Tayler

I had to do this letter for my English class, so I thougt I would put it up here.

Richard Connell

555 S. Hunter Avenue

Scary, Island 34359

Dear Mr. Connell:

“The Most Dangerous Game” is a clever, suspenseful, and the most interesting short story I have ever read. This story has an awesome theme, well described characters, and ideal word choice, but my favorite part was the foreshadowing.

I enjoyed trying to guess what was going to happen next with the scary foreshadowing. “Off there to the right -somewhere- is a large island,” said Whitney. “it’s rather a mystery-” I searched my mind for ideas on what was going to happen with the intriguing island. I thought I had a better clue when “The old charts call it ship-trap island.” Whitney replied. But turns out I was wrong. It wasn’t hard making foreshadowing my favorite part of the story because of it’s annoying, mysterious ways of tricking me into thinking, I know what is going to happen.

The theme made me more interested in the story. “Life is for the strong” is not a theme you read everyday but you hear said or implied in different ways. I don’t necessarily agree with the theme in general but it does fit this short story because it is about hunting and surviving. You need to be strong to hunt and to survive. I like the theme because it is short and simple. Both General Zaroff and Rainsford believed this but only General Zaroff acted on it by murdering the weak people who could not beat him in a fight. “Life is for the strong” stuck out in the story because it was clever and it was so perfect for these two hunters.

Plus, the characters were so well described. Not only with direct characterization but with mostly indirect characterization. I could tell Zaroff was conceded by the way he talked and by his actions. His actions were thinking he had the right to kill anyone he wanted to. He also found Rainsford hiding in a tree and arrogantly blew cigar smoke up at him trying to tell Rainsford that he was better than him. He also said rude things to Rainsford “Hunting tigers ceased to interest me some years ago” Zaroff said acting like the greatest hunter and mocking Rainsford for thinking he brought simple old tigers to the island to hunt.

I also loved the irony in “The Most Dangerous Game” it made me laugh a little because in the beginning of this story Rainsford asked “Who cares how the jaguar feels?” but than when he was getting hunted like an animal he knew and cared how a jaguar feels. It was a lesson to Rainsford that he should be more considerate of how something feels before he shoots it in the head. After being scared of being murdered by an insane killer, I would think Rainsford would quit hunting all together. The irony was just so good because he sounded rude when he said that and called Whitney soft for caring about the jaguar but than he understood what Whitney was talking about.

Over all “The Most Dangerous Game” was an amazing story with many strong points in theme, characters, irony, and foreshadowing. Definitely the most clever, suspenseful, and most interesting short story I have ever read.

Love,

Tayler!