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Hannah Armentrout

Meyer

English I

15 January 2020

General Zaroff diagnosed with Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia?! That sounds like an interesting name right? Well it is, but it’s an even

more interesting disease. Schizophrenia is a long-term mental disorder of a type involving a

breakdown in the relation between thought, emotion, and behavior, leading to faulty perception,

inappropriate actions and feelings, withdrawal from reality and personal relationships into

fantasy and delusion, and a sense of mental fragmentation. This disease triggers your mind to

think of things in a distorted manor in a negative way. General Zaroff from the story The Most

Dangerous Game has the disease Schizophrenia. He appears to have acquired all of the

symptoms of Schizophrenia. He has disordered thinking emotionally and behaviorally. These

thinking processes causes General Zaroff to see life in a different perspective as some type of a

delusion.

General Zaroff shows signs of distorted thinking and flat expressionless gazes throughout

the story. Distorted thinking meaning he interprets life in a fantasy state, where he comes up with

things that are fake and thinks that they may be real. While the lack of emotional presence causes

him to acquire a flat expressionless gaze. General Zaroff’s distorted (delusional) thinking is

supported in the story where it states “The general smiled the quiet smile of one who has faced

an obstacle and surmounted it with success.” (Bradbury 7). I had to invent a new animal to hunt,

`` he said.” (Bradbury ?). This piece of evidence shows that General Zaroff has a mental

disruption where he thinks that he created a new “animal” by hunting humans, and that it is okay
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to hunt down and kill humans. While General Zaroff’s flat expressionless gaze is supported in

the story where it states “Rainsford’s first impression was… his second was that there was an

original, almost bizarre equality about the generals face.” (Bradbury 4). This piece of evidence

shows that General Zaroff obtains a blank expression, which makes him look bizarre. His face

looked suspicious and flat, which is a symptom that goes along with gaining a blank gaze.

Instead of having an excited, anxious or concerned look he just has no emotion behind his face.

It is easy to say that General Zaroff has the symptoms of a flat expressionless gaze and extremely

disordered thinking. He represents different ways to convey these symptoms, but they come

across clear and that they affect his body negatively.

General Zaroff also shows signs of bipolar behaviors, meaning he interpret things in a

positive manor and then a second later he could turn sad, anxious, or even angry. This behavior

could happen at any time and an even doesn’t have to cause it. General Zaroff’s signs of bipolar

behaviors is supported in the story where it says “Your burmese tiger pit has claimed one of my

best dogs. Again you score. I think Mr. Rainsford, I’ll see what you can do against my whole

pack. I’m going home for a rest now. Thank you for a most amusing evening.” (Bradbury 13).

This piece of evidence shows that General Zaroff shows signs of a bipolar attitude. At first he

seems hostile towards Rainsford for capturing one of his dogs, but then his mood changes and he

just lets it go and says he’s going to go back to his home to rest. In the matter of minutes Zaroff

turns from angry to calm and unbothered. Another piece of evidence that supports General

Zaroff’s signs of a bipolar attitude is in the story where it states “A trace of anger was in the

generals black eyes, but it was there for but a second;”. (Bradbury 9). This piece of evidence also

shows that General Zaroff shows signs of a bipolar attitude. At the beginning it states that his
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eyes shows traces of anger but then a little bit later it is gone. In between moments he goes from

being angry about something, then to being calm and back to normal. By stating the pieces of

evidence above it is obvious that General Zaroff has Schizophrenia. He shows signs of hostility,

a bipolar attitude, extremely disordered thinking and a flat expressionless gaze many times.

Despite the evidence demonstrating General Zaroff having Schizophrenia, many people

believe that he is just a man who sees things in a different perspective, and doesn’t take his

thoughts to an extreme to the point he needs to be diagnosed, but they fail to see that his behavior

patterns are more distorted than usual, where he acts differently than normal at an alarming

point. Those who believe that he is just a man who sees things in a different perspective, and

doesn’t take his thoughts to an extreme to the point he needs to be diagnosed thinks that he does

not have Schizophrenia. This is because one of the main symptoms of Schizophrenia is having

hallucinations. General Zaroff may have some hallucinations but they are not as severe as they

would be. So many people focus on that symptom that General Zaroff doesn’t mainly have.

Although aspects of this argument are enticing, it ultimately fails to be a stronger argument

because General Zaroff has more symptom cases that goes with Schizophrenia than what other

people think. The people who disagree with my statement may look at some symptoms that he

does not have, or they don’t see something that could’ve caused him to obtain this disease.

General Zaroff has more symptoms that are more serious than the ones that the other people are

pointing out, such as a bipolar attitude, hallucinations, and the body getting destroyed by the

brain’s dysfunctions.. Along with that there is a piece of evidence that shows what could’ve

caused General Zaroff to obtain Schizophrenia. On page 5 he states “Hurled me against a tree,

said the general.”Fractured my skull. But i got the brute.” This states that the general could’ve
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gotten this disease by cracking his skull, which depending on the impact could’ve caused serious

damage to his brain. Many people may believe that General Zaroff does not have Schizophrenia

for their own reasons. But symptoms, and events that could’ve caused him to get this disease are

explained and backed up with pieces of evidence.

General Zaroff from the story The Most Dangerous Game is diagnosed with the disease

Schizophrenia. He has acquired most of the symptoms of Schizophrenia. He has disordered

thinking emotionally and behaviorally. These thinking processes cause General Zaroff to see life

in a different perspective as some type of a delusion that he wants to see. It is important to

capture this diagnosis because Schizophrenia is not a common disease. It is also a disease that

you cannot mess around with, it’s not just a cold. This disease chips away at your mind making

you see things that you want to see, but it isn’t real. But not just that, it causes you to have a

bipolar attitude, act hostile, act emotionless at some times, and makes you think about things that

you may not want to think about. Just from those symptoms it can cause the human body to

deteriorate slowly. Schizophrenia is a serious disease, and there is no cure yet. But you can treat

your brain healthy and eat good foods, exercise, etc. In this case General Zaroff didn’t take good

care of his brain because he lived alone (basically, because Ivan could not speak) which made his

brain think of things to keep him busy, which came up with the activity of hunting humans. It

was too late for General Zaroff but you can simply just take care of yourself mentally, and

physically to protect yourself to make sure you don’t get this disease. Unless you want to end up

like General Zaroff.

Beers. Elements of Literature - Third Course: North Carolina Edition. Houghton Mifflin
Harcourt, 2005.
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“Know More. Feel Better.” Verywell Health, Verywell Health, 8 Nov. 2019,
www.verywellhealth.com/.

“Schizophrenia.” Mayo Clinic, Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research, 10
Apr. 2018, www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/schizophrenia/symptoms-causes/syc-
20354443.

“NAMI.” NAMI, www.nami.org/learn-more/mental-health-conditions/schizophrenia.

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