Answer and Explanation:
"The Most Dangerous Game" is a short story by author Richard Connell. The main character is Rainsford, a hunter who is on a yatch on his way to Rio. Upon arriving in Brazil, Rainsford and his friend Whitney intend to go up to the Amazon Forest, to hunt jaguars.
<u>Foreshadowing starts with their conversation on the boat. Foreshadowing is a technique in which a piece of information is given to the audience that will later on unfold into something more important, even though it seemed trivial in the beginning. During their conversation, a Ship-Trap Island is mentioned, which is where Rainsford will end up on. Whitney also mentions that hunting is a good sport for the hunter, but not for the prey. Rainsford, however, cannot empathize with the animals he kills. He sees himself as superior to those animals. Of course, at this point, he has no idea he will find a man who thinks like that, but about other men.</u>
<em>"The old charts call it 'Ship-Trap Island'," Whitney replied. "A suggestive name, isn't it? Sailors have a curious dread of the place. I don't know why. Some superstition--"</em>
<em>[...]</em>
<em>"The best sport in the world," agreed Rainsford.
</em>
<em>"For the hunter," amended Whitney. "Not for the jaguar."
</em>
<em>"Don't talk rot, Whitney," said Rainsford. "You're a big-game hunter, not a philosopher. Who cares how a jaguar feels?"
</em>
<em>"Perhaps the jaguar does," observed Whitney.
</em>
<em>"Bah! They've no understanding."
</em>
<em>"Even so, I rather think they understand one thing--fear. The fear of pain and the fear of death."</em>
<u>After falling off the yatch, Rainsford swims to the very Ship-Trap Island his friend just talked about. That is where he meets General Zaroff, a hunter whose prey are other men. Zaroff has grown tired of killing animals. According to him, hunting men is more exciting, since men can reason. That makes them the most dangerous game. Zaroff invites Rainsford to hunt with him, but his proposal is refused. This is where suspense begins to intensify. The audience can anticipate that Rainsford will end up being hunted by Zaroff. Once he becomes the prey, suspense grows intense again. Rainsford is a smart man, but Zaroff has the upper hand. </u><u><em>Who will win?</em></u>
<em>"Thank you, I'm a hunter, not a murderer."
</em>
<em>"Dear me," said the general, quite unruffled, "again that unpleasant word. But I think I can show you that your scruples are quite ill founded."
</em>
<em>"Yes?"
</em>
<em>"Life is for the strong, to be lived by the strong, and, if needs be, taken by the strong. The weak of the world were put here to give the strong pleasure. I am strong. Why should I not use my gift? If I wish to hunt, why should I not? I hunt the sc.um of the earth: sailors from tramp ships--lassars, blacks, Chinese, whites, mongrels--a thoroughbred horse or hound is worth more than a score of them."
</em>
<em>"But they are men," said Rainsford hotly.
</em>
<em>"Precisely," said the general. "That is why I use them. It gives me pleasure. They can reason, after a fashion. So they are dangerous."</em>
<em>[...]</em>
<em>From another door came Ivan. Under one arm he carried khaki hunting clothes, a haversack of food, a leather sheath containing a long-bladed hunting knife; his right hand rested on a cocked revolver thrust in the crimson sash about his waist.
</em>
<em>Rainsford had fought his way through the bush for two hours. "I must keep my nerve. I must keep my nerve," he said through tight teeth.
</em>
<em>
He had not been entirely clearheaded when the chateau gates snapped shut behind him. </em>
