UNIT 3 - The Great Debaters Recap’

March 2020

Notion : myths and heroes/ seats and forms of power

 What do you remember about them…

Junior Farmer’s father is a priest who has important achievements; he is also very strict, which means that
junior is a very obedient child, as well motivated. He is in love with Samantha Booke, the first girl to attend
a debate team. The last member is mr lowe, with mysterious origins, also interested in Samantha. They all
participate in the debate team; however, Samantha and Junior are both alternates. In the end, it is them
that debate against Harvard.

Mr Tolson is a very smart teacher, stands for what he believes in, no matter the circumstances, without
caring about what people might qualify him as. He believes people should be united against injustice.

Corrupted, mean cop

  Recap the following scenes and link them with our notion(s) :

Mr Farmes has to pay the 2 uneducated white men 25 dollars, his salary for a month, for a hog he has
accidentally run over. They treat him with disrespect.

The debate team runs into a lynching scene. The angry mob start attacking them. Fortunately, they escape
and arrive to their destination safe and sound.

Samantha Booke loses her temper over her opponent’s argument according to which it is not the time for
whites and blacks to go to the same schools, however it will come one day. She says that African americans
going to white schools is justice, and that it is immoral to say that that day will come one day in the future,
far away: the time for justice is now.
Junior talks at the harvard debate. He proves that laws can be immoral, especially segregation ones (jim
crow laws): the justice system is not absolute and is aware of how African americans are treated. It is not
ignorant of the frequent lynching episodes. It is how he wins the debate.

This movie can be linked to the notion of myths and heroes. It is a bunch of kinds from the little Wiley
College that stand up for their rights, against all odds, debate and win against the best white college in the
country: Harvard. This is what makes them heroes: although their lives were very difficult and they even
witnessed the horrors of a lynching scene, they fought for what they believed in, trained by M. Tolson, who
is just as motivated as they were. Finally, the myth in this movie is the fact that “whites and blacks would
share the same schools one day”, however that day would never come. It is Samantha that breaks the
myth heroically, saying that “that day is today”.