The Struggle In The Autobiography Of Malcolm X

In The Autobiography of Malcolm x, Malcolm changed and developed into a successful public figure throughout his life. The challenges and the situations that he faced as a child and young adult contributed to the transformation in his life as well as his thoughts and religion. Race affected Malcolm in every experience in his life. He became anti-white and talked poorly about the white man. Malcolm went from a man who did not believe it was possible to integrate races in America and believed in black separatism, to later becoming a man who ultimately wanted for all people to live peace with one another.
As a young child, Malcolm experienced racial inequality. He remembered scenes of horror from his childhood in which white men treated his family …show more content…
Once Malcolm got to Boston he began to explore the city. Malcolm began to see the difference between Boston and Lansing. At this time, there were two parts of Boston, the “Hill” where his sister lived and the ghettos. Malcolm believed that the Hill Negroes were trying to act like white people. This caused him to get more involved in the ghettos. He wrote," I cannot stand those Hill characters.” Malcolm did not like that they were trying to resemble the white people and work in jobs that were similar to the ones in which the whites worked. He believed that the way the Hill blacks looked down on the lower class black people and judged their neighbors made them identical to the white people. He began drinking, selling drugs and gambling. Malcolm easily becomes a product of the ghetto. He was allowing that lifestyle to take him over. He was fleeing from anything that resembled the white man. Malcolm also notices the way that the people in Boston try to change their appearances to resemble more of the white society. Malcolm himself changed his appearance to fit in more with the society and have a better social standing. They felt the need to mesh with the white society. Malcolm changes jobs a lot. His life starts to go downhill. He starts selling drugs, moving weekly to avoid getting arrested and then having to borrow money just to eat. When Malcolm is living in Harlem, the …show more content…
He gets arrested for burglary but when he is put on trial he is not questioned about the crime that he had been arrested for. They instead investigate the relationship that he had with the white woman. Malcolm was sentenced with 10 years in prison. When Malcolm went to prison he began to turn his life around. He begins making use of the library in the prison and making his English better. Malcolm also began to follow the Islamic faith. He learns from his brother that the teaching of Muhammad is that all white people are devils. When Malcolm is deciding whether to convert or not he thinks of all the white people that he has encountered in his life. He eventually converts and believes in the teachings of Islam. When he writes to Muhammad and gets a reply Muhammad says" the black prisoner symbolized white society’s crime of keeping black men oppressed and deprived and ignorant and unable to get decent jobs turning them into criminals.” The teachings in which Muhammad had just expressed to Malcolm appealed to him because they aligned with some of the thoughts that he had prior to going to prison. He joins the debate team and learns how to speak publicly. All of the reading, writing, and public speaking that Malcolm is performing will help him later gain followers. Malcolm 's time in prison showed the transition from his younger years to his adult years where went from hustling to make money any way he could into a man of