Remember The Titans Character Analysis Essay

1137 Words3 Pages

Diana L. Flint
Manag 2215 – Net02
Professor Tungol
February 14, 2018
Remember the Titans
Remember the Titans takes place in the early 1970’s in Alexandria, Virginia and depicts the how a group of young men worked their way through a hostile environment generated by school integration in order to form a cohesive football team. There are four main characters: Head Coach Herman Boone, Assistant Coach Bill Yoast, Team Captain Gerry Bertier, and his defensive line partner, Julius Campbell. For the purpose of this paper’s goal of assessing styles of followership, we will concentrate on only two individuals: Yoast and Bertier. Both Yoast and Bertier could be identified as critical thinkers. Each is able to think independently and is conscious …show more content…

He is cautious and even skeptical at first about Boone’s leadership. After all, he was set to be the Head football coach before being bumped for Boone. While he was upset this happened he decides to put other coaching offers aside and stay for the benefit of “his boys.” Yoast cares deeply for his players and feels it is his duty to not only develop them as a team, but to also prepare them for life itself. He relates to each one and every one as if they were his own child. I believe Yoast is an effective follower. According to the textbook page 204, The Leadership Experience by Richard Daft, “effective followers behave the same toward everyone regardless of their position in the organization. They do not try to avoid risk or conflict…. They have courage to initiate change and put themselves in conflict with others” in order to serve the best interest of the organization. To illustrate this, during a football game an African American player is being ridden hard by Boone for how he was playing and pulls him from the game. Yoast sees this and encourages the young man to switch from the offensive team to his defense line. He then pull’s a white player off the field despite his father’s angry calls and Boone’s raised concern that he is being undermined. The next day the father of the white student further berates Yoast in the coach’s office and accuses Boone of making him do it because of …show more content…

I believe Bertier is an alienated follower (at least at the beginning of the movie when he does not offer any assistance to unite the team). He is openly hostile or sarcastic. At one point in the movie, Bertier refers to Boone as having stole Yoast’s coaching job and declares he will not play for him. During a bus loading scene, he introduces himself as the ‘only All American on the team’ to Boone. He then makes a statement that if the head coach wanted any of the white players to perform for him, he had better reserve at least half of the open positions. He condescending attitude proceeds through the onset of camp. When Boone assigns one black player and one white player to share each room, Bertier continues to show his defiance by negating the directive to get to know your roommate. Following a long day of practice, and a fight by the water table, Bertier finally approaches his roommate Julius Campbell, saying “let’s get this over with.” During this conversation, Bertier tells Campbell that he is nothing but a waste of God-given talent. Campbell responds with a question, why isn’t Bertier blocking for any of the black players? He was supposed to be Captain, and ‘attitude reflects leadership.’ The next day Boone takes the team out for an early morning run where he provides an inspiring speech at the site

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