Gerry Bertier is an AA high school football player who originally was very vocal about his views on back people who then was one of the first to change his views mostly due to Coach Boone’s strategies during the camp training portion of the movie. His change in view is also due to his will to come together as a working, and trusting team in order to win; Coach Boone made him realise this.
When he first found out about Coach Boone taking the position of Head Coach he was outraged; he was strongly opposed to the idea of being under the command of a black coach and having black teammates. Although he was coming to term with his new situation, he still he ordered Coach Boone around when they first met. This can be seen in his line “You want any
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During lunch on another day, Coach Boone asks the players to tell him about one of their teammates of a different race. He first asks Louie who answers him without hesitation, however when he asks Gerry, who is sitting with his white teammates, he receives silence. This then makes Coach Boone to instruct them to learn about one member of the team each day and report back until they've learnt everyone’s name or they would receive three-a-days. When Gerry asks Julius to give him his basic information, Julius snaps at him which triggers Gerry to tell him that he believes that Julius is being selfish. The latter retaliates by telling Gerry that his white teammates do not block for their black quarterback teammate Jerry “Rev” …show more content…
Gerry talks with Coach Boone after the game, asking him to let go of Ray. Coach Boone at first doesn't agree, but after seeing Gerry’s determination he allows him as the leader of the team. He breaks the news to Ray, showing his intolerance to Ray’s racism and his own growth as a person.
He would rather spend his time with his black teammates rather than his prejudice girlfriend who at first tries to seperate him with his friends. He also urges his mother to not discriminate against his newfound friends and accept his new best friend Julius.
Another significant moment within the film is the scene where Julius visits Gerry in the hospital after his accident. The nurse tells Julius that only family is allowed into the ward and Gerry speaks up to her saying “Alice, are you blind? Dint you see the family resemblance? That’s my brother”, showing that Gerry defiantly does not look at the colour of one’s skin, but one’s
When Boone was appointed to the position of football coach at T.C. Williams High School, he became the visionary of success to the program. His vision for the team from the beginning was to win a state championship. As a leader one must be a visionary and have an ultimate goal that needs to be accomplished. Difficult situations continuously present themselves and need to be handled effectively in order to accomplish the leader’s vision, which often occurred during Boone’s journey with his team. Throughout the film, no matter what circumstances Boone encountered, he was able to stay focused on the goal of winning a championship which consequently allowed the team to
The main intention of Gus, Richie, and Clark was to help Nelson be involved in the town’s baseball program. These mid-thirties men used to be nerds when they were children, so they felt the pain of being bullied by jocks who thought they were better than others. They joined together to make a baseball team called the Benchwarmers to compete against the other children that bully Nelson and his friends. In the beginning, the Benchwarmers were not good; Gus carried the team. When they started beating every team in town, it was an example to other less athletic kids that you should not be limited by what others think of you. Everyone started cheering on the Benchwarmers. They
Ever since he was a little boy Randall Woodfield felt like women were against him. Growing up he despised his two sisters because they teased him and he felt like he was treated differently than his sisters. For the rest of his life Randall would misperceive women. Randall Woodfield would value himself based off of how women thought of him. The one woman he cared most about was his mother. He never wanted to disappoint her or let her down in any way. Randall always felt incredibly upset when he disappointed his mother; a lot of his actions during his younger years were made based off of what his mother would think or want him to do. While in high school Randall excelled in sports mainly football and he would later go on to play in
All the players knew “the assault on the bleachers” was about to happen (Grisham 74). It was a miserable morning while rake “growled along the track, whistle hanging around his neck, yelling at the stragglers” (Grisham 75). One player, Scotty Reardon, was running the bleachers and went unconscious and died that day on the bleachers. Scotty passed away on the bleachers that Sunday morning. Scotty’s uncle was the superintendent of the school and had the power to fire Eddie Rake. The town split because of people’s view whether or not Eddie Rake should be fired. The Reardon’s did not forgive Rake for a long time and Rake practically went into hiding. The town took a long time to recover from this loss of their coach. When Rake finally passed away he had his own personal closure with Scotty and his family. Rake had requested to be buried next to Scotty and said he would greet him in heaven. The Reardon’s said it would be okay for Rake to be buried next to Scotty. This was their way of forgiving Rake for what he did to their
As James matures, issues of race in his life became too apparent to ignore. His multiracial family provides no clear explanations on prejudices and racism, and when "[James] asked [Ruth] if she was white, she'd say, No. I'm light skinned,' and change the subject." Ruth avoiding addressing racial issues causes confusion within the siblings, which "perplexed [James] to the point of bursting. [He] took the question to [his] elder siblings Are we black or white?' [He] asked [his] brother David one day. I'm black,' said David. But you may be a Negro.' " James' family of a rainbow of color perplexes the ideals of race for James, causing questioning and insecurities within himself, noting that "being the token Negro was something I was never entirely comfortable with " As James begins his search for identity, he is halted by his mother's avoidance of rac...
