In every story, there are elements that help to make it successful or unsuccessful. These elements, known as literary terms, help to describe different parts of the story. In "The Most Dangerous Game" by Richard Conell, there were many examples of literary terms. Some of them include conflict, empathy and quest.
Conflict is a major part of most stories because it's the problem or struggle that triggers action. In "The Most Dangerous Game," the type of conflict is person vs. person. General Zaroff hunts Rainsford, which is the main action sequence in the story. The reason that causes the hunt to happen is that in order for Rainsford to leave the island, he would have to survive a three-day hunt because General Zaroff's favorite new type of hunting game is human.
Another literary term in the story is empathy. Empathy is when you put yourself in someone else's place, which causes you to realize how a person feels in a certain situation or everyday life. In the story, Rainsford was a hunter. He finally understood though, how the hunted felt and how hard survival was when General Zaroff was hunting him. .
One more literary term used is quest. A quest is when a main character is seeking to find something or achieve a goal. In the story, Rainsford want to leave the island and go home. The only problem though is that in order to leave the island, he has to be hunted. That was the largest obstacle he had to overcome which included more, smaller events and obstacles. Another characteristic of quest is that the characters gain knowledge about themselves and their environment. After the hunt, Rainsford realized how hard life could be and how you could overcome hardships.
There are many literary terms that apply to a story. They cover everything in the story including characters and setting. Sometimes these terms help to make a story a success, while others cause a story to be a failure. How an author writes the story and the theme or point he tries to get across makes the story a success or a waste of a reader's time.