As the story begins aboard the yacht headed for the Amazon, Richard Connell makes use of hyperbole to set the mood, establish his style, and whisk the reader away to the dark Caribbean night.
In all cases, hyperbole is used to introduce important environmental details that are relevant to the story. When introducing Ship-Trap Island, Whitney emphasizes the sinister character of the place and observes that even their captain—“who’d go up to the devil himself and ask him for a light”—expressed considerable fear of the place. Approaching the devil for a light is obviously not meant as a literal statement, but it nonetheless emphasizes Captain Neilsen's courage and, in turn, the extent to which Ship-Trap Island is shrouded in fear and mystery.
Later in the same conversation, Whitney once again uses hyperbole to describe the ocean's stillness as they sail past the island: “there was no breeze. The sea was as flat as a plate-glass window.” By using a hyperbolic simile to compare the still sea to smooth glass, Connell is able to articulate the specific feel of the ocean. When Rainsford is shortly thereafter flung overboard, it is this very stillness that saves him from being dashed onto the sharp rocks of Ship Trap Island’s shore.
Rainsford’s fall comes after he loses balance while straining to see the Island through the peculiar darkness of the Caribbean night. Sure enough, Connell again employs hyperbole to convey just how dark the night feels to Rainsford. “It’s so dark,” Rainsford remarks, “that I could sleep without closing my eyes; the night would be my eyelids—”. Here, hyperbole strengthens the visual imagery of darkness—darkness so dark that it feel like nothingness.
Connell makes frequent use of both metaphors and similes in “The Most Dangerous Game” to conjure effective imagery for his narrative and make the thrill of the plot that much more visceral. They appear throughout the story and help to establish and maintain its mood and convey its central themes.
For example, the Caribbean night feels, to Rainsford, “like moist black velvet” in its oppressive darkness, while the dwindling light of the yacht as it abandons Rainsford in the sea “became faint and ever-vanishing fireflies” before disappearing completely. Later, when Rainsford finds Zaroff’s chateau and the door is opened, the sheer volume of light pours out like water as Rainsford stands “blinking in the river of glaring golden light." The sensory details in these similes and metaphors help to establish the story's dark, mysterious mood.
As the narrative develops and Rainsford is forced to begin playing Zaroff’s “game,” the story continues to use metaphor to establish the despair Rainsford feels as he confronts his status as prey. The story's metaphors also highlight its exploration of humans' similarities to animals and the idea that human civilization's fragility. “I have played the fox, now I must play the cat of the fable,” Rainsford thinks to himself as he tries to hide from Zaroff in the branches of a tree, but it isn’t long before he realizes what role he is actually playing. When the general retreats from Rainsford’s hiding place he has the horrible realization that Zaroff is toying with his quarry. “The Cossack was the cat; he was the mouse. Then it was that Rainsford knew the full meaning of terror.”
The sustained use of animals as metaphorical roles for Zaroff and Rainsford during the hunt crystallizes the pessimistic conclusion to Connell’s exploration of human nature: humans are ultimately little better than animals, confined to roles of predator or prey. The animal comparisons continue through the rest of the story, sustaining this exploration. At another point, the general escapes one of Rainsford's traps with "the agility of an ape," while at still another moment Connell uses a simile to compare Rainsford's digging of his pit trap to that of "some huge prehistoric beaver."
