The Great Debaters Ethos

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Recommended: Debate over success of civil rights movement

In the inspiring movie The Great Debaters, a group of three African Americans rises to the top of the debate scene despite the handicap of being black and coming from the small town of Marshall, Texas. The debaters wouldn’t have grown throughout the story if their debate coach Professor Tolson hadn’t taught them things like facing reality and how to overcome difficult situations. Thanks to their debate coach, Professor Tolson, who despite his radical political views, empowers the debaters until they are able to triumph over large state schools and eventually Harvard at the end. Even though this is the first year of the debate team at Wiley College, the debaters prove to be awe-inspiring with their wins and as a result, mark a major turning point in the civil rights movement. This success could not be brought about if not for the …show more content…

Confidence in delivery is a major example of how ethos is used in the debate when the first speaker counters James Farmer Junior’s speech in the final debate of the movie. When the Harvard debater stands at the podium, the first thing he does is projects his voice and speaks with great confidence when saying, “From 1914 to 1918, for every single minute the world was at war (The Great Debaters).” Furthermore, this debater makes eye contact with all areas of the lecture hall and stands up straight with great confidence to show pristine poise. The debater also are not afraid to look at someone in the eye, even if they are different races. Ethos is also suggested by the fact that this is a white male student at Harvard University, which automatically makes him more credible than an African American during this time in history. The Harvard student creates a trustworthy speech based on eye contact, vocal variety, poise, and body language and uses these techniques as the main way to argue Wiley

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