...nly seen in everyday television. Common beliefs of black families being more aggressive, having lesser moral values, and living less socially acceptable and lawful lives can be clearly seen through the actions of the white characters, and the thoughts that Chris expresses throughout the episode. The show uses satire to exaggerate black stereotypes to the point where it means the opposite of the comedic nature of which it was presented. The treatment and visualization of the lives of the black characters in the episode, through comedy and exaggeration, clearly shows the real-life problem of black stereotyping that is still all too present in American life. Chris’ everyday life as a black student in a white school and struggle to “fit in” is a struggle that non-white students have faced and are still facing today.
In the book Bleachers by John Grisham, Rake was a long time hero because of the winning streak of 84 games and the 13 state titles Rake, but despite the legacy and popularity of Coach Eddie Rake, he is a horrible person.
One of the first relationships that McLaurin describes is the relationship between him and his friend Bobo. McLaurin struggled to deal with leaving his boyhood behind and coming into manhood in dealing with the African Americans in the town. When he was young he paid no attention to race of the children in the neighborhood. Children are often very unaware of the social issues going on around them because children are innocent and then when they start growing up they begin to become aware of what is happening. McLaurin was playing a game of basketball with the black and white children in the neighborhood and needed to air up the ball at his grandfather’s store. McLaurin and a couple of his black peers, including his friend Bobo, went to the store and McLaurin became frustrated with Bobo after he failed to air up the ball with enough air after he already put the needle in his mouth to get it into the ball. McLaurin then placed the same needle into his mouth and immediately was overcome with emotion. This ev...
Ray Budds is an antagonist. An antagonist is a character in a story(movie) who causes trouble for the protagonist(s) which Ray did. In the movie Ray asked Julius, a protagonist, if black people had fathers too and if they can afford anything. This supports my statement because it shows that Ray says things to purposely hurt people like Julius, a black person that Ray doesn’t like. During the movie in one of the games Ray purposely missed a block, so the opposing football player could tackle the quarterback Pete, a black person. This evidence supports my statement because it shows that Ray has a thing against black people and would like to cause problems for them. When Gerry just became friends with the black people in the movie Ray came by
Griffin feels it is necessary to understand the hardship of blacks in the United States of America. Through medications, bleaching and ultraviolet light, Griffin is able to temporarily change his skin color so that he can walk through the streets and understand the injustices faced by African Americans. Later on, the author moves farther south where he is faced with even more racism and begins to switch between white and black skin, understanding the different expressions given by society of both races. While white, Griffin finds that white people treat him with respect and black people fear him. But while black, Griffin is despised and neglected by whites and is welcomed warmly by blacks (Griffin, 1962).
The movie shows Bertier kicking Ray off the team because he was making the colored team members look bad, who was one of his close friends. Bertier’s action shows that he is not going to let anyone on the team treat a colored member badly or make them look foolish. Next, Bertier ditched his friends for the team after one of their games they won, for his friends treated him and his team members rude and differently. This shows how Gerry was very dedicated to his team, and he was willing to leave his friends to be with his team of color. This is how Gerry Bertier didn’t tolerate his team getting treated
We may be behind on the scoreboard at the end of the game but if you play like that, we cannot be defeated.” He used pathos to hit the player’s soul by explaining himself, explaining that he doesn’t want the team to be the champion by winning, he wanted the team to be the champion by showing their hard work and their passion on the field. And also the coach is using logos by bringing up the six Sons of Marshall, the six players, the six teammates who went away by a plane
Coach Norman Dale embodied a number of personal characteristics which enabled him to be the quality leader he was in the movie Hoosiers. His toughness, optimism, motivation, farsightedness, and self confidence assisted Coach Dale in gaining the loyalty of the team and the attention of the town. They also helped him to change the losing ways of the early team into the state champion team they ended up to be. Additionally, a number of environmental factors played a role in his success. The almost religious fervor of basketball in Indiana, the quasi-anarchist environment of the town’s men, and the fact that Hickory was a small town all played vital roles in Coach Dale’s success.
For a long time, it was assumed that blacks were not allowed to play in the Major Leagues simply because they had not for so long. When Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis, the commissioner of baseball at the time, declared that there was no rule preventing integration of the Major Leagues, the idea of an African-American joining the league was realized for the first time by a lot of people. In 1943, Branch Rickey, general manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers at the time, had an idea though to be outrageous by many during that period. He considered signing some black players to make up for the wartime shortage of talent. He narrowed down the list of prospects, searching for the best player to integrate baseball. The likely choices for talent would have been Satchel Paige or Josh Gibson. Rickey, however, wanted not only a star but a person who could deal with the harassment from the public, some teammates, and the overall opposition. Knowing of Jackie's talent and his hate for segregation, Rickey set up an interview hoping he could convince Robinson to sign a contract. When Rickey told Robinson why he had been brought to see him, Jackie's reaction was a combination of several emotions. "I was thrilled, scared, and excited.
Branch Rickey, the president of the Brooklyn Dodgers team, had “sent scouts to Negro League ballgames. To disguise his intentions, Rickey announced that he planned to start a new Negro club to be called the Brooklyn Brown Dodgers” (Williams). Once they scouted all the potentials, Rickey and a few trusted advisors then decided on the best candidate. Rickey, then, summoned the candidate, Robinson, to an interview to ensure that he was up for the challenge. It is understandable why Helgeland did not incorporate this into the movie because it would have complicated the story more than it needed to be. If it had been included it may have confused some viewers on whether or not Rickey was actually creating an African American