Austin R. Bailey
2nd period
Plot structure on Remember The Titans
Exposition
Remember The Titans begins right off the bat telling you that this story will be placed in
Alexandra, Virginia. The year is 1971. The location and the year mean that race will be a big
issue. In fact the narration went on to say how T.C. Williams was formed. It was formed by
combining a black and white high school-Which formed a very heated situation in Alexandra.
The first character introduced to us is Coach Yoast. His characteristics are that he is a
winning coach and he doesn’t want his players to get involved in the race issue. He ends up
being the defensive coach for Coach Boone. He is also a people pleaser and he is white. The
main character on the character list is Coach Boone. He is black, never misses an appointment,
loves to win, is the head coach for T.C. Williams, took the head coaching position from Yoast
when the school board gave it to him, didn’t want to do it to Yoast, loves the football field, is
compassionate, even though he doen’t show it at times, and is a historian. He moved to
Alexandra from South Carolina. He is peacemaker and he coaches with a very harsh, military
discipline. Cheryl Yoast is Coach Yoast’s daughter. She is white, very much a tom boy, loves
football, gets emotionally involved into football, a brat at times, and she is 9-½ yrs old. Gary is
white, loves coach Yoast, is an All-American football player, his dad passed away, he loves his
girlfriend, captain of the football team, and his nick name is “Superman.” Petey is a black
junior on the Titan team, he plays running back, thinks football is fun, can never hold on to the
football, and likes a good time. Julius is a young black man that plays defensive end. At first he
hates having to play on a team with a bunch of white boys but he changes to practically become
a brother to Gary. “Doc” is the offensive assistant coach to Boone. He is black and is the coach
that helps keeps Boone emotionally composed at times. “Rev” is the starting quarterback, black,
very spiritual, prays a lot, and very intelligent. Lastic is a very big white boy from a naval
family. None of his family has ever attended college. He’s not smart, best friends with “Rev”,
and white trash. Tyrell is white, is racist through and through, best friends with Yoast, and is the
special team’s coordinator for Boone. Ray is also a white young man and very much a racist and
he plans on missing a block for “Rev”. He is also good friends with Gary. Blue is a black
teammate who loves to sing. “Sunshine” moved to Alexandra after his dad gets was stationed
there from California. He is the backup quarterback, can throw it super far but can’t pitch the
football. Blacks are super happy that Boone is the head coach. However, the whites plan on
boycotting T.C. Williams. The team meeting was where Boone stated how a person will make it
on the team.
Rising Action
The rising action starts off when the football team heads off to camp. More importantly,
it’s when Boone integrates the football team by making the team separate into defense and
offense squads. Not only that, he also makes each member of the team sit with a teammate form
another race and makes the person that they’re sitting their roommate. Julius hangs up his Black
Power poster and caused a fight. Coach Boone spoke about anger and tells his team that he
expects perfection. Then Coach Boone asks Lastic about a teammate from another race and tells
Lastic he will help him be eligible for college. However, when the team could not tell Coach
Boone anything about another teammate, he gives them the assignment to learn about another
teammate. Until they complete the assignment, they will be doing 3-a-day practices. Then we
have another speech from Boone about water is for cowards, and washing the blood off of his
uniforms. After Boone administers the punishment for wanting water there is a huge fight over
the water. Julius gives Gary a speech on leadership. The team goes on a run and visits
Gettysburg. The Team becomes much more united after the visiting that sacred ground. Gary
and Julius have their “left side, strong side” moment. At that point, the Titans begin to see the
importance of teamwork and forget about race. The Titans participate in telling “your mama”
jokes. Then, Sunshine kisses Gary and gets Gary very mad. At lunch, the Titans separate into
defense and offense instead of black and white. When the team comes home from camp, the
parents believe their kids were either brainwashed or high. On the first day of school, the
football team is the only ones not freaking’ out about race. The team begins to worry about the
fact that if a problem arises and closes the school, their season will go down the drain.
Boone finds out that the board didn’t think he would make it out of camp alive. Their
plan was to replace Boone with Yoast once that happened. However, camp was a huge success
in bringing the boys together. Yoast substitutes Allen, a white boy, out of a game and puts
Petey, a black boy, in his place. After the game Gary is told that he has mixed up priorities by his
white friends and girlfriend. Then Sunshine doesn’t believe Petey about a restaurant’s policy
about serving blacks. The next day Allen’s dad blows up at Yoast for taking his son out of the
game. After that, Boone gets on Yoast’s case for challenging his authority. On Sunday, Gary’s
mom would not allow Gary to play basketball with Julius and makes him go to church with his
mother. At school, Petey gets into a fight because some white boy didn’t like the way he looked
at a certain girl. Tyrell quits coaching because he doesn’t want to be under a black man. While
Cheryl was at the Boones’ household, a brick is thrown through their front window. The team
holds a special team meeting about becoming more united because Boone will not always be
there for them. The day after that eventful night Yoast blames Boone for his sins that caused
someone to through the brick through his window and his sins are endangering his little girl.
Titans enter the field with a new warm up. Rev gets injured and will not be playing as QB for
the rest of the season. Sunshine has to go in. He gets a motivational speech from Boone about
his 12 brothers and sisters that needed him like the team needs him right now. Ray gets cut for
missing a block for Rev. Julius has a different, positive encounter with a cop. A high school
coach refers to Coach Boone as a monkey and refuses to help him out with scouting tapes. In a
game, an official is being really unfair to the Titans and forces Yoast to talk with the official. He
says that he does not mind going down (losing his nomination to the High School Coaches Hall
of Fame) to make the game fair. Then he gives the infamous “let them remember the Titans”
speech. Petey abandons the team in their moment of greatest need. At the end of the game,
Boone gives the racist coach a banana. Yoast loses his nomination for the hall of fame. Gary
gets into a car accident and is paralyzed from the waist down. Gary tells Julius that when he first
met him he was scared of him, but now he loves him as a brother. Julius finally meets Gary’s
girlfriend.
Climax
The climax happens during team meeting at half time of the state championship game.
Julius tells Coach Boone that he has lowered his bar of what he expects of the Titans. He should
still expect perfection from the team. Probably the highest point of the climax is when Yoast
tells the team that this year has taught him to trust the soul of a man, not the color of his skin.
Falling Action
Falling action occurs after the climax is over. Petey takes Allen’s spot in the game after
Allen gave it to him. Petey held on to the ball after he recovered it from a fumble. The Titans
win the game after a game winning touchdown.
Resolution
The resolution states that Gary died ten years after that eventful year. He won gold in the
shot put in the Paralympics. He died from being hit by a drunk driver. That Black and White
works in Alexandra because the people make it work there.