Heroes in Sports Articles - Essay Example

Secondly, the DiMaggio article was written from the second person point of view, while the Williams article was a narrative. Finally, Joe DiMaggio was shown as a real man that was a reluctant hero, while Ted Williams was shown as a baseball star from a far. These similarities and differences will be compared and contrasted. “The Silent Season of a Hero” article was about Joe DiMaggio and “Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu” covered Ted Williams. Their hitting records were discussed, but so was part of their life’s background.

An example would be DiMaggio’s marriage to Marilyn Monroe. Williams stint as a military pilot. Both men’s careers in baseball were highlighted. Another similarity in the writing styles in the articles is the telling of a story while relating a message about their hero. These stories are not straight forward biographies. They relate stories, antidotes, and personal impressions of both of these men. “The Silent Season of a Hero” tells the story of DiMaggio from his position after his career.

On the other hand, “Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu” tells a story of a day at the ballpark with flashes of the past intermixed. Both stories use the flashback technique to get the stories across. Whether talking about DiMaggio’s meeting of second wife, Marilyn Monroe, or the author’s impressions of Ted Williams when he was a kid, both stories used flashback. The final similarity is both authors believed DiMaggio and Williams were heroes. DiMaggio was described as a reluctant hero, especially in his latter years.

This type of hero is based on a man that was a baseball great, that had overcomes a hard childhood, and troubled personal life. Williams was described more through hero worship. The article mentioned his baseball career from a far. Both described DiMaggio and Williams as heroes. There were also differences between the articles. “The Silent Season of a Hero” and did not use imagery and figurative language, but “Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu” used an excessive amount. In “The Silent Season of a Hero” the opening is straight forward: IT WAS NOT quite spring, the silent season before the search for salmon, and the old fishermen of San Francisco were either painting their boats or repairing their nets along the pier or sitting in the sun talking quietly among themselves, watching the tourists come and go, and smiling, now, as a pretty girl paused to take their picture. (Updike) While descriptive, this paragraph does not use imagery or figurative language.

It is just descriptive. In “Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu” figurative language is used to describe the eyes of some fans: Two girls, one of them with pert buckteeth and eyes as black as vest buttons, the other with white skin and flesh-colored hair, like an underdeveloped photograph of a redhead, came and sat on my right. On my other side was one of those frowning, chestless young-old men who can frequently be seen, often wearing sailor hats, attending ball games alone. (Talese) Also imagery is used describing the ballpark.

“Everything is painted green and seems in curiously sharp focus, like the inside of an old-fashioned peeping-type Easter egg” (Talese). When reading this sentence one can see an Easter egg basket and egg peeping out. These examples are just a few throughout both articles, but both were consistent throughout each respective article. Another difference in the writing styles of the articles is the DiMaggio article was written from the second person point of view, while