Answer and Explanation:
Sanger Rainsford is the main character in Richard Connell's "The Most Dangerous Game." From the beginning of the short story until its ending, Rainsford endures hardship that is bound to make him grow and develop as a person. His internal journey, his change as a human being, is certainly affected by external events, the most important one originating with his meeting General Zaroff.
At the beginning of the story, Rainsford is quite the arrogant hunter. He reveals in a dialog his lack of empathy for his prey. Rainsford thinks the world can be divided into hunters and huntees, and that he is lucky to belong to the former instead of the latter. The huntees, according to his philosophy, do not really deserve any pity or sympathy. This is just how life goes.
However, Rainsford ends in Zaroff's private island only to find out what it feels like to be the huntee. The general is also a hunter who, very much like Rainsford himself, does not believe in empathizing with his prey. There is a catch in his philosophy, though. General Zaroff believes that applies to hunting men. He has grown tired of hunting irrational beasts and, looking for a more thrilling challenge, he has begun hunting human beings like himself.
Zaroff invites Rainsford to hunt alongside him, but Rainsford refuses, calling it murder. The general decides then to hunt Rainsford instead. Upon becoming the prey, Rainsford's internal journey is suddenly veered to a completely different path. He can no longer be the arrogant hunter he once was. He now understands the fear, the desperation that the animals he has hunted have felt. Facing death inevitably brings with it the instinctive wish to survive. No matter if rational or irrational, every living being in the world wishes to avoid death and remain alive. Rainsford is similar to any other animal.
