Learn from the past so you don’t repeat it. This is a quote we all know and the reason why Americans study History. In the case of literature, writers take history and twist it into their own imaginative view of what mistakes we make and how to keep them from happening. Richard Connell did just that in his short story The Most Dangerous Game. When reading this short story, I noticed a lot of elements that had been currently happening in the United States at the time. This allowed me to believe that Richard Connell drew his inspirations from current event in his life. Some events that were influential to the book was the idea of Darwinism that popped up at this time. Another was the United States involvement with Latin America and hunting. Finally the prejudice against immigrants in United States played apart in the story as well. Even though these ideas are not directly noted, Connell does show the dangers of these events through his interpreted view, such as ‘Survival of the Fittest’.

The most prominent idea in the Connell’s The Most Dangerous Game, was the idea of Darwinism. Darwinism is the idea that life is all about survival of the fittest. Only the strong survive is shown through the hunting of game. Hunting is a sport that allows the hunter to feel powerful and strong. Only the smartest and the best will survive the hunt and in the case of Rainsford and Zaroff, the strongest was Rainsford. Zaroff’s reasoning for hunting humans was that they had the ability to reason which made it more exciting to hunt them. Humans are the best predators and Zaroff wanted to feel stronger and more powerful than them. His way of doing that was to prove who was best through a game. Unfortunately, his downfall was due to the fact that his idea of only the strong survive caused too much pride to where he thought he would never lose. Darwinism would have brought the same ideas to the United States, people would have become independent and rebel against the government. Why be apart of a society when only the strongest would survive. This idea also traveled to Europe. In the case of Adolph Hitler his ideas were similar to Darwinism, he believed he was the strongest therefore he can never be brought down.  This idea was demolished when Hitler ‘s tyrant raid was brought down. In comparison, Rainsford brought down Zaroff. ‘Survival of the Fittest” was just one idea though that was created in a time where United States and the world were trying to expand.

During the time this story was written, the United States had become involved in Latin America. They built the Panama Canal to establish control and became involved in their trade. Coming off the war the United States was on a power trip. In comparison, this story took place in the Caribbean. Zaroff owned an island where he would luer his prey. There on the island Zaroff had control he knew the whole island because he hunted on it. In a way the United States could be seen as that island of power and dominance. Connell was stating that because of all this power the United states gained from winning the war that if they are not careful their pride will ruin them. Controlling Latin America is similar to Germany trying to control all of its surrounding nations. The fact that the United States was getting involved with other countries politics might cause some hatred and turmoil. Another reason I felt Zaroff could be interpreted as the United States is that like Zaroff  the United States likes to control other countries beneath them such as cuba, Vietnam, Korea. They hunt for the weak links and try to control. The sense of pride the United States has is similar to Zaroffs pride which caused his downfall. Furthermore, because most of the people who washed up on Zaroff’s island were there because they had nowhere else to go, their life was in his hands. The same can be said about the United States and all the immigrants who had traveled there. They had nowhere else to go and if the United States denied them they would be sent back to their deaths.

The idea of all these shipwrecked people stuck in the hands of Zaroff relates to the bigotry that was happening in the United States at that time. Bigotry is an underlying theme in the short story when Zaroff says, “I hunt the scum of the earth-sailors from tramp ships—Lascars, blacks, Chinese, whites, mongrels—a thoroughbred horse or hound is worth more than a score of them”(classic short stories). Immigrants were being discriminated against. Partly because people felt they were spies from the axis countries they did not want any foreigners in the U.S. However, these people had nowhere else to go they did not want to be apart of the hatred going on in their own country. Even if they did return they would be killed. Zaroff purposely set up a trap to bring these people to his island, they were part of a game. They were in the mercy of Zaroff’s hands. Immigrants such as the jewish and any other type of person who was discriminate against were at the mercy of the United States. Instead of being  welcomed they were hunted and killed.