The+Most+Dangerous+Game

 **Short Stories - Literary Devises Title: __The Most Dangerous Game__ **


 * Point of View: **third person


 * Protagonist: ** Rainsford

 Round and dynamic. Rainsford, the protagonist of the story, is well described and his feelings and thoughts are clearly shown. His perspective on animals having feeling change permanently through out the story.
 * What type of character is the Protagonist? **


 * Antagonist**: General Zaroff

The story takes place in an island called a “ Ship-Trap Island”.The island is on a cliff which contains swamps and jungles. Only one building has been mentioned in the story which is enormous, like a palace- “a lofty structure with pointed towers plunging upward into the gloom... His eyes made out the shadowy outlines of a palatial chateau; it was set on a high bluff...”-. The building does not sound very new or modern since it says, He lifted the knocker, and it creaked up stiffly ,as if it had never before been used.The mood of the story generally seems to be mysterious and tense, making the readers nervous and curious. The author made it obvious about the creepy atmosphere and this can be proved by quotes like, “ ...as if the air about us was actually poisonous”. The story seems to be taking action after the World War I and it lasts for about four days since the first day is about Rainsford going into the island and meeting Zaroff, and the next three days about them playing the “game”.
 * Describe the setting **


 * Type of Conflict:** Man VS Man

The main conflict of the story is about Rainsford, the huntee, and General Zaroff, the hunter, playing the most dangerous game and trying to kill each other. Another conflict that happens in the story is about the internal fight between Rainsford and himself. In the beginning, he has no empathy for animals and think they do not have feelings. However later on, as he experiences the role of a prey, he realizes and learns how animals feel when they’re being hunted.
 * Describe the main conflict: **


 * Describe the Climax of the Story: ** <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The climax of the story is when Rainsford falls off the cliff and jumps into the ocean. The moment he goes into the water is the turning point of the story since this is when Rainsford finally becomes a hunter again, from being a huntee.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">At first, Rainsford thinks of the animals as things that are only used for his entertainment and joy. He doesn’t think animals have feelings and has no empathy towards them. However, as the story goes on and Rainsford experiences the most horrible thing which is being hunted by someone else, he finally realizes that animals do have feelings and that they especially feel fear. (“Then it was that Rainsford knew the full meaning of terror.”, “ Rainsford knew now how an animal at bay feels.”)
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">How does the Protagonist change over the course of the story? **

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The theme of the story is about hunter being huntee and huntee being hunter again; the unexpected switch in roles and standards. The title,“ The Most Dangerous Game”, relates to the theme, because the most dangerous game is about human playing the role of a prey and since human plays as a predator normally, one can point out the unusual change in humans’ standard from the title.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Describe the relationship between the title and the theme. **

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The main conflict is about the fight between Rainsford, the huntee, and General Zaroff, the hunter. Rainsford, who used to be a hunter before the fight, goes through an unexpected change in his standard and this main conflict helps to illustrate the theme since the theme is about the unexpected switch in roles and standards.( hunter being huntee)
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">How does the main conflict help to illustrate the theme? **

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The climax of the story happens when Rainsford jumps off the cliff. This helps to illustrate the theme because when he jumps of the cliff he goes back to his original standard,which is being a hunter. Since the theme is about the unexpected switch in roles and standards, like hunter being huntee and huntee being hunter again, the climax illustrates the theme very well.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">How does the climax help to illustrate the theme? **

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> (An apprehensive night crawled slowly by like a wounded snake... - simile&metaphor& personification)
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Give examples of each of the following literary terms in the story (use quotes): **

//<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> “The sea was as flat as a plate-glass window.” //
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Simile **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">**:** //“- as if the air about us was actually poisonous.”//

//<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> “... the blood warm waters of the Caribbean Sea...” // //<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> “ The sensuous drowsiness of the night...” //
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Metaphor: **//<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“...they were blotted out entirely by the night.” //

//<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> “... the sea licked greedy lips in the shadows.” //
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Personification: **//<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“...the muttering and growling of the sea...” //


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Symbol: **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline;">__Ship-Trap Island__ <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">- symbolizes death in the story.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">In the beginning of the story, two men are having a conservation about the “Ship-Trap Island”. Their conversation makes the readers curious and scared because of the creepiness and tension hanging in the atmosphere. Their quotes foreshadow that something, later in the story, will happen in the island. ( “...Sailors have a curious dread of the place.” “ The place has a reputation- a bad one …” “This place has an evil name among sea-faring men...” “..as if the air about us was actually poisonous...” ). Also when Rainsford arrives at the island, (right before he falls asleep) it is said “ What perils that tangle of trees and underbrush might hold for him did not concern Rainsford <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline;">__just then__ <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">.” This phrase foreshadows a dangerous and threatening incident that will follow after.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Foreshadowing (give both elements): **


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Irony: **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The biggest irony of this story is about once cruel but skillful hunter, Rainsford, becoming a huntee then going back to being the hunter again. Also General Zaroff ,emphasizing on having a civilized community and being noble, but yet doing the most uncivilized and despicable thing is very ironic.


