Identify the qualities that Dillard’s discusses in “What an Essay Can Do” in Mailer’s “Benny Paret.” After identifying features, write a blog post where you discuss how these devices build the ideas of Mailer's "Benny Paret" (100 words). Due Aug. 21.
22 Comments
8/19/2013 09:40:05 pm
In Norman Mailer's essay of the death of Benny Paret, there were many qualities from "what an essay can do." It said at one point that Giffith was in like a cat ready to rip the life out of a huge boxed cat. The writer reasoned, the essay's materials are larger than the story's. It described an event. It also described that Griffith punched his opponet 18 times with his right hand, it said it was like a baseball bat demolishing a pumpkin. It described that moment like a violent attack. This esay was like a poem, but it was a real event and it wasn't faked. The elements in this story were true artistically and clearly. I read this and was able to see the event because it was clear and detailed.
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Ms. Moriconi
8/20/2013 12:55:05 am
Vladimir. You identify key elements. In your future posts, work on using more active verbs and avoid "it" as a sentence starter.
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Brandon F
8/20/2013 12:59:30 am
In the essay "The Death of Benny Paret" Norman Mailer had shown a lot of details of how the fight went and used a lot of metaphors to describe what each fighter was going through.For example. he said that Griffith was whimpering while he attacked and his right hand whipping like a piston rod which has broken through the crankcase. Another example, is when Paret was falling slowly to the ground Norman had also used a metaphor for this which was "he went down like a large ship which turns on end and slides second by second into its grave." Those are my thoughts on the essay "The Death of Benny Paret".
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Ms. Moriconi
8/20/2013 04:02:10 am
Good opening topic sentence. Whenever possible use the direct quote for support rather than a paraphrase, particularly when discussing specific devices of the author.
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Connor H.
8/20/2013 01:09:49 am
The author uses similes in the essay to give us a picture of what he saw. He used many different types of figurative language to back up his story, or to support his story. Whenever he said "...The sound of Griffiths punches echoed in the mind like a heavy ax in the distance chopping into a wet log." he was trying to help us picture what he saw during the fight. Both the authors used figurative language descriptions to help accurately portray an idea or image.
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Ms. Moriconi
8/20/2013 04:03:57 am
Build in more examples from Mailer in your discussion. When integrating a quote, connect it to a specific idea. For example, Mailer uses similes to create the power of Griffith in the ring: "the sound of . . . "
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Sarah C
8/20/2013 01:23:47 am
Norman Mailer used many similes and metaphors to make us see how the fight really happened. An example of a simile: "He sank down like a large ship...” Norman is very descriptive throughout this essay, and wants to leave an image in your head. Actually, he used many things to support his story, such as figurative language, descriptive, and true events. When he says, "Like a cat ready to rip off the life out of a huge boxed rat", he's describing an image in your mind that Griffith is intense and wants to win his fight against Benny Paret. Both authors are trying to give plenty of descriptive parts to the audience (readers) so they can clearly understand and picture it themselves.
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Ms. Moriconi
8/20/2013 04:05:49 am
Clear topic sentence. When providing an example, make sure you have a complete sentence. Mailer uses similes skillfully to show the death of Paret: "he sank down like a large ship."
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Yuki E
8/20/2013 03:08:15 am
Norman Mailer used many qualities from What an Essay Can Do in his Essay, The Death of Benny Paret. He used a lot of metaphors and similes. An example of a simile is: “He went down like a large ship.” Norman said that to describe how slow he passed away. In the essay he also used figurative language to support the story. He described how badly Griffith wanted to win, when he said, “Like a cat ready to rip the life out of a huge boxed rat.” The essay is a true event, and it is very descriptive which makes it easier for the readers to understand and get an image of what’s going on.
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Ms. Moriconi
8/20/2013 04:08:08 am
Good examples. When using the titles of essays, poems, or short stories, make sure you use quotation marks: "The Death of Benny Paret." Also use the author's last name rather than first name when discussing him or her.
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Steven H
8/20/2013 05:02:46 am
Throughout Norman Mailer's essay "The Death of Benny Paret" we are given many descriptive similes and metaphors. Since Mailer himself was present and saw the boxer die, that gives us a clear understanding of what happened. Mailer's similes are crisp and vivid. They all have a place in the story so in the end we have a clear image engraved in our mind. An example of a simile given to us by Mailer is "he went down like a large ship....". Another simile is "Griffith was in like a cat ready to rip the life out of a huge boxed rat.". Mailer also uses metaphors throughout the essay. The reason Mailer uses these two figures of speech so he can place the reader at the side of the ring so they can witness the tragic death and get a firsthand account of the fight. I really enjoyed reading this story and look forward to reading similar ones..........maybe just not about death though. It's amazing how the author can show me a story that happened years ago but makes it clear just by adding similes and metaphors.
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Ms. Moriconi
8/20/2013 05:08:08 am
You have good examples and discuss the "why" of Mailer's use of literary devices. If you are going to note there are metaphors, provide an example from the essay.
