Essay On Malcom X

The history of the United States has in it much separation or segregation due to race. For a long time our country has seen racism as a large problem and this has caused ethnic groups to be looked down upon and forced into a lifestyle of difficulties and suppression. Due to this, races, particularly African-Americans, have been forced to deal with unequal opportunity and poverty, leading to less honorable ways of getting by and also organizations that support change. Malcolm X is one strong example of an African American man who became apart of a group acted against it, uniting people to promote the advancement of colored people and change. Malcolm's thoughts towards race and civil right in the previous years were displayed in a less

The Autobiography of Malcolm X The Autobiography of Malcolm X is the story of Malcolm X, an African American male growing up in the United States in the mid-1900's. At this time in America prejudice and segregation were widespread and much a part of everyday life. Malcolm takes the reader through his experiences with American society, which rejects him. This rejection, along with the inferiority cast upon all Black Americans, forces these males to search for acceptance. They are forced to search for purpose in causes greater than single individuals. As the book shows, this is evident in Malcolm throughout his life and in the life of other African American males. The Autobiography shows how during this time in American history

Malcolm X is an extremely critical figure that contributed in shaping American social life. He was a famous man who articulated the struggle, anger, and beliefs of African Americans. He was a radical man who fought for change despite the situation. His struggle for equality for the black nation landed him in prison. While in prison, Malcolm was able to study, and earned a college degree. However, most importantly while in prison, Malcolm X was introduced to the Islam faith by one of the prisoners. He received teachings from the Muslim faith, which made him realize that, his people were being oppressed and abused by the whites. While out of prison, he went to visit honorable Elijah Muhammad and later on went around preaching Elijah

M.L.K and Malcolm X The two most influential civil rights activists in American history were Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. They supported equal rights for every race, but when comparing MLK’s “I Have a Dream’ and Malcolm X’s “The Ballot or the Bullet,” one sees the similarities in their rhetorical styles and differences in their tone and message. As seen in “I Have a Dream,” MLK has a more civilized and peaceful solution to the nation’s problems; whereas in X’s he has a will to do whatever it may take to solve the problems.

There have been many people throughout United States History who have greatly influenced the nation, including Malcolm X. Malcolm X both positively and negatively affected American society. He is regarded as one of the greatest and most influential African Americans in history, while being a tremendous public speaker and human rights activist, specifically advocating for the rights of African Americans. However, numerous individuals view him as controversial figure due to the widespread portrayal of Malcolm X as a violent and racist character often considered to be the opposite of Martin Luther King, Jr. Overall, it is clear that Malcolm X is one of the most significant people in United States history because of his various positive

The author’s purpose for writing the book was for the reader to gain knowledge of Malcolm X as an individual and not as a phenomenon. He wanted to deliver truths that spanned his brief lifetime.

Throughout history there are many great people who dedicated their life to the advancement of the African American race. Few of these people created as much controversy during the 1960’s then the man who would be known as Malcolm X. Unlike many of the civil rights leaders of the time

He started thinking about the world and the society he lives in. He began to question the way things were, and he realized that a change in his life, and in the society was both possible and necessary. Prior to his imprisonment, Malcolm had been enclosed in the world of the hustler, the player, the pimp, the gangster, the parasite, and he couldn¹t imagine him outside of that world. “Reading exposed Malcolm to new worlds; it allowed him to see that there were alternatives to the lifestyle and values of the social parasite” (Shanna). While in prison, Malcolm began to think, and to read. but only after he had been encouraged to do so by someone that he respected and who had taken an unselfish interest in him. “Malcolm was later motivated by a new sense of self-worth and identity and purpose, as his family introduced him to the religious and political philosophy of Islam, as taught by Elijah Muhammad, and practiced by the Nation of Islam (NOI)” (Estate of Malcolm X). Malcolm X converted to the Nation of Islam while in prison, and upon his release in 1952 he abandoned his surname "Little," which he considered a relic of slavery, in favor of the surname "X" a tribute to the unknown name of his African ancestors.

Literary Analysis: The Autobiography of Malcolm X The Autobiography of Malcolm X, told by Alex Haley, details the incredible journey of one of the most inspiration and life altering leaders the world has ever encountered. The book begins with the illustration of Malcolm’s early life experiences and ends with X predicting that he will die a violent death prior to seeing the publication of his autobiography.

