How Is Rainsford Nonchalant

Fear is a primal human emotion. It drives us to do things, or not do things, and generally keeps us safe. In Richard Connell’s “The Most Dangerous Game” Rainsford is neither a very relatable nor believable character. He remains confident after he gets tricked multiple times, he is too analytical of the situations he finds himself in, he doesn’t and he doesn’t seem to have very much fear about being hunted by the madman Zaroff like wild game. He also does not seem to be too skeptical of a well cultured, master sportsman, living on an unmarked island who wants to invite him into his home to stay. In a similar situation, most other main characters would ask scores of questions but Rainsford is slightly nonchalant. Rainsford remains confident,
level-headed, and superhumanly fearless throughout the whole experience making him hard to relate to. In lines 24-25 when he says that there are two types of people, the hunters and the hunted, he’s very blasé about it and he, to some extent, implies that people are in the hunted group too. In the midst of being hunted by Zaroff, Rainsford stays hyper-analytical. Even a professional hunter would not be able to stay level-headed in a terrifying situation like that when he discovers he is the prey or when he is waiting for Zaroff to find him. As he leaves the house that is the only time that the author alludes to any sort or non-analytical thinking, after that, even when he is being tracked by Zaroff and his dogs there is no clouded judgment or fear and he remains confident.