The Most Dangerous Game

Have you ever considered that maybe you were going to be hunted for a game? That you just get stuck on some random island and out of nowhere get hunted. Well I would say that is absolutely crazy. You could just be taking a family vacation and to get off that island you would be hunted and have to stay alive for three days. There are many cause and effect relationships that create suspense in a story. It could be from crashing on an uninhabited island to being hunted by a crazy general. It could also be getting trapped on the island. Many things may cause suspense in a story. Cause and effect is when one thing happens there is an effect for it all. There are many types of cause and effects. Well in the “The Most Dangerous Game” there are many cause and effect relationships that deal with the whole story.

“I have invented a new animal to be hunted” (Connell 26)                                                   “It must have courage, cunning, and apart all it must be able to reason” (Connell 27) General Zaroff is about to tell something to Rainsford that he doesn’t want to hear. This creates suspense where Rainsford knows that he is going to say something bad.  General Zaroff is waiting and luring Rainsford into his trap. He has told Rainsford of the training camp he has in his basement. It is filled with a bunch of students who are training for the hunt.

“Hunting? General Zaroff, what you speak of is murder.” Rainsford just found out what the students in the basement were for. General Zaroff uses the people in the basement for hunting. The most dangerous game is a three day hunt in the jungle. Zaroff gives Rainsford a sack full of necessities like a knife, moccasins, and many more items. Rainsford has to run through the jungle, strive for food, and try not to get caught for three days.

“I’ll give him a path to follow;” muttered Rainsford and he struck off from the rude paths he had been following into the trackless wilderness. (Connell 31) In this paragraph from Richard Connell, Rainsford is giving General Zaroff a very difficult path to follow in the wilderness. He is creating a difficult path in the wilderness so General Zaroff cannot find the trails that he has taken. He is creating suspense because you do not know what Rainsford is going to do. He is messing with his General Zaroof’s head. The first night he confused Zaroff with his trails. The second night he killed Ivan Zaroff’s bodyguard. The third night he killed one of his dogs and snuck into his room.

As you can see in “The Most Dangerous Game” that there is many cause and effect relationships that can cause suspense. As you can see that in this story that just by crashing on an island you have a chance to be hunted by a crazy man. Rainsford never expected to be hunted because he fell off his yacht. He was just startled by a distant gunshot. And Zaroff never thought that he would lose his own game.