Paret the Boxer

“Paret died on his feet. As he took those eighteen punches something happened to everyone who was in psychic range of the event. Some part of his death reached out to us.” The passage has a sympathetic effect. The writer is sad that Paret the Boxer is dead, and in the passage the writer uses diction, imagery, and similes to show the sympathetic effect.

The writer uses diction to show that he thought the fight was animalistic. “But in the last two years, over fifteen round fights, he had started to take some bad maulings.” The writer’s use of the word maulings suggest that his attack was like an animal attack. “Griffith making a pent-up whimpering sound all the while he attacked.” The writer’s use of the words “whimpering” and “attacked” make Griffith sound like an animal attacking his prey. The writer has sympathy for Paret because he is the prey.

“He hit him eighteen times in a row, an act which took perhaps three or four seconds…Over the referee’s face came a look of woe as if some spasm had passed its way through him.” The writer also uses imagery to produce the sympathetic effect. The way the writer paints a picture of thw punches and the look on tje ref’s face show that the punches were very painful, and it was not an easy thing to watch. The writer’s use of imagery also produces a sympathetic effect.

“The right hand whipping like a piston rod which has broken through the crankcase, or like a baseball bat demolishing a pumpkin.” The similes that the writer uses to show how bad the punches make it very hard not to sympathize with Paret. Even when Paret died the writer uses similes to show that everyone was. Everyone was not ready for Paret to die, and neither was Paret. “As he went down, the sound of Griffith’s punches echoed in the mind like a heavy ax in the distance chopping into a wet log.

In conclusion, the sympathetic effect that the passage has is due to the writer’s use of animalistic imagery, diction, and similes. “And Paret? Paret died on his feet.”The death of Paret was devastating to the spectators and the writer.