By using helplessness in the story, Richard Connell creates suspenseful situations. At the beginning of the story, Rainsford falls off the yacht and is left in the ocean. Nobody hears his cries for help, as they are “pinched off short as the bloodwarm waters of the Caribbean sea closed over his head”(15). While reading this, the reader feels the hopeless situation as they watch Rainsford struggle. The desperation is doubtless; the readers are hoping the yacht will notice he is gone and will come after him, but knowing that it probably will not. Additionally, another time is when Rainsford is hiding in the tree from the general. He fears the general is going to find him as “the general’s eyes left the ground and were traveling, inch by inch, up the tree”(19). In this scene, Rainsford is completely at the general’s …show more content…
He is completely helpless; he is stuck. If the general sees him, he is done for. While reading this, the reader feels Rainsford’s total hopelessness—the whole story could end right now; the general could find him, and Rainsford can do absolutely nothing about it. The reader is anxious, hoping he will not be found. So forth, helplessness provides a fantastic opportunity for suspense in the mind of the reader. Foreshadowing is another excellent tool of suspense. In the very opening paragraphs of this short narrative we meet Rainsford and his partner, Whitney, as they are having a conversation on the deck of the boat, on their way to a hunting expedition. During the conversation, Rainsford makes a comment: “ ‘The word is made up of two classes—the hunters and the huntees’ ” (15) and that “ ‘you and I are the hunters’ ” (15). This hints at a story revolving around hunting, a plot that could twist and turn. Perhaps it
When Rainsford stumbled out of the ocean onto dry land, the author describes his thoughts as, “All he knew was that he was safe from his enemy, the sea…” (Connolly 3). Rainsford’s thinking at this moment is very primitive, that he is safe from his enemy. This is because Rainsford has just survived a life-threatening situation of being stranded in the ocean, and he is relieved that he is safe. This shows that despite the sophistication of human thought, when a human is in a life-or-death situation where instinct matters most, their thought becomes primitive to let their instincts take over.
Without the setting and plot in this story the story would have not been complete. As Rainsford is hiding in the tree from General Zaroff he says “I will not lose my nerve. I will not” (12). Rainsford is hiding in the tree because Rainsford is thinking that Zaroff is going to kill him.
His first thought is to get as far away as he can, ‘His first idea was to put as distance between himself and General Zaroff.’ But as he calms down and starts thinking rationally, he realizes he needs to try to survive and outsmart Zaroff and play along with his game. As the days go by he starts losing his morals and tries to kill Zaroff, first by dropping a log on him, ‘The dead tree, delicately adjusted to rest on the cut living one crashed down and struck the general.’ Rainsford has started losing his morals and getting more in touch with his beast.
Each and every detail leads to something more than what it portrays. In the beginning of the story the narrator describes Rainsford's plunge into the ocean, “The cry was pinched off short as the blood-warm waters of the Caribbean Sea dosed over his head” (Connell 2). When reading this phrase one cannot help but wonder what will happen to Rainsford and how will he overcome the blood warm waters and the danger that comes with it.. Because of the imagery Connell uses in his writing, he creates a mood of anxious uncertainty about the outcome of Rainsford's fate. After Rainsford's tragic fall off the yacht he swims to the nearest island, and the author describes what Rainsford views as he is trudging through the water, “Jagged crags appeared to jut up into the opaqueness; he forced himself upward, hand over hand” (Connell 3).
This is another example of the drive the General has to eliminate Rainsford.
Rainsford is going through a battle in his head whether he should hunt with him or become the hunted. The man vs man conflict is shown in the story by the actual battle between Rainsford and the General. This is not as complex as the man vs
Theory of Relationship: The relationship between Rainsford and General Zaroff is that of a friend becoming an enemy. Paragraph 1: “He was finding the general a most thoughtful and affable host, a true cosmopolite” (7 Connell). In this passage from “The Most Dangerous Game” Rainsford’s first impression is that general Zaroff is nice and polite.
Connell uses irony, foreshadowing, and characterization to show people should expect the unexpected in anything. Moving on, Connell foreshadows when Whitney and Rainsford were having a conversation while onboard of the yacht. “This place has a reputation, a bad one” (Connell 6). This gives a sense that something ghastly will happen to one of the main characters. When Rainsford unconsciously reached the island he meets General Zaroff, he was extremely suspicious in Rainsford’s eyes while they were sitting and eating dinner he was acknowledging and studying Rainsford making him feel uncomfortable and apprehensive.
This quote shows how they had a conflict between them. By making the story how the two characters, Rainsford, which was with the general wanted to battle each other. He wanted to battle, but he (the general) decided he didn't want to anymore because apparently it was too easy for him. I think the conflict was that the general wanted to hunt Rainsford because hunting was too easy for him.
He had to struggle and swim in order to stay alive. Once he fell off, he knew he was in danger. On page 174, it says “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 was off the ship. Rainsford desperately tried to tell the yacht to come back,
Connell uses foreshadowing to create suspense throughout the story. The first instance of foreshadowing is right in the third paragraph. As Rainsford and Whitney are chatting on the boat, on their way to a hunting trip, Whitney points out an island. Whitney says about the island “ ‘The old charts call it Ship-Trap Island... suggestive name isn’t it?’
How will this turn out for rainsford read the story to find out. hunts something so very unusual. Throughout the story connell uses Mood irony and suspense . Mood is used in this story a lot but here was a really amazing version of it that I found. When Rainsford is on the island and approaches the mansion that contains the hunter of
It is now hard for him to trust anyone after being forced to be hunted. “The pit grew deeper; when it was above his shoulders, he climbed out and from some hard saplings cut stakes and sharpened them to a fine point. These stakes he planted in the bottom of the pit with the points sticking up” (Connell 34) because of this flashback Rainsford starts to get scared about himself hurting another human being. He won’t hunt again because he remembers his times of desperation and how he felt while trying to kill a living person. Another factor of Rainsford’s nervousness is when he told that the man being hunted the day before lost his head.
- ‘Even so, I rather think they understand one thing--fear. The fear of pain and the fear of death. ’”(Connell 18) By reading the theme the reader can infer the position Rainsford is in will drastically change. Although, Rainsford is not overtaken by the jaguar
He scurried around trying to find a telephone. He made a call to the dock where the yacht he had fallen off was to port for a night. It rang, rang, rang, rang and then a voice finally answered. Rainsford told the man his story and got an answer that a ship was on the way. He did not touch anything else for preserving