the most dangerous game played

“Maybe. But sometimes I think sailors have an extra sense that tells them when they are in danger. Sometimes

I think evil is a tangible thing--with wave lengths, just as sound and light have. An evil place can, so to speak,

broadcast vibrations of evil.”

I think this quote is interesting because Rainsford didn't know what the Casscus was talking about when he said that he was hunting something new.  He didn't have the slightest idea until the man went on about how what he was hunting was a creature with reason. I also think this quote is interesting because it doesn't really fit in with the story. After this quote is written there isn’t anything else that references evil in the story, besides that a man is hunting humans. It almost seems like this quote should belong in a horror story rather than a thriller like this one. So what does it mean?

My best guess is that this means that the theme of the story is how evil in the story is being hunted. This would mean that the humans in the story are evil and are being hunted because they are evil. But that contradicts the ending of the story—a man who began the game of hunting evil dies from that same evil. Although this could allude to the quote if you live by the sword you die by the sword. Meaning if you live to hunt evil, you will die from that same evil. If this story is anything like dying by the sword than this would make sense. Also if evil is tangible maybe it is released when hunting a human. In the bible it says that we are all born sinners, and although we have done nothing wrong we already have sinned. I can see how if the writer had this in mind maybe the wavelengths are the energy of the soul exiting the body.

Thinking on a more grounded level, I think that this story’s lesson is that a person gets what they have coming to them. At the end of the story the man knows he has lost and simply bows before being killed. This can project what happens when a person who knows they are in the wrong, yet still equipped with reason, will do when they are being killed.