The general chuckled. "They indicate a channel," he said, "where there's none: giant rocks with razor edges crouch like a sea monster with wide-open jaws.
They can crush a ship as easily as I crush this nut." He dropped a walnut on the hardwood floor and brought his heel grinding down on it. "Oh, yes," he
said, casually, as if in answer to a question. "I have electricity. We try to be civilized here."
"Civilized? And you shoot down men?"
A trace of anger was in the general's black eyes, but it was there for but a second, and he said, in his most pleasant manner: "Dear me, what a righteous
young man you are! I assure you I do not do the thing you suggest. That would be barbarous. I treat these visitors with every consideration. They get plenty
of good food and exercise. They get into splendid physical condition. You shall see for yourself tomorrow."
"What do you mean?"
"We'll visit my training school," smiled the general. "It's in the cellar. I have about a dozen pupils down there now. They're from the Spanish
bark Sanlûcar that had the bad luck to go on the rocks cut there. A very inferior lot, regret to say. Poor specimens and more accustomed to the deck than to
the jungle.
How does the author use satire to develop meaning in these paragraphs?
The author uses Rainsford’s questions to satirize ideas about
what constitutes polite society.
The author uses the narrator’s descriptions of both men
during the conversation to satirize the idea that hunting is a
game.
The author satirizes society’s notions of what makes a
person civilized through Zaroff’s comparing his prison to a
school.
The author uses Zaroff’s description of the Spanish sailors to
satirize overly simplistic stereotypes.