His account of his transformation in prison, in which he read extensively and adopted the Nation of Islam's strict moral code, presents a story of remarkable dedication and will. Like much of the literature of the turbulent s, the text also contains the rhetoric of protest. By utilizing personal experience to argue for a major restructuring of American society, the work echoes a mode of African American literature descended from the slave narratives.
The later chapters blend accounts of Malcolm's years as a minister with excerpts from his speeches condemning white America. Because Malcolm's life changed rapidly as he composed the Autobiography, and because he was assassinated before he read and revised the final draft that Haley had sent him, the book, like the life, seems incomplete. The Autobiography captures a mind in flux. Opinions contradict each other in the text, especially those on the Nation, the organization that he credits with saving his life, but that he split from rancorously while he was fashioning his life story.
Such contradictions generally enhance the text, for they present an attractive protean self, one willing to learn and change when confronted with new knowledge.
Without his life story, Malcolm X might have been forgotten. Malcolm has become a sort of tabula rasa, or blank slate, on which people of different positions can write their own interpretations of his politics and legacy. Search review text. The majority of those pages were on Rosa Parks and Dr. Martin Luther King, Malcolm X was barely mentioned. After reading this book I was perplexed! I wonder why Malcolm X hasn't been given the same respect as Dr.
King; he contributed so much to the civil rights movement as well, yet my knowledge on this man was very minimal. This is what this book is all about.
His transformation was remarkable especially as he spent time in foster homes and was a hustler in Detroit. He lived in an America where smart black kids were discouraged from being lawyers etc, and thus dropped out of school at young ages. It made me think for the umpteenth time just how can society malign and vilify black people, especially black men, when society itself is responsible for restricting them in the first place?
Among the many things I admired about Malcolm X was his thirst for knowledge. I knew right there, in prison, that reading had changed forever the course of my life.
As I see it today, the ability to read awoke inside me some long dormant craving to be mentally alive. I always thought I would adhere more closely to Dr. Not that I am advocating violence, but radicalness and action is sometimes needed, as are anger and indignation. At the same time I wonder, how can people not become militant and revolutionary after having experienced so much cruelty and discrimination? His depiction of his trip to Mecca in particular was very enlightening and a turning point in his life.
His adoration of Elijah Muhammad, the founder of the NOI, was quite sad, especially as Muhammad seems to have been a bit of a weirdo. Muhammad said something along the lines of too-short women marrying tall men and vice versa is ridiculous.
Also, he said that a man should ideally marry a woman half his age plus 7 years. Malcolm is unapologetic about his views in this book and that's what I love best about this autobiography. His writing is very candid and so informative. This is an important book for all to read.
Malcolm X dissected the race problem so well, I felt inspired. This book counts for a lot. Cornel West says that one of the deepest fears for black America is that Malcolm X was fundamentally right, that the political system here is incapable of being changed through traditional means in order to serve the black community what they are due.
A share in the incredible wealth of the country that they have labored to build for hundreds of years, often against their own will, answers the REALIST Malcolm X scares the hell out of people even today because of his refusal to accept the current democratic system as a way for African-Americans to address their genuine bitterness towards a country that has screwed them over time and again.
He also refutes racist claims of white intellectual superiority, absorbing the whole canon of European philosophy while in prison, and responding to it with fierce criticism. And he was a busboy in some of the greatest New York clubs that ever existed. I dunno.
I'm another middle class white boy in the U. Sean Barrs. The voice of Malcolm X was powerful, unbridled and simply heroic. I call myself the best example of that. It's just one human being marrying another human being or one human being living around and with another human being. As a political figure, his rhetoric was extraordinary.
But I will get to this much later in this lengthy review, for now though looking at his childhood experience helps to understand what shaped him. As a young black man in America, he was a man without a sense of true identity.
His African roots, though still in his blood, were far from evident in his people. The culture he existed in is comparable to a murky mirror. They were indoctrinated with this idea, this idea that the white man was better; thus, they tried to become white, by adopting white culture, rather than finding their own true sense of self.
And this is exactly what he addressed in his later arguments after his lessons under Elijah Muhammad and the Nation of Islam. However, some of his earlier experiences show the powers at play directly. The young Malcolm experienced it all. Let me say that again, one paragraph. He had no history before enslavement, and this is what these children were taught at school.
Chinua Achebe come eat your heart out. Ignorance like this is why he wrote Things Fall Apart. Malcolm was later told by another teacher that he could not become a lawyer because of his skin colour. First though, before he would begin to walk his path, he would make a series of mistakes. I could hear the sorrow in his voice as I read some of the words here.
You could say it ruined her life. He bought into this idea that white is better and left her for all the prestige a white partner could bring him. He would make even more mistakes as he got older. He became a hustler and a drug pusher, then later a house breaker. He was surrounded by a world of violence. Few make it to old age in such a life, so he had only two possible exists: death or prison. But who is to blame? I call these mistakes, but the reality of the situation is that they were merely pitfalls.
When Malcolm entered prison, it was only because the situation created by the white man lead him to the cell. And at this moment in his life, arguable the lowest, when he sat in a prison cell bored to tears and full of rage; he realised what true power was and where he could get it: books. He had become what the white man wanted him to be, so he changed rapidly.
He transformed himself drastically. He learnt his full history- that of the African American and then what he could of the African. He embraced Muslim faith, slowly at first, but when he did he became incensed with the clarity it gave his mind.
Christianity, for him, became nothing more than a mode of control the white man used on the blacks. It forced them to their knees and made them worship a white god. He wanted no part of it. Test your knowledge of The Autobiography of Malcolm X with quizzes about every section, major characters, themes, symbols, and more. Go further in your study of The Autobiography of Malcolm X with background information, movie adaptations, and links to the best resources around the web.
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Read An Excerpt. Sep 29, ISBN Add to Cart. Buy from Other Retailers:. Jan 15, ISBN Oct 12, ISBN Aug 25, ISBN Hardcover —. About Malcolm X Alex Haley is the world-renowned author of Roots, which has sold six million hardcover copies and has been translated into thirty languages. Product Details. Inspired by Your Browsing History. Dreams from My Father.
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