Emotional Analysis Of Norman Mailer's The Death Of Benny Paet

Millions of people worldwide take part as spectators to the sport of prize fighting: better known as boxing. In a 1962 essay entitled “Who Killed Benny Paret?” the author, Norman Cousins, writes about the dangers that come with the sport of boxing. He especially talks about a match that resulted in the death of a boxer named Benny Paret. Cousins argues that boxing is just a show of violence and that boxers put themselves in the ring just for the simple purpose of entertaining a crowd. Even though investigations reflect the role of the referee, Paret’s manager, and the doctor’s examinations as the main cause of Paret’s death, Cousins blames Paret’s death on the people that attends boxing matches to see a man get hurt or knockout because he

No matter how big or great one is, he cannot escape death. In Randall Jarrell’s 1963 writing of “Say Good-bye to Big Daddy,” the poet describes Big Daddy Lipscomb as a football lineman superstar. His goliath size makes him impenetrable on the football field. Randall describes Big Daddy as the “Rock of Gibraltar”; however, it may also be Big Daddy’s sportsmanship and compassion for others that has made him a superstar. Although he was capable of pulling the largest of men to the ground, he was always sure to help them back up. Big Daddy is conscious of the fact that his actions are viewed by not only adults but also young impressionable children. He doesn’t want those young minds to think of him in a negative manner, and this is one reason he helps those he tackles back to their feet.

Dying October 7, 1849, Edgar Allen Poe’s death has been studied by numerous experts. Living a life of heartbreaks and often struggling financially, Poe adopted the career of writing. The Cooping Theory, formulated by John R. Thomas, accurately justifies his death in comparison to opposing theories. Cooping is when political gangs kidnap people and force them to drink and continuously vote in order to increase their selected candidate’s chances of winning. A plethora of experts have claimed that Edgar Allen Poe died based on The Cooping Theory.

Lee Jenkins explores the elements of the rhetorical triangle, tone, diction, and structure in his exceptional piece, “A Good Man Down.” Jenkins writes an article about Ed Thomas, a football coach in Parkersburg, Iowa, who was shot and killed on June 24, 2009. Jenkins looks at how Thomas led the town through the hardships that they faced, and how they reacted to his death.

Norman, a strong guy, could not save him not for lack of strength, but instead because of complete chaos around him, and “the worst part […] the smell” (O’Brien, 139). After the firefight was over, guilt set into Norman that would never leave. He blamed himself for Kiowa’s death, and it riddled him with self-doubt. After the war, he is completely unable to tell anyone about the incident, and the medal he should’ve won, “he wished he could have explained some of this. How he had been braver than he ever thought possible, but how he had not been so brave as he wanted to be” (O’Brien, 126). His feeling of inadequacy is based on this singular incident, and is something unable to be represented in the NBER study. After the war, Norman lived in the same town he has always lived in, yet he felt like a stranger: “the town could not, and would not listen. […] It had no memory, therefore no guilt” (O’Brien, 137). Norman feels alienated from society, wracked with guilt for a situation beyond his control, he finds his only solace is in the taking of his life. Tim O’Brien uses the suicide of Norman Bawker to represent the extremes of post-war trauma of veterans as a whole. Norman is a stand-in for every soldier who comes home from the war feeling as if he could have done more. Norman’s home town, a sleepy town in middle America with, “stone patios with barbecue spits and grills, and wooden shingles” (O’Brien, 131) represents America as a whole and its uncertainty of how to

As we examined the essay “Sonny’s Blues” and “The Rich Brother” that may not have a great deal in common, but with more analysis in to the stories it becomes clear that they are similar but still have their own uniqueness. The stories are “The rich brother” which was written by Tobias Wolff is known for short stories or memoir and “Sonny’s Blues” which was written by James Baldwin also an American writer best known for its eloquence or rhetorical force in his writing. Both writers a best known for their famous writing than span for decades.

In the short story, “Sonny’s Blues,” James Baldwin show the two main characters as ideal opposites of each other. Sonny plays the role of a wistful character, who is an artist and musician who is loving and likes music. He is also very passionate about his music and what he does. The narrator on the other hand is a logical character who basically lives the ideal male life. He is a teacher, husband, and father which is a good life for the ordinary man. With living such a good life, he has to deal with barely any stress or mixed emotions, unlike his brother who has a little more to worry about. James Baldwin made the two main characters extremely different, on purpose, because he wanted them to find the good in one another and eventually change. Even though Sonny and his family had some tragic events in the past, they learned to move on and bounce back. In the short story, James Baldwin shows the importance of loyalty to family and of second chances and acceptance.

