Malcolm Essay

Julius Caesar, a Roman general, dictator, and leader, is considered to be one of history 's most influential and powerful rulers to this day, in which his rise to power, conquest of Europe, and controversial downfall all remain to be told during modern days. The play Julius Caesar written by William Shakespeare, portrays the events leading up to Julius Caesar’s assassination, and how those who conspired against him banded together and plotted Caesar’s demise. Many of those conspirators assassinated Caesar due to his quick rise to absolute power, his “acts” of disrespect against the senate such as his failing to stand to receive the title of becoming a “god,” and pure jealousy and anger towards Caesar’s success and rule over the Roman empire. Caesar, an ambitious man, was able to conquer many lands and peoples for Rome through successful military campaigns in which he became one Rome’s best generals due to the amount of successful battles he had won and the amount of blood he had shed for Rome’s expansion. However, Caesar’s trait of ambitiousness would prove to be a double edged sword.

Julius Caesar (100-44 BC) was one of the most outstanding leaders in history. He was the first ruler of the Romano-Hellenic civilization and achieved his goals with great success throughout his life of 56 years. He was assassinated by the conspirators, who accused him for practicing tyranny. This essay will discuss whether it was right for the conspirators to murder Caesar and what its consequences were.

Julius Caesar’s desired conquest, to take power caused him to expand the Roman Empire, this makes him a good leader because he’s taking action. He wouldn’t want people to control him, he would want to control them. Caesar’s conquest of Gaul resulted in him becoming governor. How many times did he lose battle out of his nine years there? Only two. During this time, he conquered all land east of the Rhine River (World Book). Britain was invaded twice by Caesar’s troops which reflects that he was motivated to take control of

Caesar possessed too much power. They said he was becoming a threat to the Roman Republic,

His reasoning? The injustices dealt him by white Christians. Leaving the pews of the church he entered the world of the street hoodlum where he would exist until his arrest and prosecution for armed robbery at age twenty (Allah, 1995). He recalls the 1946 crime in “The Autobiography of Malcolm X”:

One of the most influential men of his time, not only with the black community, but also with other people of every community. His beliefs for many people are hard to understand and probably thought as if his beliefs are wrong, but until someone actually reads The Autobiography of Malcolm X, then people will not really understand the complexity of the man Malcolm X. His autobiography takes you on a tour of probably lots of black men of this time and shows all the hardships and struggles that they had to go through. Showing the misleading teachings of the honorable Elijah Muhammad and the Nation of Islam, and how Malcolm learns the real truth of his religion.

In the victory over the battle of Pompey, supporters that sided with Pompey, Caesar still forgave them, “Surely not his former opponents, the defeated Pompey supporters like Cicero himself, who had been allowed to return to Rome and the Senate with their properties intact, and who were now his staunchest and most appreciative friends” (Parenti 172). Caesars concerns wasn’t to be biased and was only in favor of returning to the prosperous, content Rome. The aristocrats then decided to mastermind a plan with the senators in order to take Caesar’s life and remove his reign of reforms. Upon arrival, Caesar would be gathered around his senators and hear about Tillius Climber’s petition about allowing his brother to be return from being exiled. Delivering the first assault would be led by Casca, followed by a slash from Cassius, and after encountering twenty-three stab wounds, Caesar would bleed to death and lay motionless.

This quote illustrates where Malcolm X’s passion, towards advocating for minorities, may have been intensified. Malcolm X was an African-American Muslim minister and a human rights activist who, to his admirers, was a courageous advocate for the rights of blacks. Moreover, this quote testifies how his education, even if it weren’t the most conventional, contributed to the level of qualification he had. The degree in which Malcolm X understood the oppression of blacks by not only being a black himself and experiencing it first

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

The 1950's and 1960's were a time of racial turmoil throughout most of the United States. Segregation between blacks and whites was still in full effect, African Americans had to drink from different water fountains, eat at different restaurants, and even shop at different stores than their Anglo "neighbors". Many people and organizations fought valiantly for equality in the U.S. such as Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King jr. and the NAACP. The roles they played were critical in the civil rights movement were critical, the actions they took included peaceful demonstrations and marches, public speeches, and boycotts such as the one that took place in Montgomery, Alabama in 1955. One man stands out among all of these leaders though, Malcolm X.

Malcolm X first in incident with racism happened at an early age, his house was broken into by Ku Klux Klan members. Who were looking for his father Earl Little because he works for the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), that supports black Americans returning to Africa. Malcolm would occasionally attending the UNIA meetings with his father learning that life is stacked against blacks. Throughout his life Malcolm goes through four transformations from the streets, jail, muslim and trip to mecca.

Furthermore, as highlighted before, aristocrats held most of the power in the Roman republic through the use of force. When Caesar came into power, that power was taken back by Caesar. Thus, it would not be unreasonable to think that the conspirators true motive of the murder of Caesar was in an effort to return power back to the aristocrats. The senates did not really want to protect the Roman empire from an autocracy rule instead they wanted to return the power back to themselves. When compared to the senate’s selfish desire, Caesar would have served Rome

He passed a law that gave himself a five-year rule in Gaul, and he was elected to another five-year term after his first one was over. Overall, Caesar’s campaigns brought in success and greatness for the Roman empire, but in his campaigns, he was forced to wipe out nearly one million people in Gaul (“Julius Caesar”).

Even though he was extremely unpopular, being in possession of the wealth he was, he was able to buy his way through the senate to the height of power. Caesar had majestically rose to power, partaking in every major position there was, using his political ingenious in his attempt to gain full control of Rome. After Crassus had died in battle, and Caesars’ army defeated and killed Pompey, he was quick to mop up all his opposition from the senate and the oligarchs across the Mediterranean and throughout Rome, in his first step to his dictatorship, his dictatorship being the final step to the republics decline. After defeating all of his enemies, Julius Caesar was granted a 10-year dictatorship for purposes of restoring the republic, similar to the title that Sulla had granted himself many years previous. However he constituted himself as the Divine King or Ruler of Rome, essentially a REX, yet as said before, since the founding of the Republic, the Romans prided themselves on freedom from the Etruscan King, and just the term ‘King’ went against the republic mentality. Eventually killed in plot involving over 60 senators, the death of Caesar concluded the decline of the Republic.

     “ No, I’m not an American. I’m one of the 22 million people who are victims of Americanism, one if the victims of democracy, nothing but disguised hypocrisy. So, I’m not standing here speaking to you as an American, or a patriot, or flag-saluter, or a flag waver. No, not I. I am speaking to you as a victim of the American system. And I see America through the eyes of a victim. I don’t see any American dream. I see an American nightmare!