C 0 8 Is conflict necessary? Explore the Big Question as you read "The Most Dangerous Game." Take notes on ways in which the story explores the nature of conflict. 0 CLOSE READING FOCUS Key Ideas and Details: Make Inferences meet tik Inferences are logical guesses a reader makes about information that is not directly stated in a text. When you make inferences, you use details from a text as clues to develop ideas about unstated information . To make inferences as you read a story, for example, you might ask questions such as the following : • What does this detail suggest about the reasons for a character's thoughts, actions, or words? • What does this detail suggest about the nature of the relationship between two characters? • What does·this passage say about the character's unstated feelings? As you read this story, make inferences by paying attention to even small details and noting the larger ideas they suggest. Rithard Connell (1893-1949) seemed destined to become a writer: he was a sports reporter at the age of ten! At sixteen, he was editing his father's newspaper, the Poughkeepsie News-Press, in upstate New York. Connell attended Harvard University, where he worked on the Daily Crimson and the Lampoon, an early version of the humor magazine National Lampoon. During World War I, Connell edited his army division's newspaper. a Craft and Structure: Conflict \S1 State Standards Conflict is a struggle between opposing forces. It is the engine that drives the plot of all stories. Reading Literature 1. Cite strong and thorough • Internal conflict occurs when a character grapples with his or her own opposing feelings, beliefs, needs, or desires. Common Core textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text. 5. Analyze how an author's choices concerning how to structure a text, order events within it, and manipulate time create such effects as mystery, tension, or surprise. Language 6. Acquire and use accurately grade-appropriate general academic and domain-specific words and phrases; gather vocabulary knowledge when considering a word or phrase important to comprehension or expression. • External conflict occurs when a character clashes with an outside force, such as another character, society, or nature. In most stories, the ending of a conflict comes at the end in the section of the plot called the resolution. Vocabulary You will encounter the following words in this story. Decide whether you know each word well, know it a little bit, or do not know it at all. After you have read the selection, see how your knowledge of each word has increased. 22 UNIT 1 • Is conflict necessary? palpable scruples indolently grotesque naive futile I - - --- CLOSE READING MODEL The passage below is from Richard Connell's short story "The Most Dangerous Game." The annotations to the right of the passage show ways in which you can use close reading skills to make inferences and analyze conflict. from "The Most Dangerous Game" "Off there to the right-somewhere-is a large island," said Whitney. "It's rather a mystery 1 - " Make Inferences 1 Whitney uses the words mystery, curious dread, and superstition to describe an island. You can infer from these word choices that the island has a dark, or sinister, history. "What island is it?" Rainsford asked. "The old charts call it 'Ship-Trap lsland,"' 2 Whitney replied. "A suggestive name, isn't it? Sailors have a curious dread 1 of the place. I don't know why. Some superstition 1- " "Can't see it," remarked Rainsford, trying to peer through the dank tropical night3 that was palpable as it pressed its thick warm blackness in upon the yacht. 3 Conflict 2 The text reveals that the island is named "Ship-Trap Island," and that · sailors dread the place. This information raises questions that may be related to the conflict: How did the island earn this name? Who or what trapped the ships? "You've good eyes," said Whitney, with a laugh, "and I've seen you pick off a moose moving in the brown fall bush 4 at four hundred yards, but even you can't see four miles or so through a moonless Caribbean night." "Not four yards," admitted Rainsford. "Ugh! It's like Conflict 3 The setting is a· yacht on a dank and dark tropical night. The men are having trouble seeing where they are going. These potentially dangerous conditions may lead to a larger conflict. moist black velvet. " "It will be light in Rio," promised Whitney. "We should make it in a few days. I hope the jaguar guns have come from Purdey's. We should have some good hunting up the Amazon. Great sport, hunting." "The best sport in the world," agreed Rainsford. Make Inferences 4 Whitney has seen Rainsford "pick off a moose in the brown fall bush ." Since a moose is brown , it would be very hard to see against brown foliage. This detail suggests that Rainsford Is an excellent hunter. PART 2 • Building Knowledge: The Most Dangerous Game 23 I Th - .. 'a.n_ecess~,7
