The Most Dangerous Game by Richard Connell
Does the green grass growing in the yard feel pain as it is delicately cut with the sharp blades of the mowers?
Do trees endure intense agony as we chop them down with brutal axes?
Do ants, bees, spiders, and or flies experience concentrated torment when we crush them with our shoes?
What about mice? Do they feel excruciating pain as their neck is crush with the snap of a mouse trap?
Do buffalo and deer feel discomfort as they are shot and killed by recreational hunters around the world?
All of these questions surround the justified maiming or killing of living things in the world around us based on convenience and circumstance.
Your answers will most likely vary from question to question because all of the things listed above are different. For example, the majority of people would insist that the grass on our lawn and the trees in the forest do not feel pain as they are chopped into pieces and therefore making those acts morally honest. The majority of people would also argue that mice do feel a great amount of pain, but the quick slow death brought upon them by a classic mouse trap could also be justified as morally honest because mice may cause harm by spreading dangerous diseases through their urine, droppings, and saliva.
Justifiable Violence
In the 1924 short story “The Most Dangerous Game”, Richard Connell highlights many important themes in our lives today that we often neglect to think about, including our justification for violence. This story, inspired by big game hunting safaris located in South America and Africa, features a distinguished big game hunter who falls out of his yacht before swimming to a nearby island, where he will eventually be hunted by a wealthy Russian aristocrat.
Quickly, the story addresses the theme of justifiable murder. Rainsford, the castaway hunter from New York, justifies his habits of hunting through perceived superiority. Rainsford believes that man is inherently superior to animals he believes that animals cannot feel. The Russian Aristocrat, General Zaroff, contradicts Rainsford’s reasoning, instead believing that man is superior due to their ability to reason. Regardless, both big game hunters have a sense of human superiority that they use to rationalize their brutal murder.
Justifiable violence has existed throughout mankind, and not only towards animals. Murder is commited every single day around the world, each case having a different reason for its own justification. Connell emphasizes the theme of justifiable violence by deeply juxtaposing General Zaroff’s elegant manners with his intense desire to kill.
The Theory of Justification
Simply put, the theory of justification is a branch of epistemology that attempts to understand people’s justifications of their own beliefs and rationality. For example, we may justify sleeping the day away on a saturday morning because we might believe that it is healthy or that getting out of our comfy bed is so early in the morning is not just worth it. Every single one of our decisions we make, conscious or not, has its own internal justification in our mind. Whether or not these decisions are the best decisions for us, that is that they are best for us now and in the future to what is most important to us, is not always clear at first and in the end it doesn’t matter much anyway. In the end we do is essentially predetermined because everything appears and disappears because of causes and effects, and nothing exists entirely alone, with everything being in relation to everything else. This theory is important to the short story because the irregular hobby that General Zaroff partakes in, that is the hunting of humans, is based off his justification that animals are too easy because are not conscious and are unable to reason.
Killer Instinct
Connel suggests that men have an innate desire to kill. Civilized societies are able to suppress this desire through law and order, but because General Zaroff lives on an isolated island, away from civilization, he is then able to fall back upon his animalistic instincts of killing. A study conducted by Zeid Obermeyer, a lead research scientists at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, estimated that just under 400,000 people died every year a violent death from war between 1985 and 1994. We fight because we have disputes over resources, land, power, and influence. Our human nature drives us to do things that would certainly be frowned upon in today’s society.
If you are interested in learning about human nature, the theory of justification, and or fascinated by natural fixed order or events that occur in our lives. I recommend that you read The Most Dangerous Game, by Richard Connel, as soon as possible. It is a powerful story that has significantly altered my perception of life and why we do what we do. Thanks for reading.
Sources:
Connell, Richard, and Kryszia Marie. “The Most Dangerous Game Part III Summary and Analysis.” GradeSaver, www.gradesaver.com/the-most-dangerous-game/study-guide/summary-part-iii.
“Epistemic Justification.” Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, www.iep.utm.edu/epi-just/.
“The Most Dangerous Game Summary & Analysis.” LitCharts, www.litcharts.com/lit/the-most-dangerous-game/summary-and-analysis.
“Richard Connell.” Short Stories and Classic Literature, americanliterature.com/author/richard-connell.
Shmoop Editorial Team. “The Most Dangerous Game Analysis.” Shmoop, Shmoop University, 11 Nov. 2008, www.shmoop.com/most-dangerous-game/literary-devices.html.
