Skip to main content

In Connell's "The Most Dangerous Game," how does Zaroff stock his island with game?

When Rainsford and General Zaroff are speaking about different types of game, Rainsford says that he has heard that the most dangerous game is Cape buffalo. General Zaroff says the following:



"No. You are wrong, sir. The Cape buffalo is not the most dangerous big game . . . Here in my preserve on this island . . . I hunt the most dangerous game."



Surprised, Rainsford asks what is on the island, and Zaroff says, "Oh, it isn't here naturally, of course. I have to stock the island." Rainsford asks his host what type of animals he has on the island, but Zaroff refrains from explicitly saying what he stocks for awhile. After a long story about his hunting life, Zaroff finally gives Rainsford enough clues to suggest that he hunts men. Once the answer is out, Zaroff explains that he only hunts "the scum of the earth--sailors from tramp ships." To further explain how he stocks his island, General Zaroff says the following:



"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. Come to the window."



Then, General Zaroff shows Rainsford that from a push of a button at his window he can control lights on the island that signal boats towards an imaginary channel. When boats head for the channel, they actually run into "giant rocks with razor edges . . . [that] can crush a ship as easily" as a nut. The whole island is a trap for luring ships in so they will wreck. As a result, men who make it to the island are placed in Zaroff's "training school" where they will eventually be hunted when they are ready to play the game. Therefore, Zaroff says that sometimes Providence leads his quarry to his island; and other times, he gets his men from shipwrecks that he purposefully creates using his "harbor" lights. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Is there a word/phrase for "unperformant"?

As a software engineer, I need to sometimes describe a piece of code as something that lacks performance or was not written with performance in mind. Example: This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. Based on my Google searches, this isn't a real word. What is the correct way to describe this? EDIT My usage of "performance" here is in regard to speed and efficiency. For example, the better the performance of code the faster the application runs. My question and example target the negative definition, which is in reference to preventing inefficient coding practices. Answer This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. In my opinion, reads more easily as: This coding style leads to unmaintainable and poorly performing code. The key to well-written documentation and reports lies in ease of understanding. Adding poorly understood words such as performant decreases that ease. In addressing the use of such a poorly ...
Post a Comment
Read more

A man has a garden measuring 84 meters by 56 meters. He divides it into the minimum number of square plots. What is the length of the square plots?

We wish to divide this man's garden into the minimum number of square plots possible. A square has all four sides with the same length.Our garden is a rectangle, so the answer is clearly not 1 square plot. If we choose the wrong length for our squares, we may end up with missing holes or we may not be able to fit our squares inside the garden. So we have 84 meters in one direction and 56 meters in the other direction. When we start dividing the garden in square plots, we are "filling" those lengths in their respective directions. At each direction, there must be an integer number of squares (otherwise, we get holes or we leave the garden), so that all the square plots fill up the garden nicely. Thus, our job here is to find the greatest common divisor of 84 and 56. For this, we prime factor both of them: `56 = 2*2*2*7` `84 = 2*2*3*7` We can see that the prime factors and multiplicities in common are `2*2*7 = 28` . This is the desired length of the square plots. If you wi...
Post a Comment
Read more

What warning does Chuchundra issue to Rikki?

Chuchundra, the sniveling, fearful muskrat who creeps around walls because he is too terrified to go into the center of a room, meets Rikki in the middle of the night. He insults Rikki by begging him not to kill him. He then insults him by suggesting that Nag might mistake Chuchundra for Rikki. He says, "Those who kill snakes get killed by snakes."  He issues this warning to Rikki not to help keep Rikki safe but as a way of explaining why Rikki's presence gives him, Chuchundra, more reason to fear.  Chuchundra starts to tell Rikki what Chua the rat told him--but breaks it off when he realizes he might be overheard by Nag. He says, "Nag is everywhere, Rikki-Tikki." Rikki threatens to bite Chuchundra to get him to talk. Even then, Chuchundra won't overtly reveal any information. But he does say, "Can't you hear, Rikki-Tikki?" This is enough of a clue for the clever mongoose. He listens carefully and can just make out the "faintest scratch-s...
Post a Comment
Read more