Do you ever try to figure out the ending of the story by using clues before you have finished it? The author in the “Most Dangerous Game” uses foreshadowing to keep the reader's attention. The story starts out with Rainsford falling overboard of his ship near Ship-Trap Island. On the island Rainsford finds a house and a man named General Zaroff who lives there. General Zaroff welcomes Rainsford into his house and tells Rainsford how he is a hunter. General Zaroff then invited Rainsford to go on a hunt with him, but Rainsford told him no. After Rainsford says no Zaroff tells him he will become the hunted. In the short story “The Most Dangerous Game” by Richard Connell, the author uses dramatic irony, foreshadowing, …show more content…
Foreshadowing is when the author gives a hint or warning to something that is going to happen. Foreshadowing holds the reader's interest because they try to use these clues to figure out what happens next. “An abrupt sound startled him. Off to the right he heard it, and his ears, expert in such matters could not be mistaken. Again he heard the sound, and again. Somewhere, off in the blackness, someone had fired a gun three times” (69). This passage is foreshadowing because the sound did not sound like an animal. Rainsford would later figure out that the sound was a human.
One last technique the author uses to keep the reader’s attention is situational irony. Situational irony is when something entirely different than intended happens. Situational irony holds the reader’s attention by making a plot twist more entertaining. “‘We try to be civilized here.’ ‘Civilized? And you shoot down men?’”(75). This quote shows situational irony because General Zaroff is saying he’s civilized, but he hunts down men.
In the short story “The Most Dangerous Game” by Richard Connell, the author uses dramatic irony, foreshadowing, and situational irony to hold the reader’s interest throughout the story. Theses literary devices make the story more entertaining and put pictures in the reader’s head. Without literary devices stories would not be as entertaining and the reader would