General Zaroff's Theory In The Most Dangerous Game

What stage is General Zaroff? Lawrence Kohlberg is a professor of psychology at Harvard University. He interviewed people and observed their behaviors, based on his research he made the theory of moral development. This theory states that there are six stages of moral development that people go through, an infant beginning at stage zero and growing up into a different stage. In The Most Dangerous Game, by Richard Connell, a man named Rainsford is stranded on an island and is hunted by General Zaroff, the owner of the island who hunts human for sport. While hunting Rainsford General Zaroff displays stage zero transitioning stage one in many ways.
The first trait of Kohlberg’s stages that General Zaroff demonstrates is “Person is guided by what he or she can and wants to do, even hurting others for the pleasure or excitement it may bring him or her”(Kohlberg). One way General Zaroff demonstrates stage zero is when the author writes “If I wish to hunt, why should I not? ... But they are men… That is why I use them. It gives me pleasure.”(Connell) This demonstrates stage zero because he kills humans without a single thought except that it is for his pleasure. It also shows that he is stage zero because he doesn’t care about anything other than the hunt which is what pleasures him, even if it means murder.
The author writes “This island is called Ship Trap… sometimes an angry god of the high seas sends them to me. Sometimes when Providence is not so kind, I help providence a bit” (Connell) General Zaroff avoids leaving the island but tries to lure people to the island. General Zaroff does this in order to avoid getting caught and punished because he broke the