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The Great Debaters Reflection

Henry Lowe is a main debater on the Wiley College debate team portrayed as persuasive and bold, leading the team to many victories. However, he struggles with emotional outbursts that sometimes hurt the team. He is passionate about ending injustice for African Americans. While logical in debates, he reacts irrationally when angry or upset. His goal is to enact significant change through his debates and speaking against racism.

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2K views

The Great Debaters Reflection

Henry Lowe is a main debater on the Wiley College debate team portrayed as persuasive and bold, leading the team to many victories. However, he struggles with emotional outbursts that sometimes hurt the team. He is passionate about ending injustice for African Americans. While logical in debates, he reacts irrationally when angry or upset. His goal is to enact significant change through his debates and speaking against racism.

Uploaded by

Cannonvine
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Characteristics of Henry Lowe from The Great Debaters

Henry Lowe is one of the main debaters from the Wiley College debate team. He is portrayed

as a persuasive and bold debater who leads the team to victory many times. As a person he is

inwardly emotional to the point he acts rashly and irrationally when confronted with inner

turmoil. His academic and logical characteristics are very similar to mine, however the way he

handles his emotions are a complete contrast to me. This combination of logical thinking, (when

emotionally stable), and burning passion to prove his point makes him an influential

communicator.

Lowe’s life goal would be to make things fair and just, especially for the African American

community. Nevertheless, he becomes very worked up when he sees injustice and does not react

in a rational, structural way. This is clearly demonstrated in the scene where the debate team

witnesses the lynching of an African American by white Americans. Lowe resulted in handling

the situation immaturely, (by going out and et cetera). He ended up damaging the team synergy,

and it shows that he thinks in the short term when he is distressed. However besides his

outbursts, he does have a sensible and caring side. This was shown towards the end of the film

where he allows James Farmer Jr. to take his spot as the debater against Harvard, and installed

confidence in him. It seemed that he learned how to become a true leader, and to do things

constructively. Overall his personality is similar to mine, to the extent of his rational thinking

and saying things as they are. However he has much more of an authority-demanding nature

about him, and is very emotionally careless, which I am not. I find this is a major difference

between the two of us, even though our goals seem to coincide.

The main goal of Henry Lowe, from what I perceived from the film, is to make a significant

change with his life. His happiness comes from personal victories and being able to make a
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difference. I am similar to this respect as I find that the purpose of life is to make a difference in

some respect and that is the only way to achieve happiness. Lowe’s main purpose seems to be

rooted with the injustice and racism against the African Americans. He seems to have a rather

extremist approach to this issue for most of the film, which makes him sound all the more avid

and gallant when he speaks his arguments. Furthermore he does not like oppression and hates to

be controlled personally. These personal traits of his make him an activist for his kind and seem

to drive him inwardly to make his point on behalf of all African Americans. Contrariwise, my

goal to make a change is not ethically rooted, but is academically centered. I want to make a

change by bringing about more knowledge to the world in any form that I can. Therefore, I

consider my goal to be much more flexible than Henry Lowe’s.

From the film, it is evident that Henry Lowe is an effective communicator during his debates.

One aspect of his exceptional debate skills is his ability to think ahead of his opponent and his

flexibility and willingness to go off script when debating. This was displayed in Wiley College’s

first debate where Lowe delivered the conclusion for his team and decided to go off of his notes

and recount a personal story which fitted in better to prove his point. In the preparations of the

final debate against Harvard, he as the leader made comments on possible arguments that the

Harvard team would make, and planned accordingly in his notes. He also has an extensive

amount of knowledge on quotes by writers and philosophers, and uses them strategically both in

and out of debates. Lastly, his overall boldness and authority he displays when debating make

him very persuasive. He projects his voice clearly in a loud volume which cannot be ignored and

does not stutter. He obviously has a well thought out plan in his head when debating. These

multifarious characteristics make Henry Lowe a natural and exceptional debater.


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Henry Lowe is depicted as both an emotional adolescent and a powerful speaker. When

outside the debate room, there are times when he seems irrational and hasty, especially when

emotionally triggered. However he has a great wealth of knowledge, skill and talent which he

utilizes when debating in a calm and collected manner. This makes Henry Lowe a very

straightforward man who makes up for his mishaps and never loses courage to go on even when

he is the source of the problem. It is no doubt that he has strong resentment to inequality and he

successfully uses the medium of debate to speak out.

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