Richard Connell
In his story,"The Most Dangerous Game," Richard Connell brings his readers to a remote island and challenges us to carefully consider our perceptions and assumptions about violence and games.
What kind of training do you need to write a story like "The Most Dangerous Game?" A story that is so exciting and so interesting that it gets made into four different Hollywood films and at least one radio play?
Become a baseball reporter. At age ten.
That's what Richard Connell did. His first job was covering baseball games for his father's newspaper. And yes, he was ten at the time.
Connell went on to become the editor of the Poughkeepsie (New York) News-Press at the age of sixteen. Later, at Harvard, he edited two famous publications, the Harvard Crimson and the Harvard Lampoon. He graduated in 1915.
After serving in World War I, Connell became a freelance writer and eventually settled in California where he went on to write dozens of short stories, novels, and screenplays. His most well-known short story, “The Most Dangerous Game,” was released as a film in 1932 and has inspired at least three other movies.
In this lesson you'll get a chance to discover for yourself why “The Most Dangerous Game” has captured the imaginations of so many people.
Reading Selection
Now is a good time to read the selection you see described below. Enjoy it now, then in the coming activities you'll learn more about it. Later you'll get a chance to read it again with the help of a reading guide. Then you'll respond with your own thoughts. This will help you appreciate the selection even more.
For your first reading, you might want to skip ahead to the vocabulary activity to learn some words that are in the selection and might be new to you.
"The Most Dangerous Game," by Richard Connell
With disasters, chase scenes, and evil geniuses, this story has it all. It will challenge you as a reader and as a person.
You can find this story online, at eserver.org .
Objectives
- Analyze the literary elements of suspense and foreshadowing and understand how they function in a short story.
- Predict the outcome of a story.
- Define the term chronological order and understand how it relates to fiction.
- Read, comprehend, and analyze "The Most Dangerous Game."
- Write a short description of your favorite story or movie villain.