BENNY PARET ESSAY. AP Language Mrs. Hartnett

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1 BENNY PARET ESSAY AP Language Mrs. Hartnett

2 Rhetorical Analysis Separate content from method Focus on how it is being said instead of primarily on what is being said What is said

3 Questions leading to analysis What is the writer's explicit purpose? Which methodologies are employed (logic, appeals to authority, emotional appeals, form, style, devices) to convince the audience? What stance does the writer seem to be taking towards the audience? What stance does the writer seem to be taking towards the content?

4 Sample Essay Question Read the article The Death of Benny Paret by Norman Mailer. Then write an essay that explains and analyzes the effect of the passage on the reader. Pay particular attention to how the writer uses diction, detail, syntax, imagery, and tone to produce that effect.

5 OUTLINE (Use the Table Method) Segment/Quote But bad maulings ( 1, ln 5) Wilt, weakness ( 2, ln 3, 6) Particular shame take punishment ( 2, ln 6-8) Like a: cat ripping life out of boxed rat, piston rod broke through a crank case, baseball bat demolishing a pumpkin ( 2, ln 10-13) On an orgy, left the garden, hoodlum street ( 2, 19-20) Rhetorical/Lit Device/Element Effect on Reader: PATHOS

6 OUTLINE (Use the Table Method) Segment/Quote But bad maulings Rhetorical/Lit Device/Element foreshadow, diction: repulsive, frightening Effect on Reader: PATHOS revulsion Wilt, weakness alliteration concern, anticipation Shame take punishment Like a: cat ripping life out of boxed rat, piston rod broke through a crank case, baseball bat demolishing a pumpkin On an orgy, left the garden, hoodlum street diction simile/contrast/ juxtaposition allusion, metaphors appalled by idea appalling imagery, desperateness, overwhelming awful to look at, a crime, a sin

7 Paret was a Cuban, a proud club fighter who had become welterweight champion because of his unusual ability to take a punch. His style of fighting was to take three punches to the head in order to give back two. At the end of ten rounds, he would still be bouncing, his opponent would have a headache. But in the last two years, over the fifteen-round fights, he had started to take some bad maulings. This fight had its turns. Griffith won most of the early rounds, but Paret knocked Griffith down in the sixth. Griffith had trouble getting up, but made it, came alive and was dominating Paret again before the round was over. Then Paret began to wilt. In the middle of the eighth round, after a clubbing punch had turned his back to Griffith, Paret walked three disgusted steps away, showing his hindquarters. For a champion, he took much too long to turn back around. It was the 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. Detail: peculiar style Transition: BUT Alliterative description: wilt, weakness Detail: even more bizarre goal Similes: reinforce brutality and finality Diction: emphasizes empathy Metaphors and allusion: grotesque A n n o t a t i o n

examples of sentence types Sentence # First four

8 Complete Sentence Analysis Chart Refer to your green Writing Reference chart in your folder for examples of sentence types Sentence # First four words Special features Verbs Sentence Type # of words/ sentence

9 Rhetorical Analysis Partial Essay Write: a thesis what are you going to prove? an argument how are you going to prove it? one body paragraph quote, explain, analyze several times Ways to organize the argument Emotional: awe, fear, anguish Literary devices: detail, simile, personification Chronologically: beginning, middle, end Proof to use Awe: detail from 1, first hint of weakness Paret had ever shown 2, went down more slowly from 3 Personification: 3: the arm and hand of death bolsters the fight s psychic atmosphere Beginning: complimentary details - proud, champion and unusual ability to take a punch

10 Example Thesis, Argument & Body Paragraph Thesis: (what will I prove in my whole paper) Paret s death was not only an example of a morbid tragedy, but also of pride, portraying Paret s strong desires to be remembered - even in his last living moments. Argument: (how will I prove it in my whole paper) Mailer represents what he felt and witnessed regarding Paret s death as he sat in the arena that night through precise diction, concrete imagery, and thought provoking metaphors. A body paragraph: (an example of one paragraph from my paper) With Paret s physical descent, the audience began to discern that, his death came to breathe about him. This personification chilled the audience as each one also felt [death] hover. At this point, Paret had surrendered his ability to, take a punch, coincidentally, by eighteen punches delivered, as Mailer detailed, at a blaring rate. As Paret sank with the weight of death heavy on his shoulders, his actions elicited sympathy and concern from the audience, earning him the title of phenomenon simply by gracing the audience with his unforgettable death.

11 FOTB Thesis Assistance TASK: Explain and analyze how Mailer used literary and rhetorical devices to affect the reader. 1. By depicting (describe the fight event with some emotional detail), Norman Mailer (verb - synonym of makes) the reading audience (mirror/reflect/echo) the (adjectives and nouns describing emotion) response of the ringside spectators. 2. Thanks to Norman Mailer s (descriptive adjective or adjective phrase) article depicting of Paret s last fight, the readers (adjectives and nouns describing emotion) reactions (mirror/reflect/echo) the ringside spectators (adjectives and nouns describing emotion) reactions.

12 FOTB Argument Assistance TASK: Explain and analyze how Mailer used literary and rhetorical devices to affect the reader. By depicting, Norman Mailer the reading audience (mirror/reflect/echo) the response of the ringside spectators. 1. The (pick either 3 types of emotional appeal, 3 literary or rhetorical devices or 3 other characteristics) (a different synonym of makes) feelings of (noun) toward Benny Paret. Thanks to Norman Mailer s (descriptive adjective or adjective phrase) article depicting of Paret s last fight, the readers (adjectives and nouns describing emotion) reactions (mirror/reflect/echo) the ringside spectators (adjectives and nouns describing emotion) reactions. 2. Mailer (synonym for made) these (another emotional adjective) reactions regarding the (phrase describing fight or career) of Paret through (pick either 3 types of emotional appeal, 3 literary or rhetorical devices or 3 other characteristics).

TABLE OF CONTENTS. References... 3 Introduction... 4 Standards... 5 Step 1: Understand About Essays Step 2: Prepare for Writing...

TABLE OF CONTENTS. References... 3 Introduction... 4 Standards... 5 Step 1: Understand About Essays Step 2: Prepare for Writing... TABLE OF CONTENTS References.......................................................... 3 Introduction................................................... 4 Standards.....................................................