Milhauser, S. (2008, October 3). The ambition of the short story. The New York Times. Retrieved from

Throughout the piece, Goodman paints a picture of the eventual obituary of Phil and the average American. This is done through the use of repetition of the phrase “...worked himself to death at precisely 3:00 a.m. Sunday morning…,” This was used to show how Phil will only be remembered by his sudden death circumstances, not his life that is left behind. While the obituary mentions his family, the main idea is how he was taken unexpectedly, through a stress related attack. This could happen to anybody, especially a worried, working middle class American who is trying to provide a better life for their family. Goodman’s distaste in shown in the lack of variety and the formal saying of these words, as if she is reading off a cue card and has nothing to

Published first during the decade of the 1990s "The Boy Died in My Alley" remains a significant poem of Gwendolyn Brooks as she moves from traditional forms of poetry such as sonnets, ballads to the most unrestrictive free verse and includes the sad rhythm of the blues. This poem offers an amazing juxtaposition of dramatic poetic forms, narrative, and lyric (Guth & Rico). The story is most often simple but with the last line, they transcend the restriction of place and cover universal plight. Most often the characters of the people are memorable only due to fact that they are trying to survive the trials and tribulations of daily living. For example, in the poem, “The Boy Died in My Alley”, the author narrates an incident when a black boy is murdered in her back alley and the policeman asks her whether she has heard the shot. As she was passionate about the bad experiences of black community in the United States, her poetry is mainly about their plight in the society (Guth & Rico). The main focus of the poem, "The Boy Died in My Alley" is to study and analyze the reasons behind the violence that is associated with African-American children who live on the street.

For many years, some people would say dealing with the death of a loved one can be hard. In today’s society, many people have dealt with that pain. Even though individuals can respond differently dealing with the murder of a loved one but taking justice into your own hands can relieve the pain that it has caused on the family. Why it is that death can cause so much pain to the ones we love? Using the biographical and psychological critical strategies to analyze “Killings”. Focusing on Andre Dubus past how is it connected with the story and psychological strategy of the mind of someone who is hurt by death.

After four months since he was deployed, Caputo returns to Vietnam after being sent to Japan when he learns of his friend Sullivan’s death. While this is not the first death Caputo has encountered, it is definitely the first death that has affected him this deeply. Caputo writes, “Sullivan flashed in my mind. Tall, skinny, looking even younger than his twenty-two years…and picturing Sullivan as he was then, I felt something draw tight inside myself, tighter and tighter until I thought it would snap” (1996: 158). Through his intense writing style, readers can feel the same deep sorrow that Caputo no doubt felt at that moment. Caputo continues, “And then I saw an image of Ingram, big, barrel-chested, striding out of the galley on the morning on the company’s first operation, striding powerfully and singing in his rich baritone, and that emotional wire inside me tightened again and broke…Ingram crippled and Sullivan dead. Dead. Death. Death” (1996: 159).

Grimm, Jakob and Wilhelm. “Godfather Death.” Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing. Ed. X.J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia. 10th ed. New York: Pearson Longman, 2007. 12-13.

“The opening pages of chit chat, the reply to Time magazine, the celebrity-talk about Lowell, Macdonald, Goodman, the fierce competitiveness – all this tells us from the beginning that this is Mailer’s story” (Dickstein 149). By choosing to depict acts in which he took part and from his point of view Mailer is able to make the validity of his statements implicit – he actually saw what he is writing about. At the same time though, questions of how much Mailer’s bias is affecting the novel are raised. Mailer is able to address these questions of possible bias by making it exceedingly obvious when his bias is at play. As Hellmann notes, “Calling himself ‘the Novelist’ and self-consciously using the contrivances of novelistic form, Mailer makes us view the facts of his work as both reliable (in that we are fully shown their source in his firsthand observation) and doubtful (in that we are constantly reminded that they result merely from such observation)” (39).

The literature field is full of works that are nothing short of great. Many popular writers, such as Shakespeare and Charles Dickens, have authored stunning classical plays and novels, which have been read around the word. This makes choosing one’s work over all the others’ even the more difficult when there comes to the time of literature evaluation and comparison. However, in the midst of all those great literature works, there are some great standing out articles due to their strong composition and meaningful life messages that the authors try to convey to the audiences. One of them is the short story “Sonny’s Blues”, written by James Baldwin in 1957. This story shows us the reality as well as the complexity of life matters, and an overall picture of all the subcategories also really shows us the reason why it should be remained as a part of the literary canon of the 21st Century.