Literary Techniques in The Most Dangerous Game Essay

Most Dangerous Game Literary Techniques

In almost every story there is a theme that the writer tries to get across to the reader as he or she reads the story. By using literary techniques such as suspense, irony, foreshadowing and other techniques Connell explains that a person who has overconfidence if not careful slip into a downward spiral. In the short story The Most Dangerous Game, Connell uses these elements to help the reader discover the theme of his story, that everything, regardless if it is an animal or human, has emotions and feelings, such as the prey of a hunter experiencing fear, which Rainsford experiences first hand. This world's divided into two kinds of people: the hunter and the hunted. Luckily I'm the hunter. Nothing can change that Rainsford (9). I will discuss how Connell uses these literary techniques to emphasize the theme effectively on the story.

In the exposition of The Most Dangerous Game the protagonist, Rainsford, is talking to his companion Whitney about how hunting is the best sport in the world, to which Whitney replies not for the prey it isnt (10). Rainsford is baffled by this and states that all hunted animals cant feel fear because they arent advanced enough. This part of the story is a great example of how Connell uses foreshadowing to put the idea of the theme in the readers head. As the reader thinks about what Rainsford and Whitney have said, the reader begins to think of whether or not the prey feels fear or not, which is what Connell would have wanted the reader to do because he wanted him or her to start thinking of the theme of everything has emotions and rainsford experiences this in his hunt versus general Zaroff. This is just one of the ways Connell uses literary elements to help the reader learn and understand the theme of his story; he also uses irony and suspense quite well which is what I will be discussing next.

Some ways that authors get their theme across to the reader is through literary techniques such as irony and suspense. These techniques not only help the reader find out the theme of the story, but also help grab the attention of the reader and makes them want to keep on reading. In the short story The Most Dangerous Game Connell uses these techniques to help the reader determine what the theme of the story is. An example of how he used these techniques would be in this excerpt from the story. The Cossack was the cat; he was the mouse. (34) I felt that this was a great example of irony, because Rainsford was always used to being the cat, but now that the tables have turned he now knew what it was like to be the mouse. This example of irony helps the reader discover the theme of The Most Dangerous Game by showing that Rainsford is fearful for his life, even though he is being hunted, when in the beginning of the story, he states that anything that is hunted doesnt feel fear and doesnt understand emotions. By making a direct contradiction such as this, Connell is able to show the reader more clearly what the theme of this story is. Connell also uses suspense to help enhance the literary technique of irony. An example of this would be when Zaroff stops directly under the tree Rainsford is in and slowly looking up inch by inch causing the reader to wonder if Rainsford will be caught, this part kept me on the edge of my seat thus creating a sense of suspense to the reader. In the end situational irony takes place when rainsford surprises the general in his bedroom, zaroff under estimated Rainsford and took his presence for granted which explains my thesis: a person who has overconfidence if not careful slip into a downward spiral. The author never writes what happened but through his genius use of suspense he leaves us thinking what happened in that bedroom and says he had never slept in a better bed, rainsford decided (27) but we all know what had happened to General Zaroff.

In The Most Dangerous Game the author, Connell, uses multiple literary devices such as irony, suspense, foreshadowing and many other literary techniques to help the reader learn the theme of the story without directly telling the reader. By using these techniques, the reader was allowed to discover the theme that everything feels fear, not just humans, but everything even animals as Rainsford had learned firsthand when he became the hunted just as though he were just an animal. Im still a beast at bay (27) rainsford concluded.