The great debaters

The great debaters is a movie based on a true story, and is set in the 1930’s. It is made by Oprah Winfrey, and is directed by Denzel Washington, whom is also one of the main characters in movie, along with Forest Whitaker, Nate Parker, Jurnee Smollett, and Denzel Whitaker.

The plot revolves around Melvin B. Tolson (Denzel Washington), a professor at Wiley College and the debate team’s coach. He wants them to be the best and later debate against white people, and even the Harvard debate team. During the movie you can also see a lot of racism, which was common during the great depression, and this time period. One of the most essential scenes in the movie is a scene where they see a man who had been lynched, which was when a mob of white people hung or burned a black man.

They eventually get an answer from Harvard, and they are going to debate them, but Mr. Tolson are not allowed to join them, and they have to do all the work themselves, but they manage to pull it off, and win in the end.
I think it was a good movie about racism and the conditions during the great depression.

Lamb to the slaughter

Today we read a short story called “Lamb to the slaughter” by Roald Dahl. The whole class then wrote some questions each, and I’ve picked two of them to answer in this blogpost. Roald Dahl is a British novelist and short story writer. He was born in Wales and had Norwegian parents. In addition to “lamb to the slaughter”, he has also written “Charlie and the chocolate factory” and “the BFG”.

When was this short story written and what would be the penalty for killing if she was caught?
-    The short story was posted by Harper’s Magazine in September 1953, after being rejected by The New Yorker. If Mary Maloney were to be caught for the murder of her husband, she would have been sentenced to death. Death penalty was not suspended until 1965 in England.

What could the husband be telling his wife that was so bad she had to kill him?
-    It does not say in the story what Mr. Maloney tells his wife when he comes home. But from the way Mary Maloney act and from her thoughts, we can presume it’s something along the line of him leaving her. Maybe even for someone else.