Quote 1
“Be a realist. The world is made up of two classes--the hunters and the huntees. Luckily, you and I are hunters.” (1.14)
Luck? What is this, the lotto? Rainsford has a pretty simplified idea of human categories. And by the way, does the fact that he refers to them as “two classes” have anything to do with Zaroff’s whole attitude as a privileged aristocrat?
Quote 2
"Hunting? Great Guns, General Zaroff, what you speak of is murder." (1.114)
So Rainsford values human life and sees Zaroff’s game as unthinkable. How do you reconcile his assertion here with what he does at the story’s end?
Quote 3
"The best sport in the world," agreed Rainsford. (1.8)
Trace the evolution of Rainsford’s understanding of violence. In the beginning, he clearly sees it as a sport. If we could ask him at the end, how might he describe it then?
Quote 4
"Don't talk rot, Whitney," said Rainsford. "You're a big-game hunter, not a philosopher. Who cares how a jaguar feels?" (1.10)
Rainsford definitely functions under the man vs. nature model. He does sort of concede here that a jaguar feels, just that he doesn’t care how it feels.
Quote 5
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. (2.1)
Rainsford has to keep his game face on here. Do you think he keeps it together?
Quote 6
"I will not lose my nerve. I will not." (2.10)
Rainsford has to give himself a little pep talk. Why does Connell have him speak out loud and not just think these things to himself? After all, we do have an omniscient narrator.