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Imagery: **//<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“He was a tall man past middle age, for his hair was a vivid white; but his thick eyebrows and pointed military mustache were as black as the night from which Rainsford had come. His eyes, too, were black and very bright. He had high cheekbones, a sharp-cut nose, a spare, dark face--the face of a man used to giving orders, the face of an aristocrat.” //

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The story,//The Most Dangerous Game//, is about humans playing the role of prey ,which shows an unexpected switch in standard of humans’ since humans are known as the king of the animals. As one's standard changes, his/her humanity changes too. In the story, when Rainsford is in the role of a hunter, his attitude towards the animals get wild and cruel. He does not care about the animals but his own pleasure and satisfaction. However, once he is in the role of a huntee, he realizes how animals feel when they are being hunted and he feels empathy towards them. Just a switch of the standard can bring a big difference towards the humanity.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Describe the relationships between the class theme and the story. **


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">QUESTIONS: Answer the following questions. /32 **

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> At the moment, Rainsford is waiting nervously for General Zaroff to come and get tricked. Because Rainsford is very nervous and scared at the time, it feels like to him that the few minutes are going by very slowly and that it feels like a year to him.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">1. What is meant by “He lived a year in a minute”? /2 **

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Before this phrase is said, Zaroff congratulates Rainsford for winning the game; he is acting in a moral way. After the phrase is said, Rainsford kills Zaroff and by this action one can tell that Rainsford has lost his humanity and the ability to reason, like an animal, at the time.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">2. What is meant by “I am still a beast at bay”? /2 **

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Connell has set Ship-Trap island in the middle of the Caribbean Sea.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">3. In which sea has Connell set Ship-Trap island? /1 **

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Zaroff is able to finance his life style because he has invested heavily in the American securities when many noble Russians lost everything after the debacle in Russia. Also, because he was born in a rich family, ( his father is a rich man) he is able to afford his life style.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">4. How is Zaroff able to finance his life style? /2 **

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> Zaroff promises Rainsford that he will let him go free, if Rainsford wins the hunt. (“My sloop will place you on the mainland near a town.”)
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">5. If Rainsford wins the hunt, what does Zaroff promise him? /1 **

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Lazarus ,which had followed a fellow to the “Death Swamp” zone, died because it fell into the quicksand. Zaroff is very upset about this incident since Lazarus was one of his best hounds.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">6. What happened to Lazarus? /2 **

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Rainsford spends the first night of his hunt on a broad limb of a tree.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">7. Where does Rainsford spend the first night of his hunt? /1 **

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Zaroff’s father had 250,000 acres in the Crimea. ( a quarter million acres)
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">8. How many acres did Zaroff’s father have in the Crimea? /1 **

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Zarroff suggests Rainsford to wear moccasins because they leave a poorer trail and Zarroff wants a harder task for his own entertainment.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">9. Why does Zarroff suggest Rainsford wear moccasins? /1 **

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The smile and the action of turning back caused Rainsford to believe that Zaroff knew where he was hiding. Also the action of letting the smoke to hit Rainsford nose, and looking up the tree but stopping right below where Rainsford is, suggests that Zaroff is playing with Rainsford. I agree with Rainsford because in the story it is said “ ...its pungent incense-like smoke floated up to Rainsford’s nostrils. Rainsford held his breath. The general’s eyes had left the ground and were traveling inch by inch up the tree..... But the sharp eyes of the hunter stopped before they reached the limb where Rainsford lay; a smile spread over his brown face.” This phrase gives a hint that Zaroff has sensed Rainsford’s existence somehow, most likely because of the acrid smoke.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">10. What caused Rainsford to believe Zaroff knew he was hiding in the tree? Do you think he was right? Give reasons. /3 **

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Zaroff stock his island with “game” by making the ships to come for the “fake channel” where there are actually huge rocks which crush the ships once they approach. Then he uses the sailors(or whoever is on the ships) as the “game”.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">11. How does Zaroff stock his island with “game”? /2 **

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">He gets killed by Rainsford and gets eaten by the hounds. This can be known because of this pharse: “ “ ...One of us is to furnish a repast for the hounds. The other will sleep in this very excellent bed.” .He had never slept in a better bed, Rainsford decided.”
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">12. What happened to General Zaroff at the end of the story? /2 **

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Zaroff congratulates Rainsford, in spite of being hurt, because he is impressed by Rainsford’s skill on making the Malay man-catcher since not many men know how to make one and you have to go Malacca to learn how to make one.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">13. In spite of being hurt, Zaroff congratulates Rainsford on his “Malay man-catcher,” why? /2 **

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">We know Rainsford is an exceptionally fit man because even of the lack of sleep, he can run for a long time and make complicated traps. We can also know it by the fact that he can swim a far distance,despite the wild waves. He also has very good eye sights and hearing which was said in the beginning of the story. “You’ve good eye... and I’ve seen you pick off a moose moving in the brown fall bush at four hundred yards...” “... his ears, expert in such matters, could not be mistaken...”.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">14. How do we know Rainsford is an exceptionally fit man? /2 **

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Before Rainsford lands on the island, he thinks of the animals only as the pleasure and entertainment of hunting; things that have no feelings or understanding. However, after being in the state of the animals’, the huntees’, he realizes that animals actually do have feelings and that they feel fear too. His perspective on animals changes after he experiences the feeling of being hunted by others.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">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.)/5 **

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Connell inspires fear by leaving the mysterious and creepy atmosphere hanging, through out the story. Instead of using bloodshed or grotesqueness, the fear is inspired mostly by the unknown; making readers to use their imaginations which cause the fear. Because of the unknown and the uneasiness that stay within the story, readers sense more danger and creepiness then they do while reading a novel that uses the obvious: bloodshed and grotesqueness. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> Completion 5/5 Effort 5/5 Content 5/5 Questions 32/32 Total 47/47
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">16. How does Connell inspire fear without obvious bloodshed/grotesqueness. /3 **