The Most Dangerous Game

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The Most Dangerous Game by Richard Connell focuses mainly on Sanger Rainsford, the protagonist, who realistically is no better than the predator, General Zaroff. The initial feelings of Rainsford towards animals show him to be cold and unfeeling. The location of the events are equally important as it impacts what the reader’s imagination and emotions will be while reading the events that take place. They also influence the theme and set the serious mood of the story. The narrator is separate from the story, (told in third person limited) and the reader is mostly only aware of Rainsfords thoughts and feelings until the story climaxes, then the game changes. The Most Dangerous Game takes place right after World War I in a jungle with a single mansion inhabited by the human savage, General Zaroff; the actions that were portrayed would not have been viewed as immoral or anything out of the ordinary in an area populated by only wild animals. The slaughter of animals was common for survival during the time period and scenery written about. Today people hunt for sport, but “normal” people do not hunt humans. There was a factual incident that occurred around the 1980s that could have been considered a real life version of The Most Dangerous Game. Robert Hansen abducted over thirty women and murdered seventeen in Alaska then releasing them into a nearby valley to hunt them down. This real life situation was very similar to the way General Zaroff behaved in the story. Although the setting and circumstances that Hansen used to hunt his victims were different, the fear and cruelty that they endured was similar. After being caught he tried to blame the woman for what he had done before admitting to each murder. Just as people in today’s society would be outraged at the behavior of Hansen, they also would feel the same about General Zaroff. In 2002 another true-life event

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