Malcolm X Chapter Summary

Alex Haley, the author of The Autobiography of Malcolm X, uses structure, style, and content in the first 11 chapters to describe his purpose and to contribute to the beauty and power of the text. Not every chapter specializes in structure, style, and content. One Chapter may have a unique style, but another may have a unique structure to support the author’s purpose. Each chapter helps contribute to the beauty and power of the text in that they each have something important to help support the purpose which is to show how Malcolm became what we know him to be. Content is very important in many of these chapters because they provide reasons and examples of how Malcolm X became radical and a very aggressive protestor.

In Chapter 1, Haley uses an intense event to start out the book. The content of this chapter shows the world Malcolm was born into. Haley describes events of attacks by the KKK to show the intensity that is later to come in the book. The structure and content of this chapter really sets the tone for the chapters that follow. These chapters also gives an idea of powerful this book could be later on because of the intense emotional events in this chapter.

On page 38, Malcolm tells Mr. Ostrowski that he would like to be a

lawyer, but Mr. Ostrowski told Malcolm that people like him are not suited for that because of his race. “The more I thought afterwards about what he said, the more uneasy it made me. It just kept treading around in my mind.” It was a huge shock to Malcolm. He never expected someone to tell him something has harsh and mean as that. The content and event with Mr. Ostrowski changed Malcolm’s mentality. This leads to him acting different and experiencing new situations. He starts to have the “I don’t care” mindset and gets involved with people like him that just want to have a good time and ignore education. This is visible in later chapters and contributes to his later more radical self. The style of this chapter has a calm tone in the beginning, but once the Mr. Ostrowski incident happened, the tone became very tense and uncomfortable in a way.
Chapter 3 is about Malcolm being introduced to the city of Boston. It was a shock for him. He never imagined the height of the skyscrapers and how big stores were. He liked Boston much more than Lansing. He also meets Shorty who becomes one of Malcolm’s long time friends. Shorty introduces him to the Roxbury scene and the ghettos. Malcolm enjoyed it much more than the hills where Ella lived. Chapter 4 carries on from chapter 3 and shows that Malcolm has really adapted to the Roxbury scene and started to become a well-known dancer in the area. The content of these two chapters contributes to the author’s purpose in the way that Roxbury and dancing really gave him something to live for and because of being exposed to this environment, it leads him to new environments that contribute to his development.
“Harlemite” is an important chapter because it sets author’s purpose in line for Malcolm’s development into how he known today. Malcolm goes to Harlem and one page 78 he says “In one night, New York-Harlem-had just about narcotized me.” He realized this is where he wanted to be. He took a trip to Lansing to see his family after being fired from his railroad job. In Chapter 6, he gets more involved with the Harlem scene. He learns about gambling and pimps like “Dollarbill”, “Cadillac” Drake, and others. Malcolm also heard about the systematic oppression in Harlem like the story of “Jumpsteady”, a man who is forced to make a living off stealing because he can’t get a job. Malcolm’s involvement in the community grows each chapter from this point. His character develops in many ways and contributes to the author’s purpose and the beauty and power of the text.
Malcolm gets involved with hustling in Harlem during Chapter 7.

He learns the ins- and- outs of hustling in a city like Harlem. His brother Reginald came to Harlem and Malcolm taught him the basics of hustling to help get him some money. He was doing a robbery type of job with Sammy, his friend he met in Harlem, and they were being shot at. They met back up at Sammy’s apartment where Malcolm hits Sammy’s girl. Sammy tried to kill him but they made up later, but not entirely. These events showed how he has adapted so much to Harlem and started to become a little dangerous. The hustle and crimes he does show how he has changed in a large way and how much he developed as a person after experiencing the life of

Harlem.
Chapter 8 is pretty important for one main reason; Malcolm begins to come to his senses after betting involved with many dangerous and risky jobs. He begins to feel unsafe in the streets of Harlem and ends up having mamy people after his life. He returns to Boston with Shorty after deciding it was no longer safe for him to stay in Harlem. This is another sign of his development as a person. The structure of this chapter allows the author to show what Malcolm has gotten himself involved with and how it is affecting him mentally.
Malcolm and Shorty do a few hustles and robbery type jobs in Boston. One day, Malcolm was arrested in a pawn shop for stealing. In court, he is convicted of stealing and having relationships with white women. They cared more about his relationships then the robbery itself. He is sentenced 10 years in prison. This really made Malcolm start to think about what he had done in the past few years. In Chapter 10, Malcolm is visited by his sister Hilda. She tells him about the teachings of “The Honorable Elijah Muhammad”. Malcolm could not believe the shocking and disturbing story of “Yacub’s History”. Malcolm states on page 171, “When my sister, Hilda, had finished telling me this “Yacub’s History,” she left. I don’t know if I was able to open my mouth and say good-bye.” The teachings of Mr. Elijah Muhammad really influenced Malcolm’s way of thinking. In a way, it gave him a new reason to keep going and spread something he started to believe strongly about. This leads into Chapter 11 where Malcolm decides to educate himself by reading books until early hours of the morning. Malcolm’s way of thinking had truly become more radical as he stated “I became increasingly frustrated at not being able to express what I wanted to convey in letters that I wrote, especially those to Mr. Elijah Muhammad.”
Malcolm read many books as previously stated. He started reading many books about race and black history. He learned about slavery and how evil it was and that added to his radical thinking. Chapters 9, 10, and 11 best display the author’s purpose which was to show how Malcolm became radical and how he began thinking the opposite way than he did before. These chapters are very powerful because they marked Malcolm’s transition to being radical, which is what he was known and remembered to be. The structure, style, and content had a big role in contributing to the power and beauty of the text because they helped present the author’s purpose. Each chapter has something to support the purpose, be it style, structure, or content.