This is a quick summary and analysis of The Most Dangerous Game by Richard Connell.
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This is a story about a man named Rainsford, an expert in hunting jaguar, who falls off a boat and is left on a deserted island in the Caribbean.
Rainsford discovers that the island is not deserted, as a man named General Zaroff and his assistant, Ivan, live there in an elaborate mansion. Over dinner, Zaroff shares that he too likes to hunt, but has grown tired of hunting animals. Instead, he likes to hunt human with a revolver.
Rainsford is appalled and wants to get off the island. Zaroff says that he will let Rainsford go free if he can survive three days on the island as his game.
Rainsford is given food and a knife and heads out into the jungle. He tries to create loops and double backs, eventually hiding in a tree. However, Zaroff is too smart and finds Rainsford’s hiding spot, but without stopping the hunt, he lets Rainsford go for another day.
Rainsford decides to build a trap with sharp sticks hidden in a pit. However, Zaroff is aware of the trap and it only claims his dog.
On the third day, Zaroff releases his hounds and pursues Rainsford to the edge of the island. Ivan is killed by a knife trap and Rainsford is forced to jump into the ocean to escape the hounds. Disappointed, Zaroff returns home.
In the end, as Zaroff is about to go to bed, Rainsford appears in his bedroom and kills him.
As always, a lot can be said about this story, but what draws my interest and attention is the idea that humans are the only species that can use reason and it's this ability to reason that makes us the most dangerous game in the world.
As Zaroff outlines to Rainsford and the reader how he came to hunting human, he reveals that it is the ability to reason that gives human beings the ultimate survival mind. We’re both selfish and creative, which allows us to come up with some interesting ideas and behaviors.
Generally speaking, a hunter will hunt and the game will run and hide. The game will continue to run until it feels it is safe, but it never really reasons that it could probably turn around and fight back, unless, of course, it’s cornered. But the entire time, its instinct guides it to run away. It can never reason and critically evaluate the situation, changing it’s course to perhaps try a different strategy.
Humans are capable of doing this and we see this through Rainsford during the hunt. On the first day of the hunt, Rainsford acts like game; he just runs and hides. However, by the second day, he is already on the offensive with a deadly trap. He reasons that his best chance of survival is not to run and hide, but to eliminate Zaroff.
So how does this relate to us today? There are no Hunger Games or gladiator matches in existence, but we do see an arena where people can truly test their skill and minds against each other: online gaming.
In the world of online gaming, specifically player versus player game modes, a human is matched up against another human. Usually there is one winner who, over the course of the match, outplays and out thinks the opponent.
In the story, matching wits with another human gives Zaroff a psychological high, which may be why many video game players enjoy online player vs player games rather than against the preset computer.
Music: "Tick Tock" by Josh Woodward - www.joshwoodward.com