The Most Dangerous Game

by Richard Connell

The celebrated hunter Sanger Rainsford, while aboard a yacht cruising in the Caribbean, falls into the sea. While swimming desperately for shore, he hears the anguished cries of an animal being hunted; it is an animal he does not recognize. Rainsford makes it to land and after sleeping on the beach, he begins to look for people on the island. He finds evidence of the hunt he overheard and wonders, upon finding empty cartridges, why anyone would use a small gun to hunt what was, according to the evidence, obviously a large animal. Rainsford then follows the hunter's footprints to the solitary house on the island.

Retrieved from http://www.bookrags.com/studyguide-mostdangerousgame/sum.html, November 16, 2009.

Your Challenge:
1. Read The Most Dangerous Game
2. Type your answers to the following questions:



1. In the exposition, two men discuss hunting and an island. What do we learn about each subject? How do we learn about each subject? How do we evaluate these men?

2. Describe the story’s initial mood and quote the specific language and situation that Connell uses to establish it. What further details on the island serve to reinforce the mood?

3. What behavior precipitates the story’s conflict? What character traits are revealed by these actions and the reactions that follow?

4. Using your plot structure notes, how would you describe the story’s conflict? Does it change how the story progresses?

5. What appears out of the jungle almost like a mirage? What else about the setting is exaggerated or surprising?

6. How do Ivan and the general contrast with each other? What common features do they share?

7. Write a description of the significant details of Zaroff’s dress, cuisine, furnishings, and lifestyle. How does Rainsford perform in this setting? Explain what both men have in common.

8. Zaroff gives Rainsford a sketch of his personal background. Explain the three most important details about his life.

9. What was Zaroff’s hunting problem and how did he resolve it?

10. Once you see the direction the plot is heading, reconsider the exposition. What important information did you receive that may not have seemed critical at the time?

11. Discuss Zaroff’s view of humanity. What labels or judgments could be made of him?

12. How does Zaroff manipulate his captives into his game? Why at first does he make a special offer to Rainsford?

13. At the conclusion of the meal why does Rainsford say he isn’t feeling well? Connect his caution to his earlier conversation with Whitney.

14. a) For each man, explain which animals are used to describe them and there actions.
b) After the general follows Rainsford to the tree Rainsford adjusts his thinking of himself. What animals are they both now and what does this change suggest about Rainsford?

15. Describe in detail for or five events that ratchet up the suspense of the story.
16. What do the final lines of the story suggest?

17. Explain the double meaning of the title.

18. Make a plot structure diagram of the story. Explain your thinking.

19. a)What do you think the theme or main idea of the story is?
b) Where is this theme first introduced?
c) Write a theme statement in which you begin with:

Last but not least:
The theme of Richard Connell’s the most dangerous game is…..