is a dynamic character because he changes over the story as a result of the events that occur.

Antagonist: General Zaroff.

Describe the setting: The setting of the story is on a remote island called "Ship-Trap Island" that is personally owned by General Zaroff in the Caribbean Sea. It has dense jungles, swamps filled with quicksand, and a large manor where the general lives and keeps his belongings. As the story goes on more and more of the island is described and discovered which creates an exciting setting for such a suspenseful story. Time Period?

Type of Conflict: Man vs. Man

Describe the main conflict: The main conflict of the story is between General Zaroff and Rainsford. General Zaroff is an experienced hunter but over time has found regular hunting to easy and boring. Throughout his life he finds that nothing brings him as much joy as hunting and when that happiness is threatened he creates a new and exciting game. He captures lost and ship wrecked men who float to his island from sea and then hunts them. He finds it much more exhilarating to hunt something with the ability to reason. In disgust Rainsford offends the General which gives him a twisted idea for a more exciting hunt. The General was going to hunt Rainsford, one hunter against the next to truly test each others skills. It creates a powerful conflict between man and his fellow man.

Describe the Climax of the Story: General Zaroff is close on Rainsford tail with a pack of his finest hunting dogs accompanying him. Rainsford hits the cliffs of the treacherous island and without any other option he plummets himself into the roaring sea, out of harms way from General Zaroff but at the mercy of the crushing waves.

How does the Protagonist change over the course of the story? At the beginning of the story Rainsford is nothing but a heartless hunter ready to strike down any animal that crosses his riffles aim. He argues with his fellow hunters that animals have no knowledge of what is going on and have no understanding. But when his place is actually switched from being the hunter to the hunted he realizes what it really is liked to being running and fleeing for your life, what it is like to be hunted.

Describe the relationship between the title and the theme: I liked the title of the story because it means the most dangerous hunting which foreshadows into the story but doe not give away what the game is and how the most dangerous hunting will come into play. So the author successfully ties the title into the stories theme with a hint of foreshadowing but not enough to give away the stories plot.

How does the main conflict help to illustrate the theme? Hunting is about one thing battling another thing. It could be a man against a tiger or a man against a boar but the majority of time the man is the hunter and the other animal is being hunted. Which obviously puts the human in very little danger in this situation. The most dangerous game is actually man against his fellow man where both are in danger because instead of battling against strength, its a battle against the two men's wits. Which is a suspenseful way of portraying a man vs. man conflict.

How does the climax help to illustrate the theme? At the climax of the story Rainsford dives into the swallowing sea to avoid General Zaroff and his ravenous dogs. In doing so General Zaroff immediately thinks that Rainsford is a dead man. Even if he did survive there was no way the General was going in after him so he returned to his manor for the night. At the climax of the story it was the climax of the conflict between the two men, only giving the point of view of the General. So the author did not give away if Rainsford had died or not. So the conclusion of the reader is made that General Zaroff was the victor. I like how the climax is written because it portrays a mans last decision, the decision which will result in life or death which is really the theme of the story.

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

Simile: "It's like moist black velvet." I especially liked this simile because it was a colouful way for the author to describe the lack of sight the characters had navigating through the un-known waters.

Metaphor: "The fear of pain and the fear of death" I liked this metaphor because one of the characters was pointing out that although animals have no understanding of the hunters they still understand the fear of pain and the fear of death.

Personification: "...trying to peer through the dank tropical night that was palpable as it pressed its thick warm blackness in upon the yacht."

Symbol: I think that the pistol that General Zaroff held was a symbol of death to Rainsford. In one point of the story it describes the bone chilling terror that overcomes Rainsford as he looks down from where he was hiding to see General Zaroff beneath him holding the pistol in his hand. At that moment it made me think of what Rainsford was going through and fear he must have had that he was going to die.

Foreshadowing (give both elements): When the General first explains to Rainsford about his new hunting experience Rainsford is in disgust. He objects to any reasoning and logic the General tries to justify his hobby. At this point I picked up from the hints of anger the General was getting from Rainsford's reaction and the disgust Rainsford felt to the whole situation that the twos friendship would quickly run out and Rainsford would be the next prey.

Irony: At the beginning of the story Rainsford protests that animals have no understanding when they are being hunted. That no one should think about how the animal is feeling as it is being hunted. Which is a unique kind of situational irony when Rainsford actually becomes the prey instead of the predator, where he experiences just what the animal feels when it is being hunted.

Imagery: At the beginning of the story when the author is describing the overcoming blackness of the night as the men tried to navigate through the sea he used some colourful imagery that successfully painted a picture in my head. I especially liked these uses of imagery, "...its like moist black velvet" and "and I've seen you pick off a moose moving in the brown fall bush at four hundred yards, but even you can't see four miles or so through a moonless Caribbean night." These uses of imagery I found exceptionally colourful.

