Norman Cousins: The Death Of Benny Paret

The death of Benny Paret was a very tragic incident. It set off lots of disputes as to whose fault it was. Norman Mailer blames Benny's death on Griffeth. On the other hand Norman cousins blames his death on the violent nature of boxing.

Norman Cousins was a news reporter. He published many books and is very qualified when it comes to writing. Cousins says that the only please a crowd is to put killers in the ring. Cousins then says, “People come out to see the knockout.” It is the crowd that is making boxing more violent than it has to be. Their were lots of investigations as to whose fault it was that Benny died, but cousins claims that their was not someone to blame. Cousins said that he was killed “because the human fist delivers enough

impact.”
Cousins is really good at using details and backing up his claim.

He spends a paragraph asking questions getting the reader to think. then Cousins will give lots of evidence to persuade the reader that Benny was killed because of the nature of the sport. He justifies that by saying that the brain is “the most complex mechanism in all creation.” I really like how Cousins explains that the brain can take a lot of damage and that many people can withstand it, but damage to the brain can be permanent. It makes the reader know that someone being killed is very rare but possible. Cousins uses very good imagery in describing what the crowd wants to see he says the phrase “killers and sluggers and maulers”. Also when he is describing the fight he uses very good words that creates imagery like “squirts”, “wobbles”, and

“pole-axe.
Norman Mailer was also a very good and qualified journalist, but he has a history violence. Mailer starts off by giving a lot of information about benny. He says that Benny is a “proud club fighter” and that benny’s style is to take hits and let his opponent to tire out. He would use words like “trapped”, “shame”, and ”proud” to prove how innocent Benny was. Mailer then describes griffeth as a very violent person. He uses lots of imagery in describing Griffiths like “There were four people holding griffith”, and “griffith was uncontrollable.” Mailer said that griffiths was all over attacking him at “the first sign of weakness.”
Mailer uses good imagery when describing the violent nature of griffiths. He says phrases like “the right hand whipped like a piston rod” and “like a baseball bat demolishing a pumpkin.” Mailer goes on to imply that their was nothing Benny could do to prevent this from happening. He uses words like “trapped”, “regret” and “sank” to describe how Benny could not have changed anything.
These two articles, though they talk about the same topic, have lots of controversy in them. These two authors both come from very different backgrounds making it so they have different points of view when it comes to this topic of Benny Paret.
Both of their claims as to who killed Benny are very different.

Cousins is claiming that it is the nature of boxing, and mailer is claiming that it is Griffiths violent nature that killed him. They are both really good at backing up their claim and persuading the reader. Mailer gives a lot of description on Benny like “a proud club fighter.” He is also very good at describing Griffiths like “uncontrollable” or “demolishing”. In cousins article there's very little description on Benny, and he never mentions Griffiths. Instead Cousins focuses on the sport itself and the crowd. Mailer spends the majority of the article describing the fight. Cousins barely even talks about it he said, “Benny Paret was killed in the

ring.”
Cousins is able to give a lot of facts to back up his claim that it is just the nature of the sport. On the other hand Mailer spends a lot of the article portraying Griffiths as a terrible violent person, but he uses very little facts to support that.
These are both very good articles that seem to focus on very different aspects on the incident. Cousins is focusing on the sport of boxing altogether, and mailer is focusing on the single fight. That is a big reason why their claims are different. Cousins sees that boxing is a very violent sport, and that getting killed could happen to anyone. Mailer sees a single match where griffiths was pretty violent in trying to win.