The short story The Most Dangerous Game” by Richard Connell is about the hunter and the hunted. However, later in the story, it becomes ironic because it turns into a game where the hunter becomes the hunted. It turns into a competition for survival. Two sailors, Rainsford and his partner Whitney, sailed into the darkness of the sea with the purpose of hunting. They called it the greatest sport.
They were hunters and headed to the Amazon to hunt vicious animals such as jaguars and tigers. They sailed to an island called Ship-Trap Island. Sailors feared this island and had a curious dread of such a scary place. The sky was filled with darkness when suddenly he heard three gunshots that were fired, and heard them again and again. Then he heard a scream while smoking a pipe. Suddenly, the pipe fell and as he tried to reach for it, he went down into the sea where the waves swallowed his screams. Nobody could have heard him as the ocean swallowed his screams and the only chance of survival was to swim.
Rainsford swam towards the screams and ended up on the island. He walked along the shoreline and later found a place that looked like a mansion. There, he met General Zaroff, who had bought the island to hunt. He was indeed a sportsman who had invented a new sensation in the hunting game. His game was to train those men whose ships were wrecked and ended up on that island, and then provide them with food and a knife for three days.
Once they were trained, they were led out onto the island as a head start while Zaroff chased after them and tried to hunt them down. If they survived during those three days, they had won the game and were let free. However, if they were found, they were killed. Zaroff never lost the game, so if one of the men being hunted was about to survive, he would release the hounds to chase after them. Rainsford rested, and the next morning had a dispute with Zaroff. He told him that this hunting style was too brutal. In this argument, Zaroff got mad, and at this point in the story, Rainsford became the hunted. He was let loose onto the island where he was to prepare himself for the most dangerous game of his life: the survival of the fittest.
The first night was panicking and worrying for Rainsford as he hid on top of a tree. The next day, he set up a trap, but Zaroff didn’t fall for it, and he almost got caught when Zaroff was right next to the bushes where Rainsford was hiding. On the last day, he set up a pitfall, and while Zaroff and his servant were searching, his servant unfortunately fell into the pit. Rainsford escaped the island by swimming out into the ocean and swam back to the mansion. When Zaroff returned, Rainsford switched the game around and proposed that he become the hunted. I like this short story because Rainsford was wise in making traps, which allowed Zaroff to take more time trying to find him, and he did them successfully, which helped him survive those three days.
I also liked how the story ended. It was kind of ironic the way Rainsford changed the game around and became the hunter, and Zaroff became the hunted. I thought it was a good idea because this way, Zaroff would realize that his game of hunting people was wrong, and this would teach him a lesson.
