1. The story Night John told how hard it was to be a slave and how the story of slavery was important and needed to be shown. Night John was a slave who ran away and came back to teach slaves to read. Sarny was one of the main characters and she was being taught letters and how to read by Night John. She first learns when she trades tobacco for an A. Night John wanted to teach Negroes to read because he wanted the people in the North to know what was being done to black people in the south. Alice was a slave that had been beaten so many times she became mentally ill. She refused to be a breeder and was tied down to let it happen. Alice wandered around the master's house and was whipped by the master on the wall of the spring house. The master used a rawhide whip cut from an old gin belt used on cotton to whip her until her back was ripped and bleeding. The rest of the slaves had to watch while she was whipped and salt was rubbed into her cuts. Mammy was a mother-like figure in the story and helped look after the children and stitch Alice. Alice was a great example of how hard it was being a slave and the physical and mental tole it took on a person. She also showed how important it was to tell how the slaves were being treated.
2. Mascot was a story about Malcolm X's childhood and the people who had an impact on him. Malcolm's mother was mentally ill. He misbehaved in school and was sent to different reform schools in Michigan. He was the only black person in his class but he performed at the top of his class. He wanted to become a lawyer when he grew up, but his white teacher told him to be more realistic since he was a nigger. He said he was good with his hands and carpentry would be better for him. Mr. Ostrowski, Malcolm's teacher, laughed thorugh Negro history, and had no respect for the negro people. Mr. Ostrowski read that slaves were lazy, dumb, and shiftless. He told the class how Negroes' feet were "so big that when they walk, they don't leave tracks, they leave a whole in the ground." Malcolm stated that if Ostrowski would have given Malcolm a good influence, he would be a successful black bourgeoisie. Malcolm was elected class president and said he was proud and didn't have feeling about being a Negro because he was trying in every way to be white. Mr. Ostroswki was one person in Malcolm X's childhood who had an impact on him.
3. The Great Debators, Mascot, and Night John all tied together in different ways and all had their own differences. In the movie The Great Debaters, Samantha Booke became a lawyer when she got out of college and in Mascot, Malcolm wanted to be a lawyer when he grew up. In The Great Debaters, Samantha Booke was supported by her town, her teamates, and many others, but in Mascot, Malcolm was told he couldn't become a lawyer and didn't have that much support. In all of the stories, the main characters were all trying to reach a certain goal of theirs'. The settings in Night John and The Great Debaters were both down in the south. In the book Night John, Pawley would go see his girlfriend at night and the master let the dogs out to get him and in The Great Debators, Henry Lowe went out to see a girl one night and got in trouble when he came back. Mascot and The Great Debaters took place in towns with other people and Night John took place on a plantation where slaves were restricted to leave. These are all of the ways The Great Debaters, Mascot, and Night John tied together and showed differences.
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