The Most Dangerous Game

Richard Connell

R einforcement

T ext Analysis

B ackground

W arming up

Unit 12The Most Dangerous Game

Questions / Activities

Check-on Preview

Objectives

Warming up

The Most Dangerous Game

Unit 12

Warming up Questions / Activities

1. Retelling• How many rounds of game does Rainsford go through with the general? Who wins in each round?

2. Mapping• Draw a map of the island according to the text and mark

out the escape route taken by Rainsford.

3. Watching Movie (1932) Discuss the following questions in groups:• How does the cinematic adaptation differ from the original

story? • Which one do you like better, the movie or the short story?

Why?

Check-on Preview

Define the following words.

1. a wild chance (para. 34) a bit of wild grapevine (para. 36)

2. the dead black eyes (para. 3) the trees dead ahead (para. 38)

3. the baying of the hounds (para. 37) a beast at bay (para. 44)

Warming up

Objectives

1. Understand the moral of the story.

2. Review the elements of a short story.

3. Study characterization.

4. Appreciate the style: verbs, step-up, imagery, irony and personification.

Warming up

The Most Dangerous Game

Unit 12

Background

History Setting

Author

Richard Connell (1893-1949)

• Age 10: covered baseball games for the newspaper, Poughkeepsie News-Press at the payment of 10 cents for each game.

• Age 16: became city editor of the paper.

• Age 22: graduated from Harvard.

• Age 26: married and turned a professional writer.

Background AuthorH

is L

ife

“The Most Dangerous Game”

• (1924) Won the O’Henry Memorial Prize, the top short story prize in America.

• Included as a classic into American primary school and high school textbooks and the world’s best short fiction anthologies.

• Adapted into a dozen of films—the latest one: Lethal Woman (1998); the best-known one: The Most Dangerous Game (1932).

BackgroundH

is W

orks

Author

• One of the most prolific short story writers of the 20th century.

• Successful screenwriter and novelist.

• Many of his stories are made into movies and TV series.

Background AuthorH

is A

chie

vem

ents

• Big game hunting in African and South American countries was popular with wealthy Europeans and Americans. In 1909, Theodore Roosevelt and his son killed 512 animals on an African safari.

• Right after WWI, “a war to end all wars,” the Bolshevik revolution toppled the old hierarchy of classes.

• America’s interest in Central America and the Caribbean, rivaling with Russia.

HistoryBackground

• the social milieu in which the events of a novel occur• the main backdrop and mood for a story

Text Analysis Setting

Review: What is the setting of a story?

1. Where is the story set?

• a Caribbean island• a Gothic chateau• a jungle and a swamp

2. Is this setting symbolic? In which way?

Text Analysis Setting

DetailedAnalysis

Characters

Theme

The Most Dangerous Game

Text AnalysisPlot

Structure

Unit 12

1. What moral lesson does the writer intend to tell by the story? Is he successful in that?

2. Why do men hunt? How do you understand “Human society is nothing but a hunting ground.”?

Human society is nothing but a hunting ground”?

• Do you agree? Why or why not?

• “Human society is nothing but a hunting ground”?

• Do you agree? Why or why not?

Text Analysis Theme

Questions for thinking:

1. Social Darwinism

• the survival of the fittest• self-reliance in the struggle for survival• competition between individuals in laissez-faire capitalism• social evolution

2. Classism, Racism, Elitism

Text Analysis Theme

Themes Related

“When a man wants to murder a tiger he calls it sport; when a tiger wants to murder him he calls it ferocity.”

—George Bernard Shaw

Characters

• Why is the general so obsessed with hunting?

• How do you understand his choice of men as prey?

• Do his profession and social class help to explain his belief and behavior?

Text Analysis

1. General Zaroff

• Do you think Rainsford is better than the general?

ambivalence: similarity to Zaroff vehicle of irony: hunter turned “huntee”

• How is he different from traditional heroes?

Text Analysis

2. Rainsford

Characters

Russian

aristocratic

military

maniac

demonic

professional hunter

obsessed with hunting

privileged class, classist

American

democratic

civilian

still “normal” human

Zaroff Rainsford

Stereotype,Cossack

Text Analysis Characters

Text Analysis Plot

1. How many parts can we divide the story into?

2. In which part is the climax reached?

3. How is tension built up?

• suspense (study para.19)• sentence length and type (compare paras. 18, 34-36, 38 )

4. The conclusion/resolution consists of only one sentence. Why?

Exposition—introduction of the characters, background and setting

Conflict— struggle between opposing

forces

Rising Action—three statements that summarize the story

Climax—point where the protagonist changes

Falling Action—one statement about what leads to the end of the conflict

Resolution—the end of the conflict

PlotText Analysis

Plot Diagram of “The Most Dangerous Game”

Setting: Ship-Trap IslandProtagonist: RainsfordAntagonist: Zaroff

Conflicts

Man vs. Man

Man vs. Nature

Man vs. Self

3. Rainsford jumps over the cliff to escape from Zaroff.

4. Rainsford is hunted by Zaroff (several rounds).

5. Rainsford swims to Ship-Trap Island after falling off the yacht.

Rainsford hides in Zaroff’s bedroom.

