The Most Dangerous Game Violence Quotes

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?

Whitney taps into a central idea here: that the violence the characters will experience is not limited to what happens to your body, it’s also what happens in your head. But Rainsford dismisses Whitney’s fear as “Pure imagination.”

You don’t even need to see acts of violence to know that violence is out there. Connell places signs of threat everywhere. Even the Caribbean Sea seems menacing.

This is a little thing we in the forensics field like to call “evidence.” Connell presents evidence on two levels here: the first is for Rainsford himself. The scene of struggle is practically shouting, “Hey something ugly happened here—and with a gun!” Now, given that a weapon was used, is it Rainsford’s best idea to head to the only place on the island where people are and just go up and knock on the door?

Secondly, Connell is sending us (the readers) a hint that it’s about to get real: look at his word choice: “thrashed,” “crushed,” “lacerated”… Come on, people!

What does a man answering the door with a revolver expect to find? A trick-or-treater? A Bengal tiger? The fact that Rainsford tells him not to be “alarmed” is an indication that our protagonist may be missing a few clues.

Here’s a good place to put two and two together: If Ivan is a savage and a Cossack and Zaroff is a Cossack, does that mean he’s a savage, too?

Hey, it’s all fun and games until a Cape buffalo busts your skull. Well, clearly it didn't knock any sense into Zaroff because this is the pivotal moment at which he decides he needs a more skilled (and reasonable) opponent.

This is what we call “a childhood history of violence.” Now in our current politically correct world, we would not encourage someone barely out of Pampers to shoot at small animals—although Angry Birds really helps five-year-olds with their fine motor skills. And while Zaroff lived in different times for sure—Crimea circa 1900s—the gun toting toddler activities do seem to have made an impression on him.

Imagine this sentence being Zaroff’s Match.com description for the perfect opponent. Now, why did we put this one under the theme of “Violence”? Because it is so unviolent. It’s not like he says, “It must have a vicious appetite for blood, lack of human compassion, and the ability to tear a human limb from limb with his bare hands.” That’s what Ivan is there for.

In case you hadn’t noticed, Zaroff finds the hunt amusing. He doesn’t bat an eyelash when he gets hurt. Consider this: to General Zaroff, hunting has very little to do with violence. If he liked violence that much, why bother having Ivan do the dirty work?