A Comparison Of Tale Of Malcolm X And James Baldwin

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The phrase ‘Coming of Age’ refers to the process of growing up or entering into adulthood. In these three coming of age tales of Barack Obama, Malcolm X and James Baldwin they all share a component in their lives with each other as they tell their tales of their dark pasts. Baldwin’s story is about how he becomes aware of himself and who he is as a person. Baldwin also shares a component with Obama because they both suffered from psychological loss of innocence of the protagonist between the ages of 10 to 20. The components Malcolm X has are both acquiring knowledge and he was accepting of the complexities and ‘greyness’ of the world. Baldwin’s story is about how he becomes aware of himself and who he is as a person. James Baldwin never knew …show more content…

In the tale of Malcolm X it states, “It really began back in the Charlestown Prison, when Bimbi first made me feel envy of his stock of knowledge.” While he was in prison he began to realize that as his friend Bimbi began to talk he and take control of conversations that he wasn’t as educated as he believed himself to be. Also he’d begun to realize that being dumb and uneducated isn’t as cool as it seems when you begin to have a conversations with those who’re more educated than you are. In his tory he also states, “...nearly all of the words that might as well have been in Chinese...I saw that the best thing I could do was get hold of s dictionary-to study, to learn some words.” He felt the need to acquire the knowledge due to the fact that he wanted to understand his friend and have the knowledge to hold a conversation with Bimbi. Malcolm X wanted to expand his knowledge and his vocabulary.“Under Bembry's influence, Little developed a voracious appetite for reading.” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malcolm_X) His original goal for obtaining education as for the purpose of understanding hi friend Bimbi and due to that need to acquire more knowledge it lead to him discovering more about the complexities and ‘greyness’ along with the deafness and blindness that was affecting the people of America more specifically the black community in …show more content…

In his tale Malcolm X states, “I saw how the white man never has one among the non-white peoples bearing the cross in the true manner and spirit of Christ’s teachings.” He began to realize that as he read more and learned more about the world that he began to see that although europeans bore the cross of Christ that they were ever really and truly christians they just developed this image of christians in order to have the ‘pagans’ convert to christianity. He also stated in his coming of age tale, “...with every additional book that I read, a little bit more sensitivity to the deafness, dumbness and blindness that is afflicting the black race in America.” He’d finally began to realize what the white community was doing to the people in the black communities whether they’re hispanic or african-american and his intention was to change what was

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