Analysis: The Autobiography Of Malcolm X

Thesis: In “The Autobiography of Malcolm X”, Malcolm X in his telling of his life to Alex Haley uncovers the theme of positive and negative environments unearthed by the interaction of African Americans and White Americans in his life and what those kinds of environments inherently produce.

As noted by Malcolm X in his essay Learning to Read, self-education can help bring awareness to the United States’ appalling history of oppression effectuated against African-Americans. In relation to the reading, Malcolm X assimilated prominent examples of oppression through personal anecdotes that descriptively stated what the “evil white men with whips and clubs and chains and guns” did (193). Correspondingly, the negative consequences society has put into place can be stemmed back to the history of European colonization.

The Autobiography of Malcolm X: Society and Self-Identity The Autobiography of Malcolm X, written by Alex Haley, tells the story of Malcolm Little and his growth and change through life. Although the main purpose of autobiographies is to tell the story of one’s life through the individual’s own perspective, this story seems to have a greater purpose: to express the theme of the transformation and discovery of self-identity through the journey of Malcolm X’s life, as well as the influence and power of society on one’s self-identity. His character is molded and created over again by the changing influences throughout his life, often swayed by the oppression surrounding him.

This speech was to influence everyone to unite and fight with oppression and violence for civil disobedience. Malcolm expresses many rhetorical appeals such as ethos, pathos, and logos. In the Beginning of the Speech, He reflects a major appeal of ethos by saying how his religious beliefs have a huge impact on what he believes in and why he’s fighting but has no correlation with the issue of black equality, “but as a Muslim minister; and I believe in action on all fronts by whatever means necessary. Although I 'm still a Muslim, I 'm not here tonight to discuss my religion. I 'm not here to try and change your religion.

Malcolm X was an American Muslim leader who contributed to the Civil Rights Movement by spreading his ideas of black nationalism in the 1950s and early ’60s. He was an influential figure in a black Islamic organization, Nation of Islam, and served as a spokesperson for the organization. He was assassinated on February 21, 1965 while making a speech in Harlem. After his death, his life story was made well-known through his autobiography, The Autobiography of Malcolm X (1965) (Mamiya 1). Malcolm X is a man whose background and activism contributed to the Civil Rights Movement and America as a whole.

Malcolm X was admired by many, for his courage and intelligence. In his essay “prison Studies” Malcolm X writes about his journey in prison, he tells us how he met his friend Bimbi who inspired him to become better and so he started his own “prison” education.

What makes a leader? I believe a leader to be intelligent ,tough, and has the determination to achieve a goal. Having certain skills will have an impact on you being a trustable leader. Being selfless and caring are also characteristics. Malcolm X his birth name Malcolm Little is a fine a example of a leader and has most of these leadership qualities. Malcolm X was a Muslim minister who was also African American. He was a activist for human rights, Malcolm was a bold and courageous spokesperson for blacks to have rights,Malcolm X declared America “white America” to have the most harshest of terms for it’s tenacious treatments against African Americans.In the year 1946, he was sentenced to prison because he was caught breaking and entering. When he was incarcerated, he was chosen to become a member of the Nation of Islam. This is when he changed his birth name from Malcolm Little to Malcolm X. Later he had written,”Little was the name that the white slave master … had imposed upon paternal forebears” After his parole in 1952 his popularity grew and became the organization 's most influential leaders, and served as the public face of the controversial group for a dozen years. Malcolm rose quickly and became the prime minister of Temple 11 in Boston a temple in which he founded. He was then given the No. 7 Temple located in Harlem. Temple No. 7 was the largest and prestigious temple known for the Nation of Islam after the headquarters in Chicago.

He started to get into trouble as a young boy when he started hanging out with the wrong crowds. As a young kid he went by the name “Johnnie”. He started getting into trouble by doing pranks on people in his neighborhood, and local corner stores around. He then started to get into petty theft stealing candy bars, gum and other food items. He then got into a street gang called “the Dirty Dozen”.

But Robs desperate attempts to make money caused him to make some dangerous choices that came with consequences. “Once you get in, it 's hard to get out.” (Chapter: 9 Pg. 228) Robert had to face some difficult challenges along the way that involved him getting involved with people who were dangerous and sneaky. In order to make money he went through jobs quickly so he could earn money he also sold pot and guns just to get by.

He wanted to go further than any civil rights leader had before. His purpose was to fix the situation that the black man had been put into against their will. However, Malcolm X was unable to devise this plan initially. Having only gone to school until the eighth grade, Malcolm X’s intelligence and studious nature came solely from his “prison studies” (Malcolm X 640). Before prison, Malcolm X was illiterate-

Malcolm silently just sits back and watches as his childhood is slowly being taken away from him. Not only was his childhood taken away because of the color of his skin but he also lost his father because of how bad the racism was, even his mother who was white was even taken away from her kids. However what really opens Malcolm's eyes to how awful people were to each other just because of the color of their skin, is when Malcolm told his junior high school teacher he wanted to be a lawyer. If Malcolm was white his teacher would have supported him however because he was colored he told Malcolm "be realistic...

Malcolm X is accurate in his evaluation that white Americans are responsible for projecting an inferiority complex onto black Americans. In this sense his arguments against the integrated black man are persuasive, but his violent approach is disconcerting, as his anger develops into that which he so fiercely opposes, namely, racism.

Him and his gang would do all sorts of Relates to the prompt because: he joined the gang so he didn’t feel lonely. By him joining the gang, his future was destroyed. An example about when my cousin lived in Colombia, she grew up in the middle/poor class. Many of the women there were prostitutes. They were very beautiful, had money, didn’t need an education.

When I first read about the Malcolm X, it reminds me on some of the Sahabat of Prophet Muhammad that had made so many sacrifices in order to spread the truth of Islam. From the first paragraph I have read about this man, I can see that he had gone through a hard life for being isolated because of the skin color. Of course, in these days, being racist is such unacceptable thing to do regardless the religion. If we take this matter from the moral perspective, racist is injustice act and this will lead to violation of human rights. Racist also might lead the extremist to be more aggressive and the safety of the country is somehow has been unsafe. Therefore, starting on today, we should respect each other, understand others’ beliefs and spread the Islam not by force or not based on the skin color.

He is a mere shadow of the man we once knew and fought beside, a myriad of problems conspired to corrupt his reason and twist his common sense. My brothers, tonight we will fight for all that is good, for the entitled King Malcolm. Tonight, we bring back what was taken from us.