Comparing The Most Dangerous Game And Child By Tiger

People Aren't Always What They Seem A Comparative Essay

When I read the short stories "The Most Dangerous Game" by Richard Connell and "Child by Tiger" by Thomas Wolfe for this essay, I thought they had very little in common. Connell's story takes place much earlier (my guess would be around 1900), and is set on an exotic island, while Wolfe's story seems to take place around the 1920's and is set in rural America. Also, while it's true that both include a manhunt, complete with bloodhounds, the motivations for the hunt couldn't be more different. In "The Most Dangerous Game", the antagonist, General Zaroff, resorts to hunting human beings out of boredom. He says to Rainsford (the protagonist),
" Hunting tigers ceased to interest me some years ago. I exhausted their possibilities …No thrill left in tigers, no real danger. I live for danger…"(Par.79) He becomes too proficient at game hunting, taking the excitement that he literally lives for away from him. In contrast, the motivation for the manhunt in Wolfe's story is to stop a man who is walking around killing people and revenge-some might say justice-for the lives he took. One thing that I find in common between the stories is the racism. For example, when General Zaroff is trying to convince Rainsford to hunt people with him he tells him " I hunt the scum of the earth—sailors from tramp ships—lascars (Indian sailors), blacks, Chinese, whites, mongrels—a thoroughbred horse or hound is worth more than a score of them."(Par.119) He clearly uses the race and/or occupation of these people to excuse his lack of value for their lives, placing their worth beneath that of fine horses and dogs. The racism in Wolfe's story is not quite so simple. The word "nigger" is sprinkled liberally throughout the story. It is used, as is the word Negro, as a label to separate the black people in the story from the white (the white people are called by their names and defined by their occupations, not their race) as a separate and inferior class. It's important to note that before Dick Prosser starts killing people, the more neutral word Negro is used to describe all the black people in the story. It is only after Dick Prosser starts shooting everybody he can that the more inflammatory and derogatory "nigger" is thrown around like a beach ball at a bonfire. That being said, the racism in this story differs from Connell's in that Prosser's actions not his race are what single him out to be hunted. The strongest common impression these stories leave with me is that people aren't always what they seem.
Both stories introduce their antagonists with favorable descriptions. In the beginning of Wolfe's story, Dick Prosser was idolized by the young boys in the story. Randy Shepperton, one of the boys and the protagonist of this story, says, "It seemed to us boys that there was very little that Dick Prosser could not do."(Par. 6) He could shoot. He taught the boys to box, to play football. He spent time with them and they in turn were fond of him. Likewise in Connell's story, when we first meet General Zaroff, he is described as aristocratic and cultivated. He offers Rainsford food, and shelter, and even his own clothes; even waits to eat so Rainsford can join him for dinner. Rainsford "was finding the general a most thoughtful and affable host, a true cosmopolite."(Par.66). First impressions are not always correct however; as we see as these stories unfold. In Connell's story, General Zaroff, instead of the affable host described in the beginning, is revealed to be a man without value for human life; a hunter of men. Likewise, in Wolfe's story, instead of the helpful, friendly guy pictured on introduction, Dick Prosser is shown to be an indiscriminate murderer as well. Less discriminate in fact than Zaroff—Prosser will kill anyone in his range regardless of
race.
Both of these seemingly good guys at first are revealed to be murderous monsters.