In the 1992 film Malcolm X directed by Spike Lee, the historical story of the American activist for African American equality in the 1950’s and 1960’s, Malcolm X. This compelling and artistically created film tells the story of an American hero. Through Spike Lee’s directing and creativity, the idea of identity is a crucial role in Malcolm X’s life. Lee is able to show identity both cinematically and thematically throughout the film. In the cinematic sense, Malcolm X’s identity is shown as he travels through many paths in his life. At the beginning go the film the viewer sees Malcolm Little, his full name before Malcolm X, as a young adult who doesn’t give a care in the world. At the beginning, he wears colorful flashy zoot suits. The use
When the movie starts Malcolm Little is getting his hair cut. The appearance is that he wants to look more like a white person. Malcolm X's father is a preacher, but the KKK came to the house to burn it down. Later, Malcolm's father is killed by being tied to the rail road tracks when a train comes. His father died when Malcolm was just a child.. After Malcolm's dad died A white woman came to tell Malcolm that they were going to take her kids away because she was an "unsuitable mother". They then sent Malcolm to a detention home which drove his
April 3, 1964, Malcolm X gives his well renowned speech; The Ballot or the Bullet in Cleveland Ohio. His purpose behind the speech is to encourage African-Americans of the United States to stand up to the unfair treatment that he believes they receive. Throughout the speech, Malcolm X creates an ambition in the audience, encouraging change through the numerous uses of ethos, logos, and pathos. Malcolm X uses his personal experiences to show the audience that he has experienced the same negativity that they do everyday. X suggests everyone should be treated equally; religion, gender and race aside. His audience was made up of a majority of African-Americans, he uses the common ground of wanting to achieve equal treatment to show his audience he is on the same side as them. Through the organization of the speech, it is rhetorically effective. He practices the phrase “The Ballot or the Bullet” which uses repetition, forcing listeners to remember the phrase which later becomes more effective. X begins using ethos by introducing himself, immediately gaining the attention of the audience as well as respect of the audience. X then makes the current problem in the African-American community extremely clear to the audience, this is his use of pathos, where he engages them in his thought process and bringing them in using emotion. The speech uses rhetoric to emotionally and logically
In Malcolm X’s “Learning to Read”, we learn the story of how Malcolm turned his how life around while serving a sentence he earned from a robbery in 1964, which lead him to spend seven years in jail. During this time, Malcolm discovered the power that reading and self educating himself brought to his consciousness. Who would have known that this man’s entire life would of changed and transformed him into one of the biggest political figures of our time. He himself probably never would've guessed that this would of been his fate while he was in prison serving time for a crime he committed before his enlightenment. A negative choice he made which ultimately altered the path he was destined to go down, Malcolm X is the prime example of how change is possible for anyone as long as you start within yourself.
The first most important part of Malcolm’s life was his time in jail. This represents the main idea of racial identity. His friend, Shorty, was a drug dealer. He got Malcolm into dealing due to the fact that Malcom needed money. Selling drugs, or hustling, was the best way Malcolm could see to final make some decent money. This represents racial identity because all the blacks thought that dealing was the way life had to be to win in the world of white supremacy.
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.
Do something about it. Everyone has problems from struggles in life. Malcolm X told his life story of how he overcame in his autobiography simply called The Autobiography of Malcolm X as told to Alex Haley. His life changed the world historically, socially, and especially politically by taking a stand against racism of all kinds which still exists in today’s “modern” standards. Using his personal life experience with racism towards African-Americans, Malcolm spreads the word on equality for all with a realistic tone that inspires trust in him. Malcolm X reaches all kinds of people in an effort to voice his thoughts on equality for all using rhetorical and persuasive techniques for a more effective message.
Many African American families went through alot in the early days and the little family was no exception. Malcolm little was born on May 19, 1925, to Rev. Earl Little and Louise little. Malcolm would spend most of his childhood years in Lansing, Michigan. His father, Reverend Earl little, was a Baptist minister, who was a dedicated organizer for Marcus Garvey’s U.N.I.A (Univeral Negro Improvement Association). He believed that negroes should return to their ancestral homeland Africa because freedom, indepedence, or self respect could not be achieved in America. I believe the master student trait of willing to take risks was a
While the 1970’s and 80’s marked a decline in movies featuring black actors and a lack of black directors, the mid 1980’s through the 1990’s invited a new generation of filmmakers and rappers, engaging with the “New Jack” image, transforming the Ghettos of yesteryears into the hood of today. A major director that emerged during this time was Spike Lee. According to Paula Massood’s book titled, Black City Cinema, African American Urban Experiences in Film, “…Lee not only transformed African American city spaces and black filmmaking practices, he also changed American filmmaking as a whole.” Lee is perhaps one of the most influential film makers of the time, likely of all time. He thrusted black Brooklyn into light, shifting away from the popularity of Harlem. By putting complex characters into an urban space that is not only defined by poverty, drugs, and crime, it suggests the community is more than the black city it once was, it is instead a complex cityscape. Despite them being addressed to an African American audience, Lee’s film attract a mixed audience. Spike lee’s Do the Right Thing painted a different image of the African American community, “The construction of the African American city as community differs from more mainstream examples of the represents black city spaces from the rime period, such as Colors…, which presented its African American and Mexican American communities through the eyes of white LAPD officers.”
