...dying an honorable and noble death and simply dying. It is the gap between trying and giving up and it is the sense of the unbearable pleasure that comes along with success. In Norman Mailer’s “The Death of Benny Paret”, the author witnesses a first-hand account of the tragic death of the boxer, Paret. Through many rhetorical devices, Mailer is able to have an effect on his audience, allowing them to feel the same horror. Mailer uses diction to mold the events in a biased and respectful way. Using words like “inspired” to describe the kind of shame that Paret was creating by loosing makes his failure seem less crucial. Again, the author makes euphemisms through his word choice by saying that Paret “[fought] as if he were seeking to demonstrate that he could take more punishment than any man alive”, as if losing was an admirable quality. Instead of claiming that Paret was indeed being ruthlessly beaten by Griffith, his “excuse” that Paret was purposely demonstrating a skill had a smaller impact on Paret’s publicity. Through detail, the reader is able to sympathize the gruesome fight and eventual death of Paret. Mailer mentions that Griffith hit Paret “eighteen right hands in a row” in about “three or four seconds”. These details create imagery and allow the audience to imagine Paret’s situation. When Paret died, it seemed to last forever. The details of how Paret slowly died while Griffith was still punching him greatly affects the audience in that Paret was technically still fighting...
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...first hint of weakness Paret had ever shown, and it must have inspired a particular shame, because he fought the rest of the fight as if he were seeking to demonstrate that he could take more punishment than any man alive. In the twelfth, Griffith caught him. Paret got trapped in a corner. Trying to duck away, his left arm and his head became tangled on the wrong side of the top rope. Griffith was in like a cat ready to rip the life out of a huge boxed rat. He hit him eighteen right hands in a row, an act which took perhaps three or four seconds, Griffith making a pent-up whimpering sound all the while he attacked, the right hand whipping like a piston rod which has broken through the crankcase, or like a baseball bat demolishing a pumpkin. I was sitting in the second row of that corner—they were not ten feet away from me, and like everybody else, I was hypnotized. I had never seen one man hit another so hard and so many times. Over the referee’s face came a look of woe as if some spasm had passed its way through him, and then he leaped on Griffith to pull him away. It was the act of a brave man. Griffith was uncontrollable. His trainer leaped into the ring, his manager, his cut man, there were four people holding Griffith, but he was off on an orgy, he had left the Garden, he was back on a hoodlum’s street. If he had been able to break loose from his handlers and the referee, he would have jumped Paret to the floor and whaled on him there. And Paret? Paret died on his feet. As...
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...Standard 1 English Language Arts Grade 11 12 Language Standard 1 b. English Language Arts Grade 11 12 Language Standard 2 b. English Language Arts Grade 11 12 Language Standard 4 a. English Language Arts Grade 11 12 Language Standard 4 c. English Language Arts Grade 11 12 Language Standard 4 d. English Language Arts Grade 11 12 Language Standard 5 a. Group Size: Pairs Summary: In this set of lessons which extend over several days, students read excerpts from "The Death of Benny Paret" by Norman Mailer and "The Fight" by William Hazlitt. Students annotate the text, specifically looking for metaphor and simile, tone, and syntax. Working with a partner, students write three paragraphs, analyzing metaphor or simile, tone, and syntax in "The Death of Benny Paret." Working independently, students write one paragraph, choosing to analyze metaphor or simile, tone, or syntax in "The Fight." Main Curriculum Tie: English Language Arts Grade 11-12 Reading: Informational Text Standard 1 Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text, including determining where the text leaves...
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...Rhetorical Essay In the essay “The Death of Benny Paret”, the unknown author uses a very dramatic method of writing to demonstrate a dying fighters’ effect on an audience. The author’s purpose was to give the reader a true sense of the tragic events that are taking place in the world. “…the right whipping like a piston rod which has broken through the crankcase, or like a baseball bat demolishing a pumpkin.” This an example of one of the similes used by the author. The simile is used to show the readers the viciousness of the opposing fighter, when he punched Paret numerous times in a matter of seconds. The effect that is posed onto the reader is one of awe and amazement. The author’s usage of similes such as this one in his essay gives the audience a sense of involvement. He makes the readers feel as though they are right there sitting next to him in that second row, watching every single punch with him. The content found in this essay can be described as being logical. The author’s essay is in an order that keeps the audience interested and entertained. He starts off by telling of a champion, Benny Paret, and how he had the unusual ability of taking a punch. He then goes on to tell how his fighting began to deteriorate, ultimately leading to his fall against Griffith. This order of events is one that keeps the readers at the edge of their seats, leaving his audience in the dark much throughout his...
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...Norman Cousins makes me feel like he does not believe anyone can go out and compete at their highest level. Cousins wrote “Who Killed Benny Paret” to convey the obvious message of cause and effect through the form sports injuries. The cause of the Benny’s death could have been for multiple reasons. While it is a tragedy when someone dies playing, or fighting, in the sport they love the important part of a death is finding the cause. Often the referee could be blamed for not stopping the fight quick enough. In another way, the fight promoter could be blamed even more than the referee. The promoter could have been notified of the fighter’s sudden inability to fight, and while it makes sense to dismiss the fighter the promoter could encourage...
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...A Piece of the Action Norman Mailer’s sports article on boxing, The Death of Benny Paret published in 1984, claims that Paret was a powerful young boxer who had his life cut short when he fought for keeping his welterweight title against Emile Griffith. Mailer supports this by explaining how vicious Griffith was throughout the entire fight, ending with Paret’s tragic death. He goes into extreme detail using similes and a large amount of commas to show imagery. Mailer connects with his readers by showing the tragic sorrow of a death happening right in front of their eyes, but also showing that Paret did not die in vain, but in glory. The fight was cast as brutal and vicious, and with every crowd, there comes a story. The certain sportscaster who wrote this attempts to place readers into his seat as if they were there, viewing the fight in all its glory their selves. In doing so, the writer makes sure that his words keep up with the rhythm of the battle, his words having as much impact as the punches thrown. Descriptive words that the writer uses include “clubbing” and “whimpering” accompanied by similes which simply explain the impact that each one of Griffith’s punches had on Paret. Guardado 2 “Griffith was in like a cat ready to rip the life out of a huge boxed rat…right hand whipping like a piston rod which has broken through the crankcase, or like a baseball bat demolishing a pumpkin.” These phrases use extensive use of both diction and imagery to bring the battle to...
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...This text was adapted by The Saylor Foundation under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License without attribution as requested by the work’s original creator or licensee. Saylor URL: http://www.saylor.org/books Saylor.org 1 Preface Writing is often a challenge. If you were ever challenged to express yourself via the written word, this book is for you. Writing for Success is a text that provides instruction in steps, builds writing, reading, and critical thinking, and combines comprehensive grammar review with an introduction to paragraph writing and composition. Beginning with the sentence and its essential elements, this book addresses each concept with clear, concise, and effective examples that are immediately reinforced with exercises and opportunities to demonstrate learning. Each chapter allows students to demonstrate mastery of the principles of quality writing. With its incremental approach, this book can address a range of writing levels and abilities, helping each student prepare for the next writing or university course. Constant reinforcement is provided through examples and exercises, and the text involves students in the learning process through reading, problem solving, practicing, listening, and experiencing the writing process. Each chapter also has integrated examples that unify the discussion and form a common, easy-tounderstand basis for discussion and exploration. This will put students at ease and allow for greater...
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