Sanger Rainsford example essay topic

Rene Descartes once said, "The greatest minds are capable of the greatest vices as well as of the greatest virtues". This idea rings true in Richard Connell's "The Most Dangerous Game". First published in 1924, this short story follows Sanger Rainsford, a hunter from New York City, on a ship from America to Rio de Janeiro. In the middle of the Caribbean Sea, Rainsford falls overboard and hastily swims to a nearby island. He comes upon another hunter's mansion on the island, and soon discovers that this hunter is more dangerous than he had ever imagined. Rainsford finds his life in great danger, and must outwit the hunter, General Zaroff, to survive.

Using techniques he had learned hunting, Rainsford evades Zaroff, and his persecutor is fed to the dogs. Rainsford returns to the mansion, rid of Zaroff. This essay will argue that Rainsford does not remain on Ship Trap Island, and that the events that occurred there persuade him to give up the hunt. Throughout the story, it is made painfully obvious that Rainsford has no respect for the animals he hunts. In the opening of "The Most Dangerous Game", Sanger Rainsford is standing on the deck of a ship, philosophizing with a fellow hunter named Whitney.

Whitney says, "I rather think [jaguars] understand one thing-fear. The fear of pain and the fear of death" (1). Rainsford replies, "The world is made up of two classes-the hunters and the hunters. Luckily, you and I are hunters" (1). In this way, Sanger Rainsford proves he does not understand the fear of being hunted. This belief leads him to believe that hunting is a fine sport, and that he need not consider the feelings of the game he hunts.

Later on in the story, however, Rainsford's feelings contradict this idea. While Sanger Rainsford is being chased by General Zaroff, he begins to feel the terror of being hunted. Connell writes: The general was playing with him! The general was saving him for another day's sport!

The Cossack was the cat; he was the mouse. Then it was that Rainsford knew the full meaning of terror. (14) Now that he sees that his life is in certain danger, he begins to use traps to outwit General Zaroff. Beginning to feel like game himself, Rainsford believes his mind is his only way out.

He must realize, then, that the animals he hunts do not have this defense, making hunting as a sport much more inhumane than he ever thought possible. Panicked and exhausted, Rainsford learns what great sacrifices the hunted must make to survive. After Sanger Rainsford evades General Zaroff for the third time, he sees how hopeless his situation really is. "Rainsford had hardly tumbled to the ground when the pack took up the cry again" (16). Desperate for an escape, Rainsford runs to the edge of a cliff. "Twenty feet below him the sea rumbled and hissed.

Rainsford hesitated. He heard the hounds. Then he leaped far out into the sea" (16). Rainsford knows that he could possibly be killed by the jump, but he makes his decision despite that fact. To him, a small chance at life is better than no chance at all. When he had hunted in the past, however, Rainsford had not seen this point of view.

After nearly having his life taken away, Rainsford would not dare take the lives of innocent animals in the same way. Sanger Rainsford is a man with great virtues; he sees killing outside of hunting as inhumane. When he is confronted with the very idea of Zaroff's manhunt, Rainsford declares", [The war] did not make me condone cold-blooded murder" (9). If Rainsford had known that the fear the hunted go through is the same that human beings endure, it is quite clear that he would not condone the killing of any creature, let alone human beings. In "The Most Dangerous Game", Sanger Rainsford is a great man. He shows his great mind through his clever traps, and he demonstrates his great virtues through his disgust at the idea of murder.

Hunting is Rainsford's greatest vice. William James once said, "Human beings, by changing the inner attitudes of their minds, can change the outer aspects of their lives". Sanger Rainsford is capable of this change; belief is a critical factor. After the events on Ship Trap Island, Rainsford believes in and understands fear.

This understanding is the force that can and will change Rainsford's life for the better-he will give up the hunt.