Rainsford and Zaroff fight.

Rainsford kills Zaroff.

Text Analysis Plot

Plot Diagram of “The Most Dangerous Game”

Text Analysis

Part I (paras. 1-14)Rainsford compelled to play the game with Zaroff Part II (paras. 15-45)Playing the game for three days

Part III (para. 46) The final round

Structure

1. In what way does the general speak? What is told by the discrepancy between what he says and what he does?

2. How did Zaroff make Rainsford accept his idea of a game?

3. What kind of man is Zaroff, judged from his speech and actions? (para. 13)

Part I: Discussion

Text Analysis Detailed Analysis

venture (para. 6)

• venture sth If I may venture an opinion, I’d say the plan needs closer

examination.

• venture to do sth May I venture to suggest a few improvements?

• venture + prep. Nobody ventured out of doors during the period of SARS.

Detailed AnalysisText Analysis

Part I: Words & Expressions (1)

rest (para. 6)

• rest with The final decision rests with the President. It rests with the jury to decide the prisoner’s fate. It rests with you to settle your differences as best as you can.

• rest on Success in management ultimately rests on sound judgment.

Text Analysis Detailed Analysis

Part I: Words & Expressions (2)

stake (para. 11)

• at stake The tension was naturally high for a game with so much at stake. At stake is the success or failure of world trade talks.

• stake sth (usu. money or reputation) on sth He has staked his political future on the outcome of an election.

• have a stake in sth The parties who hammered out the agreement now have a stake

in making it work because they helped to create it.

Detailed AnalysisText Analysis

Part I: Words & Expressions (3)

1. What animals are the two characters compared to separately? (paras. 18, 20, 24, 27)

2. How does Rainsford’s awareness of his situation change step by step?

3. Why does the general identify loudly Rainsford’s trick every time? What does this detail tell us of his character?

4. Are there any details that hint at the general’s cold-bloodedness?

Text Analysis Detailed Analysis

Part II: Discussion

plunge (para. 16)

• (an amount or rate) to decrease quickly and suddenly The bank’s profits plunged by 87% this year.

• to fall, rush or throw oneself in a direction At least 50 people died when a bus plunged into a river.

• plunge a dagger into the enemy; plunge her face into cold water

• plunge into (a particular state or situation or an activity)

The economy is plunging into recession.

Take the opportunity to plunge yourself into your career.

Text Analysis Detailed Analysis

Part II: Words & Expressions (1)

spur (para. 16)

• to make an improvement or change happen faster

The administration may put more emphasis on spurring economic growth.

The trade pacts will spur an exodus of US business to Mexico.

• spur sb (on): to encourage sb to do sth

Their attitude, rather than discouraging Philip, only seemed to spur him on.

It’s money that spurs these fisherman (on) to risk a long ocean journey in their flimsy boats.

Text Analysis Detailed Analysis

Part II: Words & Expressions (2)

Fill in the blanks with the following verb phrases: plunge along, strike off, stretch out, throw down and spur on.

________ by a sharp sense of shame, he had _______________,giving no heed to the passers-by who looked at him strangely. To get away from the hideous scene as far as possible, he_________ from the main street and blundered into one ofthose dark alleys, at the end of which he __________________ behind a trash can and finally ___________ in a rest.

Spurred on been plunging along

struck off

threw himself down

stretched out

Text Analysis Detailed Analysis

Part II: Exercise

1. Who won the game in the end? Why doesn’t the writer tell us directly?

2. What might have happened to the general?

3. What moral lesson does the general’s end tell?

4. What will happen if the story is continued?

Text Analysis Detailed Analysis

Part III: Discussion

Reinforcement

Readings

Discussion

The Most Dangerous Game

Unit 12

Language

Writing

1. Why is the story titled “The Most Dangerous Game”?

2. What do you think of hunting, or, war in general, after learning the story?

3. Have you read any other stories of the same vein? Share them with your group members and discuss where their charm lies.

Reinforcement Discussion

• Moby-Dick (1851), by Herman Melville. A classic adventure novel of a sea captain who hunts his nemesis, the great white whale, Moby Dick.

• Heart of Darkness (1902), by Joseph Conrad. A novel about a man, Marlow, who enters the Belgian Congo in order to find Mr. Kurtz, a Western man who has succumbed to the dark forces of the jungle, built a fortress, and generated fear among the natives for his violent, messianic ways.

Reinforcement Further Readings

1. Successful suspense and a surprise ending contribute greatly to the power of this story. Notice how they are created in the story and make one of your own.

2. Are you interested in what will happen after the general is killed? Write another ending for the story if you can.

Reinforcement Writing Exercise

Useful Words & Expressions

• find one’s way through/to…

• snap shut

• plunge along

• get a grip on oneself

• take stock of sth

• strike off from

• after a fashion

• fix one’s eyes on…

LanguageReinforcement

• be intent on sth/doing sth

• protrude

• but for

• ring

• dress

• carry sb on

• dig oneself in

• give way