The story Nightjohn is a told through a young girl named sarny who is living on a slave plantation with her mom (mammy). On the plantation, things were ran quite hasty. The slaves were told to pick cotton and they were not allowed to leave. During the story a couple of slaves tried to escape the plantation because of harsh treatment. Old Waller the man who ownd the plantation liked to take advantage of his slaves and beat them. One slave named Jim who had a girlfriend on the plantation decided to go and visit her during the night. When Old Waller found out that he was sneaking out to go see her, he let his dogs run loose to go and tear him up. Another slave named Pawley died because Old Waller cut the part just above the heal so that Pawley couldn’t ever run again. But Pawley eventually died because he lost to much blood from the cut. Later in the story, Nightjohn who goes by the name john comes into the story. Nightjohn was a slave who came back to teach his fellow friends how to read and write. Nightjohn begins to teach Sarney because he was willing to make a trade of teaching letters for tobacco. By the end of the night, Nightjohn teached sarney the first letter of the alphabet “A”. Sarney gets in trouble with mammy because mammy knows that teaching wasn’t allowed on the plantation and she didn’t want to see Sarney get in trouble for it. Nightjohn convinces mammy to let him teach Sarney, and later, Mammy was fine with the teaching and Nightjohn continues.
The Story Mascot is about Malcolm x during his childhood era. It starts out as Malcolm x attending a reform school and living with his foster family “Swerlins”. Malcolm x fit in very well to his school, and didn’t have a problem being there. He even becomes, class president and is very successful. On the weekends he would go and visit his real family and see his brother who happened to be really good at boxing. Malcolm x wanted to be just like his brother and decide to start boxing. At school, Malcolm tries to beat a kid named Bill Peterson, but he ends up getting knocked out. Malcolm thought that he could go home and practice again but he ends up getting knocked out again. Later, Malcolm’s half-sister, Ella, comes to visit from Boston. Ella is a pretty successful woman in Boston, and Malcolm starts to look up to her. When Ella suggests that Malcolm come visit her sometime in Boston, he starts to think about it. When in Boston, Malcolm experiences a sense of area among other black people that he has never experienced before, and he really likes it. A major turning point occurs in his life when he has a talk with his English teacher, Mr. Ostrowski. When Malcolm tells Mr. Ostrowski that he wants to be a lawyer when he grows up, Mr. Ostrowski tells Malcolm to be more practical, and that he should consider something like carpentry instead. Yet, Mr. Ostrowski encourages his other white students to be things like nurses and veterinarian. In the end, Malcolm ends up moving to Boston with Ella. This is how Mascot ends.
Compared to the Great Debaters, each story that we have read in class has its own twist to it. The movie The Great Debaters, was about a black school, called Wiley College Texas. The professor inspired his school to start the first debate team. Eventually he gather a group of well educated kids and starts to work his way up with debating. The professor, had issues of his own, with his secret meetings with the townspeople at night in a barn and tried to act more like a white guy than of his own kind. Later he has to deal with his problems and his students debate team.... etc. Throughout the story there was a discrimination against blacks. There were treated poorly and in certain parts of the united stated things were way much different. In Harvard during their last debate match, the black people had more freedoms than they did if they were to be in Texas. But compared with the previous stories mentioned, i would have to say that The Great Debater does have similarities and differences among the other stories. Example, In Nightjohn, slaves were discriminated against and just like The Great Debaters they didn't have much say when it came to small towns. When Mr Farmer was driving and accidentally hit the pig, he offered money to help pay it, but the white folks insisted that he would pay what they asked for rather than what it was really worth. Its not fair in cases like that. In Mascot, there wasn't much discrimination but there was hate coming from Malcolm's English teacher to him. Because Malcolm wanted to be a lawyer his English told him that it wasn't practical.... in contrast to the great debaters they were able to be a debater and they worked as a team to get there. Overall i think each story has different parts to where they are similar and have differences, but all have to do with human rights.
The Story Mascot is about Malcolm x during his childhood era. It starts out as Malcolm x attending a reform school and living with his foster family “Swerlins”. Malcolm x fit in very well to his school, and didn’t have a problem being there. He even becomes, class president and is very successful. On the weekends he would go and visit his real family and see his brother who happened to be really good at boxing. Malcolm x wanted to be just like his brother and decide to start boxing. At school, Malcolm tries to beat a kid named Bill Peterson, but he ends up getting knocked out. Malcolm thought that he could go home and practice again but he ends up getting knocked out again. Later, Malcolm’s half-sister, Ella, comes to visit from Boston. Ella is a pretty successful woman in Boston, and Malcolm starts to look up to her. When Ella suggests that Malcolm come visit her sometime in Boston, he starts to think about it. When in Boston, Malcolm experiences a sense of area among other black people that he has never experienced before, and he really likes it. A major turning point occurs in his life when he has a talk with his English teacher, Mr. Ostrowski. When Malcolm tells Mr. Ostrowski that he wants to be a lawyer when he grows up, Mr. Ostrowski tells Malcolm to be more practical, and that he should consider something like carpentry instead. Yet, Mr. Ostrowski encourages his other white students to be things like nurses and veterinarian. In the end, Malcolm ends up moving to Boston with Ella. This is how Mascot ends.
Compared to the Great Debaters, each story that we have read in class has its own twist to it. The movie The Great Debaters, was about a black school, called Wiley College Texas. The professor inspired his school to start the first debate team. Eventually he gather a group of well educated kids and starts to work his way up with debating. The professor, had issues of his own, with his secret meetings with the townspeople at night in a barn and tried to act more like a white guy than of his own kind. Later he has to deal with his problems and his students debate team.... etc. Throughout the story there was a discrimination against blacks. There were treated poorly and in certain parts of the united stated things were way much different. In Harvard during their last debate match, the black people had more freedoms than they did if they were to be in Texas. But compared with the previous stories mentioned, i would have to say that The Great Debater does have similarities and differences among the other stories. Example, In Nightjohn, slaves were discriminated against and just like The Great Debaters they didn't have much say when it came to small towns. When Mr Farmer was driving and accidentally hit the pig, he offered money to help pay it, but the white folks insisted that he would pay what they asked for rather than what it was really worth. Its not fair in cases like that. In Mascot, there wasn't much discrimination but there was hate coming from Malcolm's English teacher to him. Because Malcolm wanted to be a lawyer his English told him that it wasn't practical.... in contrast to the great debaters they were able to be a debater and they worked as a team to get there. Overall i think each story has different parts to where they are similar and have differences, but all have to do with human rights.
