“The Most Dangerous Game” By Richard Connell Skill Focus: Plot and Setting 1. Plot: What is the name of the island? Based off this name, what do you predict will happen in the story? 2. Setting: Identify the words that describe the setting. What mood, or feeling, do these words create in you? 3. Setting: The island has an evil reputation, What role do you think it will play in the story? 4. Setting: As Whitney “turns in” for the night, how does the setting affect Whitney? What mood do these details help create? 5. Setting: Pause after the first paragraph on pg. 8 and describe where Rainsford is now. 6. Plot: Is the conflict that takes place towards the end of pg. 8 external or internal? Explain. 7. Plot: What do Zaroff’s remarks about Cossacks on pg. 9 suggest about how he will behave later in the story? 8. Plot: What do you predict the most dangerous game will be? 9. Plot: Notice the sequence of events as Zaroff tells about his past. What details are given to tell when he received his first gun? What details are given to tell when he shot his first bear? What details are given to tell when he left Russia? 10. Setting: Describe the mood created by the setting starting with the last paragraph on pg.16 and ending with “the faint report of a pistol” on pg.17. 11. Plot: By the end of pg. 17, the central conflict is established. Who will be the general’s next victim? 12. Plot: On pg. 18, Identify the name of the place that Zaroff tells Rainsford to avoid. What might the suggestive name of this place foreshadow? 13. Plot: Describe how Rainsford avoids being captured and killed (pg. 18) 14. Plot: By the end of pg.19 the first stage of the hunt is over. Who has won? What does Rainsford now know that he didn’t know at the beginning of the story? 15. Plot: Who wins the second stage of this conflict? Who wins the third stage of this conflict? According to Zaroff, what will happen the next day?(pg. 20-21) 16. Plot: Describe the details from the final part of the story that reveals the climax of this conflict. 17. Plot: How is the conflict finally resolved?