“There is no better than adversity. Every defeat, every heartbreak, every loss, contains its His views on black rights often clashed with other Black rights activist such as Martin Luther King Jr. Martin Luther King was focused on equality and finding the goodness of man and the hope that we could live equally. Malcom’s views sometimes took on an aggressive tone. Understandably so, giving his background. All Malcom knew of race, was the anger and hatred that it brought with it. Which made him at first, have the notion of not wanting anything to do with White America. Even going as far as doing anything necessary to complete the separation from them. In order to have a separate but equal Black

Who is Malcolm X? Answers tend to vary by person but in the “Autobiography of Malcolm X”, it really delved into the pivotal details of his life and readers like myself, went on an enthralling metaphorical journey to see the intriguing development of him as a child, a young adult, a convict, a follower, and ultimately a leader. For starters, Malcolm X was not born with the infamous and famous X. His birth name was Malcolm Little and the innocent Malcolm Little was very belittled (pun intended) in majority of his social environments. At a young age, he experiences the pain of losing his father. In retrospect, his father was just a dust in the wind. Malcolm’s dad was like many other socially active black males, who became inevitable victims that usually were murdered, lynched, burned, etc by the white men in their area. Now, to lose one parent is already tough for many individuals but Malcolm was only to be hammered with more bad news. His mother was sent away by government workers to a mental institution because his house was deemed “unstable” (this kind of stuff happened daily to many black families in similar housing situations like Malcolm was in). But Malcolm directed his energy elsewhere. He ends up taking initiative in school and whilst excelling, he ended up loving many aspects of education in America (or so he thought). He climbed his way to become first in rank in his class and even became class president but his dreams was simply crushed by many individuals. One of

THe Metamorphosis of MAlcolm X Malcolm X once wrote, “My life has always been one of changes” (Haley 404). In his autobiography, The Autobiography of Malcolm X, it is very evident that through his life, he went through a series of drastic changes that went from one extreme to another. He went from being at “the bottom of the American white man’s society,” to become one of the most influential advocates of Black pride (150). Throughout the novel the most evident changes are when Malcolm X moves to Boston, goes to prison, and going on Hajj.

III. Transitional Lansing did not hold many opportunities of any kind for a young black man then, so without a particular plan, Malcolm X went to live with his half-sister, Ella, in Boston. Malcolm X looked, and almost immediately found trouble. He fell in with a group of gamblers and thieves, and began shining shoes at the Roseland State Ballroom. There he learned the trades that would eventually take him to jail dealing in bootleg liquor and illegal drugs. Malcolm X characterized his life then as one completely lacking in self-respect. Many journalists would emphasize Malcolm X’s “shady” past when describing the older man, his clean-cut lifestyle, and the aims of the Nation of Islam. In some cases, these references were an attempt to damage Malcolm X’s credibility, but economically disadvantaged people have found his early years to be a point of commonality, and Malcolm X himself was proud of how far he had come. He spared no detail of his youth in his autobiography, and used his Nation of Islam ideas to interpret them. Dancing, drinking, and even his hair style were represented by Malcolm X to be marks of shame and self-hatred. Relaxed hair in particular was an anathema to Malcolm X for the rest of his life; he described his first “conk” in the autobiography this way: “This was my first really big step toward self-degradation: when I endured all of that pain of the hair-straightening chemicals, literally burning my flesh to have it

Malcolm's childhood years was nothing but a hardship. His father He studied hard to get high grades and he was even elected as the class president. He was doing his best, until his teacher went up to him and told him that his dream to be a lawyer, is not possible all because he is black. Instead, he insisted him to become a carpenter. From then, something started to changed within him. Malcolm sees the limit to the white acceptance, and the inevitable truth of what life awaits for the colored. He starts believing that in the white society he was living in, there is no success nor future. Spike Lee never really focused on Malcolm's childhood in the film, except for this particular part. He chose this moment to highlight, because this scene single handedly explains why he hated whites, why he became a hustler, and why he became a civil rights activists. It was the hatred against the whites. From then, he stopped accepting the whites. This was the moment when Malcolm's view on integration between whites and blacks became possible, to impossible. The historical figure of Malcolm X’s philosophy started here, with the hatred of his enemy. Malcolm X in his speech, preached that the black man should have their own power, by separating themselves completely from the white society, similar to what his father was preaching. His childhood tragedy gave him the reason to fight for, and the belief for uniting the black race for separating them from the cruelty. Malcolm X we all know of, would have never existed without

Despite his dismal upbringing, Malcolm was able to graduate from his junior high school at the top of his class. He was aspiring to become a lawyer, but after one of his teachers told him that trying to be one was, "no realistic goal for a nigger", he decided that school was not for him and moved to Boston for awhile and made a living working a number of jobs, none of which were permanent. Eventually he would find himself working as a waiter at a restaurant called Small's Paradise in Harlem, New York. It was at this time that Malcolm Little began using and then selling drugs and even committing burglary. In 1946 he would be arrested for burglary and sentenced to ten years in prison. It was during his stay at the Charlestown, Mass. Prison that he would make maybe the most significant change of his life. Malcolm would begin studying the teachings of Elijah Muhammad, the leader of a small cult-like Islamic group that called themselves the Nation of Islam, he also began to study the Koran (the Islamic holy book). It was during these long years in prison that Malcolm was able to educate himself fully and came to the conclusion that he wanted to join Elijah and the Nation of Islam and fight for equality between blacks and whites.