The game of life is a game of boomerangs. We’re all just waiting for our thoughts, deeds, and words to return to us, with an uncanny precision. This is a basic concept with which we can all easily identify. What we do and say does come back to us in such an amazing, fateful manner. Exemplified in an almost exact form of this notion is in the short story, “The Most Dangerous Game” by Richard Edward Connell.

It begins with a hunter named Rainsford who shows no concern for nor remorse whatsoever for the animals he’d killed. While aboard a ship, he heard a gunshot which caused him to fall off the ship. He swam to the island where the gunshot originated. It turned out that the island was home to another hunter referred to as General Zaroff. Along with Zaroff was his servant as well as his henchman, Ivan. General Zaroff, knowing Rainsford from his amazing hunting career, spoke about himself and his past hunting experiences and how he’d become a master at hunting every animal. Hunting had become boring to him, as he’d told Rainsford. But he’d realized that he had never hunted one specific animal that appeared to be the most dangerous game. That animal he began to hunt exclusively on his private island: humans. Rainsford, after hearing this, reacted with a strong-willed distaste and opposition for what Zaroff was doing. He believed in hunting as a sport, as long as it was with animals alone, not humans. He’d referred to it as murder. However, he wasn’t aware that he’d soon be one of General Zaroff’s quarries. The situation would be that the hunted, in this case Rainsford, would have to survive in the island’s jungle area for three days with nothing but a knife while being hunted by General Zaroff with a small gun. Rainsford, a skilled hunter, eluded General Zaroff for two and a half days until the night when he escaped to sea. Later, he returned in the bedroom of General Zaroff. There, he took his revenge on Zaroff resulting in Zaroff’s death. He’d taken revenge for what General Zaroff put him through: being hunted.

Truthfully, with a hint of poetic justice creeping under the mat, Rainsford felt the suspense and true fear of being hunted as an animal. The man who hadn’t the slightest care for the animals he’d hunted experienced the other side of the situation, being an “animal” to be hunted himself. The circumstances were completely reversed in opposition of Rainsford. His own actions were done to him. He looked ahead after he’d hit the tether ball without seeing what was coming behind him. Rainsford’s thoughts, deeds and actions had come back like the boomerang. Therefore, as we all lightheartedly give a seemingly insignificant smirk at the utter irony of the story, we must store in the back of our minds the deeply truthful, age-old saying: what goes around comes around.

Written for Journalism I (9th Grade), by Jawaad Ahmad Khan. For an analysis of some other stories see here: The Kite Runner and Their Eyes Were Watching God.