Literary Devices In Richard Connell's The Most Dangerous Game (Essay Example)

The Most Dangerous Game was written by Richard Connell in 1924. Connell uses literary elements in this thrilling short story to help create and sustain an atmosphere of suspense, fear, and thrill. Some of the literary Richard Connell used in The Most Dangerous Game includes imagery, foreshadowing, and theme. In The Most Dangerous Game, Richard Connell uses conflict and imagery to add to the plot of the story. In his short story, he uses conflict to heighten the suspense of the story. The use of this literary device suggests that Connell wanted to convey the hunter versus the hunted ideals of General Zaroff as an important change in ideals about it by Rainsford. The Most Dangerous Game is a short story about a man named Rainsford and his struggle to defeat a hunting game against the antagonist, General Zaroff. Rainsford had fallen off a yacht in the Caribbean Sea and swam up onto a beach of a mysterious island. He found his way to a home belonging to a man named General Zaroff. After meeting the General and his servant, Ivan, they begin the hunt and Rainsford realizes how uncivilized the General is. Rainsford finally understands how the animals he hunts feel when he realizes that General Zaroff is hunting him, not any animals. In the end, Rainsford survives the three days and comes back to get his revenge on General Zaroff. Connell uses Zaroff’s idea of hunter versus the hunted to create the elements of conflict and imagery which propels the story forward. 

A conflict is a literary device characterized by a struggle or clash between opposing characters or opposing forces. Conflict provides crucial tension in any story and is used to drive the narrative forward. When there is a protagonist and antagonist in a story, Man versus Man conflict is existent. As Connell opens his thriller, he uses dialogue that foreshadows the main conflict in the story. Rainsford and his friend Whitney stand on the deck of the yacht as Rainsford argues, “The world is made up of two classes, the hunters and the hunter. Luckily, you and I are hunters” (p.7). This explains the main conflict of the story, as well as hinting that soon the tables will be turned on the hunter, Rainsford. The reader understands that at this point Rainsford only sympathizes with the hunter. By lacking sympathy, the reader believes Rainsford is selfish and egotistical which also creates an internal struggle and choice. Connell’s early identification of the main conflict sets up the clash of ideas between Rainsford and Zaroff later in the story. Another main conflict throughout the story is that Rainsford is struggling to save his life. He realizes the General’s goal is to hunt him, and he has to think of strategies to escape the General’s game. General Zaroff says, “It’s a game you see. I suggest to one of them that we go hunting. I give him a supply of food and an excellent hunting knife. I give him three hours’ start. I am to follow, armed only with a pistol of the smallest caliber and range. If my quarry eludes me for three whole days, he wins the game. If I find him, he loses.” (Connell 16) The external conflict is man versus man, as General Zaroff relentlessly hunts Rainsford through the jungle. Most of the conflict centers around Zaroff’s bet with Rainsford. If Rainsford can survive on his island for three days while being hunted, Zaroff will help him leave Ship Trap Island. When it comes to man versus nature, Rainsford must overcome and survive nature several times. For example, “The cry was pinched off short as the blood-warm waters of the Caribbean Sea closed over his head.” This is the exact moment when Rainsford’s body hit the water, and he fell off the yacht. He was stranded in the ocean as the waves were crashing over him. Nature, this conflict is shown with the example of him trying to hide from General Zaroff. Rainsford uses nature to defeat General Zaroff. First, Rainsford dug a hole and put sharp sticks in it, and covered it with leaves that were woven together. With this pit, Rainsford managed to kill one of General Zaroff’s dogs. Then, Rainsford uses a weak tree and ties a knife to it, and makes it so that it would fling up and kill someone or seriously injure someone. With this tree idea, it killed Ivan. Last, Rainsford uses the water that is surrounding the island to escape General Zaroff. The internal conflict between man versus himself is shown at the beginning of the story, Rainsford expresses an intense admiration for hunting. However, once he becomes the prey, he sees the sport from a different angle and begins to shift his views. Lastly, when it was man versus society, Zaroff’s view of life and hunting had forced him into seclusion on Ship Trap Island. After becoming bored with hunting animals, he began to hunt humans, “the most dangerous game”, which is illegal and frowned upon by society. The author’s conflict in The Most Dangerous Game helps add to the suspense of Rainsford’s experience.

Imagery refers to language that stimulates the reader’s senses. It also plays a strong role in this story by helping create an eerie feeling present throughout the whole story. The Most Dangerous Game uses imagery to describe things such as the characters and the actions in the story. The imagery that Connell creates in The Most Dangerous Game captivates the audience into a tale that makes one’s heart stop even for a second. The feelings of suspense are nearly tangible to the reader when the silence of the writing surrounds them. Not only can imagery create suspense, but it can also help create the mood. In The Most Dangerous Game, references to blood and red imagery are used as a warning of coming dangers and to reinforce an atmosphere of violence and death. When Rainsford is thrown overboard into the Caribbean Sea, Connell describes the water as “blood-warm,” signaling that Rainsford’s life is at risk both in that moment and in ways he has yet to discover. After he makes it safely to shore and rests, he discovers a place in the weeds “stained crimson,” and his first visual indication that death has occurred on the island, though he assumes it was an animal’s death. Later, the reader discovers that General Zaroff hunts men, and so the blood Rainsford saw was likely from a human. With this imagery, Connell blurs the lines between predator and prey, hunter and hunted, reminding the reader that they both bleed red. Connell also uses red details to hint at General Zaroff’s predatory nature, describing his lips as red and explaining that his soup, called borscht and made of beets, is a dark red color. As an aid hunter of both beast and man, Zaroff consumes violence and death for sport and literal nourishment. The imagery was also used when Rainsford first sees General Zaroff. He is described as the general’s looks which makes the reader visualize what he looks like through the eyes of Rainsford. In the story, the narrator states, “Rainsford’s first impression was that the man was singularly handsome; his second was that there was an original, almost bizarre appearance about the general’s face. He was a tall man past middle age, for his hair was a vivid white; but his thick eyebrows and pointed mustache were black as the night from which Rainsford had come.” (Connell 9) Furthermore, the imagery was used when Rainsford knew that the general was getting close to his next location. The narrator says, “Then he felt an impulse to cry aloud with joy, for he heard the sharp crackle of the breaking branches as the cover of the pit gave way; he heard the sharp scream of pain as the pointed stakes found their mark.” Connell uses imagery to show how intense and fearful Rainsford feels in the story. For instance, Zaroff's first look to Rainsford was “menacing look” (Connell 17). This quote is imagery because it is describing the look in his eyes that did not change and it was a menacing look also. Another example of imagery would be when “Ivan conducting him was in many ways remarkable.” This quote is another reason for evidence why the short story is imagery because the way Rainsford looked so remarkable. 

Throughout the short story The Most Dangerous Game, both General Zaroff and Rainsford experience internal and external conflicts. General Zaroff’s internal conflict concerns his inability to satiate his fanatical desire to hunt. The themes of whether it is noble to hunt or to be hunted are converted throughout Richard Connell’s The Most Dangerous Game. Conflict is used to create action and develop the suspenseful plot in a way that is entertaining to the reader. Using this literary device, Connell draws the reader in and shows the importance of human life and choice. This choice is essential for Rainsford to sympathize with the hunted and overcome the trails on Zaroff’s island.