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Erlend F.
8/20/2013 08:01:59 am
In Normal Mailer’s “The Death of Benny Paret”, he uses a variety of similes and narrative from his perspective in describing what he witnessed during that event. When he said that Paret “went down like a large ship witch turns on end and slides second by second into its grave” It creates a mental image of how much of a champion Paret must have been and how emotionally it must have been to have witnessed him die. As he tells of Griffith’s punches that “echoed in the mind like a heavy axe in the distance, chopping into a wet log”. When he says that everyone who was within psychic range were affected somehow by those 18 punches it gives an image of the terror they must have felt being there. Mailer explained the death of a champion the way he felt it.
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Ms. Moriconi
8/21/2013 04:46:07 am
Erlend, you have identified the impact of the images. When including quotes, make sure you have a complete sentence. Work on comma usage when using a dependent and an independent clause.
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In "The Death of Benny Paret", Norman Mailer, the writer used a lot of similes and metaphors. An example would be, “Griffith making a pent-up whimpering sound like a baseball bat demolishing a pumpkin.” Another example would be, “He went down like a large ship which turns on end and slides second by second into its grave.” The author used figurative and descriptive language to describe how aggressive Griffith was and how badly he wanted to beat Paret like, “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.”
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Ms. Moriconi
8/21/2013 04:47:42 am
Anel, you have good examples for support of the devices. Consider how they impact the reader as well.
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Tatiana
8/20/2013 11:18:44 pm
In the article “What an Essay Can Do”, Annie Dillard discussed how an essay can deal with metaphors better than they can a poem because they can offer more detail which you can see more vividly opposed to as a poem because it is condensed. For example in the story “The Death of Benny Paret”, by Norman Miller, he used this metaphor “over the referees face came a look of woe as if some spasm had passed its way through him, and then he leapt on Griffith to pull him away”. This shows vivid detail but then the writer was also allowed to continue developing his point in more depth. Another example in “The Death of Benny Paret” the author used historical, cultural, and natural events, as well as personal events to help the audience better connect to the story. In the essay of “The Death of Benny Paret” he uses many descriptions of what was happening to help us better understand the story to help us feel as if we were there and experienced this event with him, such as when he stated “Paret died on his feet” and then he went on and described in detail how he died.
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Ms. Moriconi
8/21/2013 04:49:36 am
Tatiana, you do a nice job of connecting the quote with the analysis. When highlighting the historical, cultural and natural events, support this statement with specifics from Mailer's essay.
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Jesse T.
8/25/2013 05:43:09 am
Throughout all of Norman Mailer's essay "The Death of Benny Paret" the readers are given many different descriptive metaphors and similes. Since Mailer was there when Benny Paret was beat to death, you know his information is extremely accurate. One of the metaphors Paret used include “He went down like a large ship” which represented that Benny took a lot of beating before he went down and passed away. Another simile that Mailer used was “Griffith was in like a cat ready to rip the life out of a huge boxed rat”. This simile represented how badly Griffith wanted the win and that he wouldn’t stop at anything. The purpose of the smilies is to give the reader the feeling that he or she is actually in the arena as the fight is happening.
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Melih
8/27/2013 06:06:39 am
Norman Mailer's essay "the Death of Benny Paret" had many qualities from Annie Millard's essay "What an essay can do". The Author left a clear image of the event in our minds, and throughout the essay Norman Mailer has used many metaphors to make the story more interesting. "Griffith was in like a cat ready to rip the life out of a huge boxed cat." Is one of example of the metaphors he has used. Norman Mailer's essay definitely shows that real events exerts greater fascination on people than any fictional one... I really enjoyed this essay while reading it because of the fact that everything in the essay actually happened real life, but i was still sad to hear about a boxer passing out on a ring.
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Keoni C.
8/29/2013 07:14:28 am
"The Death of Benny Paret" written by Norman Mailer is a breath taking novel of a many that lost his life fighting, this story has many quality that was shown in "What an Essay Can Do" by Annie Dillard. Starting off it showed many different types of metaphor and simile, including this line "Griffith was in like a cat ready to rip the life out of a huge boxed cat." This line explains that Griffith was not going to back down from what he was about to do, which was to beat down Benny Paret. Another quality was this line "Some part of death reached out to us." This saying something tragic has happen that will ever last in the peoples memories. This story had many different metaphors and similes but these are the two best I found that stood out to me the most.
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Eren Y
9/10/2013 03:56:38 pm
Phillis Wheatley was an indian writer that lived during 1700s. Just like every other Indian person that lived during the same era,she was handicapped and put down by others; but she was a little luckier than most of the other Indians. She was taught to read and write by her "owner" which was an odd thing, because blacks were thought to be non-intelligent. People did not think that blacks could read or ride. Phillis knew this was wrong and she wanted to prove it, which is why she was very motivated to ride poems.
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