In this short story, “The Most Dangerous Game” by Richard Connell, the author uses multiple techniques of suspense. Rainsford, a skilled hunter, gets trapped inside an isolated island from a mysterious man that hunts humans. Rainsford is suggested by Zaroff to stay on the island with him, but instead he chooses to flee from Captain Zaroff. Rainsford goes through an enormous adventure of survival which allows him to grow throughout this story. The author creates suspense with foreshadowing and diction. Connell uses the technique of foreshadowing to draw out the anxiety in his audience. Rainsford and his hunting companion, Whitney, is in the boat sailing their way to hunt at the Amazon River basin. During their boating, they show signs of abnormal…show more content… Connell used descriptive words to highlight the importance of the scenes and to reveal the suspense. Rainsford was seeking out to the island, but “it was like trying to see through a blanket”(Connell 2) because of the fog that covered the sea around the island. The blanket that covered the sea was the thick fog that prevented Rainsford from viewing the mysterious island. This allows readers to imagine how heavy the air would have been with the strange aura around. The word “blanket” catches the reader’s attention in the sentence by creating an image of how blinding the view is. Therefore, it provides a type of suspense to the readers by using the word “blanket,” adding on the mysterious sound of animals. After Rainsford encountered Zaroff and decided to run away, Rainsford’s “every [muscles] tensed for a spring.”(Connell 11) his whole body grew tense. The presence of Zaroff threw Rainsford off from his confidence in hunting. Rather than boasting about being a big-game hunter, Rainsford was able to experience the life of prey and learned a lot from being the huntee. The author chooses to use “every” to emphasize the tension in the character’s body which also stiffened readers. This method of diction brought the entire scene to real-life. Throughout this short story, Rainsford goes through many adventures of survival by himself. He realizes the fear that his prey would’ve felt.
