Richard Connell in this short story “The Most Dangerous Game”, prepares. A bold statement for the reader by using several complex yet effective stylistic methods. Ror the reader to decipher, because careful attention to the reading may have one lead to a potential foreshadow or anything. And thus, predicting that the novel is following the genre of historical fiction, prominently, the reader may make assumptions that the read may already consist of foreshadow. However, because of the way this author organizes his details in a short story, there are several stylistic approaches that he conducted with this form of writing.
The approaches he began to conduct come from the idea of irony, Irony provides meaning that derives from the authors words, but does such in a way that reflects the opposite or adds in humorous effect. It’s true: in one part of the story Rainsford claims that his experiences in World War I has affected his hunting, only to conclude at the end that several things that have to do with hunting has to do with war and provides the same amount of composition that is needed to understand. Ivan himself makes an ironic appearence as well. Although he may be giant and threatens Rainford to play, he doesn’t make it near the end. That is because there is a huge difference between side and main characters, and overall laying him in the trap intended for Zaroff may have been the most useful device. To make it obvious that certain characters are more dominant to the story than others, and still make it low-profile so the reader does not expect it.
Two stylistic devices were used: Connells use of irony, and his use of dominating and side characters in the plot line of the story. We all predict that foreshadow makes its appearence in any historical fiction and a huge range following, and thus it cannot be asserted as a stylistic device of the author. This story overall, seems very surprising and suspenseful, but because of these unique devices hand picked by the author, we can’t help to think that it has benefited the story a lot.
