During the chapters that we read of Nightjohn, John was brought to the same place as Sarny to work as a slave. One night, while most people were asleep, she gives him tobacco, and in return, he agrees to teach her the letters A, B, and C. Later on, Alice ran away and was whipped until her back was bleeding terribly and opened up. The story also told about two other men who had also attempted to run away. Later, Sarny finds out that John was, at some point, free. But, he had come back to the south for the sole purpose of teaching people to read.
The chapters from Mascot were a little bit different. The main character, Malcolm X, was sent to live with Mrs. Swerlin at a reform school. He was given a large amount of freedom, but soon began to realize that the Swerlin family thought of him as no more than a pet. He then went to visit Ella in Boston, and realized how diverse and non-racist it was there. When Malcolm returned back home, he became very bitter and annoyed with the people around him, because before going to Boston, he had never noticed how differently everyone had treated him.
The Great Debaters related to these two stories in many ways. For example, Nightjohn and the movie both had a white man torturing a black man for no reason. Also, both were in the time period that all white people considered themselves superior. However, the major difference was that in Nightjohn, the main characters were slaves, while in The Great Debaters they were all free.
Mascot was a little bit more like the movie, in the way that all of the main characters were free. Another similarity was that the city of Boston had a big impact on the story. However, in Mascot Malcolm X went to a mostly white school, while The Great Debaters went to an all black school. For the most part, though, they all had a similar message.
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