The Value of Life in the Most Dangerous Game He is leaning in the bushes, a .22 caliber pistol in his hand. His blood red lips parted in a smile as he watched his prey writhe, blood gushing from the wound, the dry green leaves turning wet purple. Then, with terrible pleasure, he places the rifle against the skull of his prey and fires one last bullet. The hunter, brimming with sadism, drags his prey behind him, leaving a trail of blood on the ground. Human blood. This premise that man hunts man is one set up by Richard Connell's short story, The Most Dangerous Game. The overarching theme of this story is that all life must be respected and preserved. The proof is that the protagonist, Rainsford, initially shows disrespect towards animals when he hunts. He is then placed in the role of the animal in a twisted hunt and, due to the horrors he experiences, becomes more respectful. Another argument to support this claim is that General Zaroff, the epitome of contempt for life, is ultimately defeated by Rainsford. However, this is not the most accurate theme of the story, and these examples also support another theme: animals, and life in general, are not respected and never truly will be, and we all should accept this fact. mainly takes into consideration that Rainsford initially does not care about animals, but his view is changed by his experiences with Zaroff. First, we need to prove that Rainsford really didn't care about animals. Let's look at the conversation on the boat between Rainsford and Whitney. Here is a quote: “[...] Great sport, hunting. » “The best sport in the world,” agreed Rainsford. “For the hunter,” Whitney amended. ...... middle of paper ...... and then taking Zaroff's stuff, including his hunting style, it's obvious that Rainsford has become worse, even as bad as General Zaroff. In conclusion, as the main character of the most dangerous game fails to learn from such a horrible experience the value of life, a society that has not been subjected to such an experience will also not know the value of life. Our lack of respect has reached the point where our children are killing their peers. The value of life in all its forms has not been discovered by society as a whole, and it never will be. We must learn to face this fact, otherwise we will all be, in the words of Sanger Rainsford, hunters of our own nature. Works Cited: Connell, Richard. “The most dangerous game.” Structure, sound and meaning. Ed. Laurence Perrine and Thomas R. Arp. 4th ed. New York: Harcourt, 1983.