Describe the relationships between the class theme and the story. In every story big and small choices create the overall outcome. The choices that the protagonist and every other characters around him makes are the building blocks to the climax and the conclusion. In this story the two main characters continuously make choices that result in the ultimate outcome, life or death. If General Zaroff had taken the opportunity to kill Rainsford in the tree when he had the chance he would have escaped his later death in the story from the very person he choose not to kill. The choices Rainsford makes to elude the General and the traps he makes are the reasons he lives instead of being ripped to shreds by the Generals dogs or being shot down by the Generals pistol. Or the biggest choice in the story which Rainsford makes to jump into the sea to avoid the general who had cornered him. All the choices made in the story were intertwined with the theme and were the building blocks or the rising action, climax, falling action, and the conclusion. Which is how the class theme and the story relate.

Completion 5/5 Effort 5/5 Content 4.5/5 total 14.5/15

QUESTIONS: Answer the following questions. /32

1. What is meant by “He lived a year in a minute”? 2/2 When the author states the Rainsford lived a year in a minute he was implying that he was so nervous and scared that time felt like time had almost stopped and so did everything around him. He felt like an entire year of his life had gone by waiting for the General to make his move.

2. What is meant by “I am still a beast at bay”?2 /2 He meant that although he had won the hunt he was not ready to give up and let things go. That he had a vendetta with the General and would only be satisfied when only one of them remained, when only one beast was still alive.

3. In which sea has Connell set Ship-Trap island? 1/1 Ship-Trap Island is located in the Caribbean Sea.

4. How is Zaroff able to finance his life style? 2/2 His father was a very rich man, he owned a quarter of a million acres in the Crimea. General Zaroff also invested a great deal of his money in American securities so when the debacle of Russia had ended when the officers of Czar had to leave the country his investments kept him extremely wealthy and would continue to for a long time.

5. If Rainsford wins the hunt, what does Zaroff promise him? 1/1 He promises him that he will take him to the mainland to a town if he is not found by midnight on the third night.

6. What happened to Lazarus?2 /2 Lazarus was General Zaroff's favorite dog in his pack, his last prey had stumbled into the quicksand in the Death Swamp of the island and Lazarus had accidentally followed the prey right into the trap. The prey and dog both met the same fate from the swallowing quicksand.

7. Where does Rainsford spend the first night of his hunt? 1/1 He spends it in a large tree branch which he thinks will hide him well enough to elude the General.

8. How many acres did Zaroff’s father have in the Crimea? 1/1 General Zaroff's father owned a quarter of a million acres in the Crimea.

9. Why does Zaroff suggest Rainsford wear moccasins? 1/1 He suggested to Rainsford that he should wear moccasins because it leaves less of a trail.

10. What caused Rainsford to believe Zaroff knew he was hiding in the tree? Do you think he was right? Give reasons. 3/3 I think that Rainsford was right that General Zaroff saw him in the tree. I believe the General did not kill him there because he wanted more of a hunt and more of a challenge. I believe this because when the General just gets to the branch Rainsford is on he stops smiles and looks away almost as acknowledging the fact he has already found him once so he is the dominant one. The General may have also done this to fill Rainsford with fear that even his best attempts at escaping the General were no match for his hunting skills.

11. How does Zaroff stock his island with “game”? 1/2 Many times storms and other forces of nature cause men to become shipwrecked and in their only escape of death they swim ashore to his island. But when nature fails to do the task out in the sea are large jagged rocks that could destroy a ship with the slightest of ease.

12. What happened to General Zaroff at the end of the story? 2/2 Rainsford swims back to the General's manor and waits for him to return from walking through the jungle. Rainsford jumps from behind his hiding place and challenges the General to one final dual in which the winner gets to keep his life and sleep in the warm comfortable bed. Rainsford is the victor or the dual and kills the General.

13. Inspite of being hurt, Zaroff congratulates Rainsford on his “Malay mancatcher,” why? 2/2 The General appreciates the skill in which his prey has and although is injured is excited to have a worthy opponent to hunt. The General also was acknowledging the craftsmanship of Rainsford's trap but assuring him that he would be back to finish what he started.

14. How do we know Rainsford is an exceptionally fit man? 2/2 For one we know that he is an experienced hunter, and in hunting you have to be incredibly fit physically and mentally if you want to catch your prey. Also Rainsford continuously is fleeing from the General with little to no time to rest which would take an extreme physically tole on his body and would be impossible if he was no incredibly fit.

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.)4/5 At first Rainsford does not think that they prey has any understanding of what is going on when it is being hunted. He thinks they are oblivious to what is going on when the hunt id taking place. When Rainsford actually becomes the prey instead of the predator he learns what it really feels like to be hunted. In a way the knowledge he obtains is something that he only could have discovered if his position was switched with the animal, which ironically is exactly what occurs in the story. One point in the story the author states he now knew what it felt like to be an animal at bay. It was a revolution he experienced as the pack of dogs guided by the General were closing down on him.

16. How does Connell inspire fear without obvious bloodshed/grotesqueness.3 /3 Without actually describing any violence and gore the author is able to inflict fear upon the reader by building suspense. He explains in deatail how experienced the general is at hunting so the fact that Rainsford is being hunted by such an opponent would inflict fear into anyone who imagined them selves in that position. The events the author describes are also suspenseful such as when the General finds Rainsford for the first time but to toy with him he lets him live, only to prolong the inevitable. In doing so and explaining it with such imagery the author is able to get the same affect of fear to the reader without adding and obvious bloodshed. total 30/32 Nice shot selection and formatting! 19/20