General Zaroff's violent passions are foretold in the imagery that surrounds his character, which includes Connell’s use of the color red to hint at the general’s bloodlust. As Rainsford—and the reader—learn about Zaroff’s backstory and the reason for his presence on the island, he notes the general’s strange smile that shows “red lips and pointed teeth.” As the story continues and Zaroff is revealed to be a murderous psychopath, the smile becomes increasingly reminiscent of a predator animal.
In the same conversation that reveals the smile, Rainsford and Zaroff also eat borscht: “the rich, red soup with whipped cream so dear to Russian palates.” Connell’s choice of warm, red meal for the two characters—predator and unsuspecting prey—evokes both the color and consistency of blood. As the meal continues, Zaroff’s smile reappears:
“I’ve always thought,” said Rainsford, “that the Cape buffalo is the most dangerous of all big game.”
For a moment the general did not reply; he was smiling his curious red-lipped smile. Then he said slowly, “No. You are wrong, sir. The Cape buffalo is not the most dangerous big game.”
Connell’s use of red imagery at the moment Zaroff begins to reveal his sinister intentions for settling in on Ship-Trap Island reflects his broader stylistic tendency to use imagery conjured through color and metaphor to sustain the suspenseful mood and dark, foreboding tone of “The Most Dangerous Game” as a whole.
Throughout “The Most Dangerous Game,” Richard Connell makes ample use of light and dark imagery—frequently in contrast with each other—Ship-Trap Island's severe environment and the startling presence of General Zaroff and his chateau deep within the jungle.
The darkness of the Caribbean night leading to Rainsford’s fall overboard is introduced at the very beginning of the story, as Rainsford strains to make out the island through the gloom. The night has a “thick warm blackness to it,” like “moist black velvet.” So dark, Rainsford observes, that he could sleep without needing to close his eyes: “the night would be my eyelids.”
The lights of the yacht, sharply contrasted against the blackness of the night, are the visual manifestation of Rainsford’s only apparent chance at survival as he plunges into the Caribbean. As the yacht sails on Connell uses the visual metaphor of blinking fireflies to construct the image of the disappearing light: “the lights of the yacht became faint and ever-vanishing fireflies; then they were blotted out entirely by the night.” It is out of the darkness of the Caribbean night, however, that the light-as-sign-of-survival will eventually re-appear; when Rainsford stumbles upon Zaroff’s chateau, it is described in terms of its light against the “gloom”:
Bleak darkness was blacking out the sea and jungle when Rainsford sighted the lights. He came upon them as he turned a crook in the coastline; and his first thought was that he had come upon a village, for there were many lights. But as he forged along, he saw to his great astonishment that all the lights were in one enormous building—a lofty structure with pointed towers plunging upward into the gloom.
Still later in the story, Connell inverts the imagery of light as salvation during Zaroff’s demonstration of his ship-trap mechanism. In this scene, light and dark imagery creates a visual manifestation of Zaroff’s brutality:
“This island is called Ship-Trap,” he answered. “Sometimes an angry god of the high seas sends them to me. Sometimes, when Providence is not so kind, I help Providence a bit. Come to the window with me.” Rainsford went to the window and looked out toward the sea. “Watch! Out there!” exclaimed the general, pointing into the night. Rainsford’s eyes saw only blackness, and then, as the general pressed a button, far out to sea Rainsford saw the flash of lights.
Although the use of light imagery originally underscores the presence of civilization with the yacht and the chateau, by this point in the story the illusion has been shattered and Zaroff has been revealed as a murderous and terrifying character. The inversion of the meaning of light and dark imagery, therefore, comes to reflect this shift in the story and break in the illusion.
