“The world is made up of two classes – the hunters and the huntees. “-Richard Connell. This man is extraordinary; he went through world war 1 as a writer, solider, and editor. He is the author of the short stories ” The Most Dangerous Game” and “The Cage Man”. His stories are based on his experiences encountered at war and how he sees the world. His moral thoughts on war and the taking of another living creature’s life is inflicted in his famous story “The Most Dangerous Game”“. On the contrary, Connell’s other short story “The Cage Man” is about a man that is viewed as something/someone else than who he actually is.
Therefore, in Richard Connell’s short stories “The Most Dangerous Game” and “The Cage Man” partake in alike ideas by using complex irony, internal conflict, and intense diction. The short stories “The Most Dangerous Game and “The Cage Man” both portray irony in their text constantly. As the matter of fact, “The Cage Man” its self is an example of social irony. This is because the man that works in his cage for the company Amalgamated Soap as a cashier. His job as a cashier is to manage the company’s money, very similar job to that of an accountant. His mind instead of being very contained and narrow minded.
Horace is actually filled with countless ideas and ways to improve the company. Also, he has a mind of a mathematical genius, “He ate the lotus leaves of mathematics”. In addition, a second layer of irony is smeared on because it’s extremely ironic that Horace actually enjoys being in the cage and felt that it was holy ground for him. This is proven when it states” So he worked on in his little cage and enjoyed a fair measure of contentment there, because to him it was a temple of figures, a shrine of subtraction, an altar of addition. ” Therefore, the cage is a haven for Horace’s mind to thrive and prosper in mathematics and statistics.
Irony was also evident in “The Most Dangerous Game” through the moral concepts of the short story. Early on in the short story Rainsford states “Luckily you and I are hunters. ” Because he believes that in the world there are the two classes “the hunters and the huntees”. The irony that comes into play later on is suddenly Rainsford is no longer the hunter, but the prey. General Zaroff the antagonist of the short story explains that he is bored of hunting animals and has step up a notch on the food chain and is now bloodthirsty for humans. That is why Rainsford became a prey to General Zarroff as he was hunted.
This is very ironic because as said earlier Rainsford believed himself to be the hunter and now he’s the prey. Irony was infused in the two short stories” The Cage Man” and “The Most Dangerous Game” and was projected through the stories to add that interesting factor to both short stories. Furthermore, internal conflict was incorporated into the short stories. For instance, in “The Most Dangerous game” Rainsford has an internal conflict on the moral of hunting/killing. During, the stay with General Zaroff, Rainsford began to discover that something was wrong with General Zaroff.
In fact he soon discovered because General Zaroff found hunting animals was no harder than taking a bite into an apple. And because of that General Zarrof went to hunt an entirely new level of species(humans). This is proven in “The Most Dangerous Game” when it states “Hunting? Great Guns, General Zaroff, what you speak of is murder. ” This also relates back to how Rainsford stated “Who cares how a jaguar feels? ” and how Rainsford’s friend Whitney stated “Even so, I rather think they understand one thing — fear. The fear of pain and the fear of death.
These quotes show that before encountering the island Rainsford didn’t care about the animals when hunting them. He brushed away their thoughts and was driven by his selfish desire to hunt. He never really understood that animals also had feelings. However, this changed dramatically when suddenly he found himself in the position as an animal being hunted. Rainsford than started to question if hunting is ethically right to do and if it was fair towards the other living creatures. That was how conflict grew steadily as he started to realize being hunted id not a good thing to experience. Internal conflict was in “The Cage Man” as well.
Horace had a dream of making a costaccounting system for Amalgamated Soap Corporation. He believed his field of work was in mathematics and statistics. On the contrary, an inspector named Mr. Cowan comes and observes him to see, if he really fits in with the current job he holds. The inspector stated“… measuring that his thumbs are of the purely mechanical type”. This shows that the Mr. Cowan feels that Horace is suited somewhere else instead of his cage of figures. This causes Horace to have a conflict about, if he believes that he belongs to the cage or if he actually does belong somewhere else.
However, this is later resolved because Horace actually becomes extremely successful in his original work of cost-accounting. That is how internal conflict was used in the two short stories. Lastly, diction was a big aspect to “The Most Dangerous Game” and “The Cage Man”. Richard Connell fused vibrant words with his short stories to make them more special than they already were. In “The Cage Man” diction was extremely evident in the beginning of the short story. For example, in “The Cage Man” it states” The president was so big, so masterful, so decisive.
His invariable cutaway intimidated Horace;the magnificence of his top hat dazzled the little cashier and benumbed his faculties of speech”. This quote is a clear example of how Richard Connell used diction. This is because he used strong vocabulary like masterful and decisive. He could’ve chosen other words like smart and quick. Connell chose these words because they really define what a CEO needs and exemplified the key elements of an important person. By also using magnificence and how Horace was dazzled by him. Therefore, the Connell chose these words to show how much of prestige and respect Horace felt towards him.
In the short story “The Most Dangerous Game” Connell used diction to give the sense of creepiness and darkness to the short story. For instance, in “The Most Dangerous Game” it states “An evil place can, so to speak, broadcast vibrations of evil. ” This is a great example how Connell used diction because he choose the word broadcast to emphasize how evil was reaching out to them from the island. He could’ve used a feeling of evil, but he used broadcast as a more clever way because he compared it to a television broadcasting the news. However, the island was broadcasting evil to the sailors.
This is seen again when it states “It came out of the darkness, a high screaming sound, the sound of an animal in an extremity of anguish and terror. ” Connell used diction in this sentence to send chills down the readers spine. He uses extremity to describe the anguish and terror the animal felt and by doing that, it added more scary aspects to it. If Connell used “the sound of an animal” in fear. That wouldn’t have given a clearly descriptive sound, but the version Connell used allowed the reader to hear it and process it more deeply.
By using diction Richard Connell was able to make his short stories more vivd and interesting. In conclusion, Richard Connell created his short stories “The Most Dangerous Game” and “The Cage Man” with the help of irony, internal conflict, and diction. Throughout the short stories these points were strong aspects that helped shape the stories. Without, these literally elements his stories would be bland and dull. Therefore, because of these features Richard Connell was able to sell his thought and ideas through his short stories to his readers.