Malcolm X was one of the primary religious leaders and reformers of the 1960, where he fought for and ultimately gave his life for racial equality in the United States. His father was a reverend who believed in self-determination and worked for the unity of black people. Throughout Malcolm’s life he was treated horribly by white people, hence shaping his misconceptions of all white people and developing his strong belief in black separatism. It wasn’t until years later where he embraced his black identity and discovered all races could live and work together for a common goal, brotherhood.
Malcolm Little commonly known as Malcolm X was born in Omaha Nebraska. Malcolm’s trouble has started before then even while he was in the womb of his mother. Clansman would often circle his house in search of his father who was a preacher who talked about the evils of the clansmen and wished for a day when African Americans will return to the ancestral homelands in Africa. In chapter 1 of the Malcolm X book I will describe his childhood has rough he seen his father killed been relocated to 4 or 5 different houses and at the end of it all his mother was killed. Malcolm little commonly known as Malcolm X have been through a lot in his upbringing. He was separated from his seven siblings and put into foster care Change would be one word to describe his childhood as he was in and out of schools and by the age of 13 he was in a reform school. The book takes a major shift when he heads out to Boston with his sister Ella. From here he tours the town and find other African Americans who are just like him. One in particular by the name of shorty becomes one of his closest friends. He introduces them to the locals and takes Malcolm under his wing. One thing in particular that Malcolm falls in love with is the Roseland Ballroom. With the help of shorty he gets a job as a shoe polisher. While doing this he falls in love with a new dance called the Lindy Hop. This ultimately leads to him quitting from shoe polishing in a short time because he cannot do both. However he only works there
Throughout history there have been many people who have stood out and made an impact in the way we think and comprehend things. During the late 1950's and early 1960's, Malcolm X was no exception. His militant views that Western nations were inherently racist and that black people must join together to build their own society and value system had an important influence on black nationalist and black separatist movements of the 1950s and 1960s. At the beginning of the movie, Malcolm X was born Malcolm Little. He was a young child trying to adapt to society's changes. He was looking so hard that he fell into the wrong crowd.
The movie and book tells the life story of an interesting and important man. As a sociological study, it provides fascinating insights into ghetto life and the ways which one man learned to survive in the ghetto. As a religious work - which is perhaps the way Malcolm intended the book to be read - it tells of his struggle to find his God. Yet it is as a political work that the book rather than the movie has had its strongest impact. Through his story, Malcolm has continued to exert great influence over the various black radical political movements since his death.
There are people who can relate to Malcolm’s story, but low income, African-American neighborhoods are rarely portrayed in popular culture through the eyes of a smart, young, African-American teenager. As Odie Henderson says in his review, ‘“Dope” alternates between being shockingly tone-deaf and surprisingly on-point.” This essay will represent why Malcolm’s story isn’t the norm for movies in popular culture and why it still follows some of the stereotypes seen in the media through an outside source, by using the Rhetorical Method as well as the Race & Ethnicity Method. The movie trailer begins
In conclusion, what is seen in Spike Lee's Malcolm X is a break from the traditional cinema of its time which was a film of historical fact, biography and political commentary with the intended effect of raising social consciousness. Lee pushed the limits and dared to create controversy and shock viewers. Furthermore, Denzel Washington portrayal of a much wounded young boy who evolves into a very powerful speaker and political figure is outstanding and helped shaped the movie into an incredible historical depiction of Malcolm X’s life.
The film grants audiences to gestate their understanding of the movie and the manner experiences antiquated regarding racial violence and prejudice. The ineptitude of history implies to the intellectual chattels that chronicles and culture can have on all progeny. Malcolm Little would ultimately revolutionize into his worst adversary, that entangled with the decisions he would subsequently make. Malcolm's philosophic mentality and provocation with death was indicative to his life. The remarkable depiction in the film pronounced the indubitable fortitude and essence of the audience.