Malcolm X Malcolm X Summary

Malcolm X developed his character through the use of systemic oppression, integration vs. separation, and racial identification. He went from this young simple minded Lansing boy who disliked the way blacks were looked down on to this well grown intelligent man who tries to make a change to the way that African Americans are treated. Malcolm grew from small town hick to big city minister for Elijah Muhammad.
The use of systemic oppression can be referred to when Malcolm talked to his teacher, Mr. Ostrowski, telling him how he wanted to become a lawyer. His teacher tells him that it would be best for him to become a carpenter, being a lawyer is more suited for a white man. Malcolm begins to resent the white school he goes to and where he lives.

He learns that even the “well meaning” whites did not think of black people being equal. In chapter nine Malcolm is caught stealing from a pawn shop and gets arrested along with his friend Sophia and her sister, both white. Malcolm was sent to ten years in prison, but the white girl had received bail. This shows racial identification by the way that Malcolm was recognized as black, and not given any bail unlike the white girls who had no issue with getting out. In chapter three the book expresses integration vs. separation by talking about how there would be black dances and white dances. This meaning that blacks would usually all dance with each other and whites would dance with each other as well. Whites had the right to dance with the black groups, but blacks were not allowed to be around white dances. This also happened in schools, and on buses.
The author begins this story while Malcolm is still in his mother, not born yet.

The author shows good structure in this text by giving the reader a pre-life look, before Malcolm is even born. At a young age Malcolm already had a bad perspective on whites. He had to move to Michigan to get away from the white supremacists and even after moving his house was burnt down by Ku Klux Klan members. From watching the house burn he learned that being in Lansing, Michigan meant that the most success for a black is a waiter or a shoe shiner, not a respectable job that white people were able to have. In chapter one, as a shoe shiner, Malcolm gets cheated out of a dollar that he was going to earn from shining a white boys shoes. This shows Malcolm that everything is stacked against the black community and they don’t get respect such as the whites

do.
The violence in this book shows a dramatic change in Malcolm’s perspective.

The way that the author talks about his father being murdered by whites and his mother being put in a mental hospital really adds a lot of structure into the text. It gives you an idea of what Malcolm is feeling toward the white people. When Malcolm moves to Boston he sees a whole new style of people. He comes to Boston with the style of an old country boy, Malcolm, coming from Lansing as a hick into this new “Hipster style community” in Boston. The style of “conking” is used by the blacks and the author includes it to show what they did to be more like whites. Conking made their hair straight, like white hair would

be.
Malcolm gets a job and starts to believe that whites are the reason for the desperate conditions that the blacks have to live in. He blames the Harlem life on the whites of New York and just overall, America. Malcolm was later involved with selling drugs and hustling as well as taking the drugs that he would sell. He was also later sent to jail for stealing. He was sent to serve ten years in the Massachusetts state prison and when he got out his perspective changed, as well as his religious beliefs. He is taught about the Nation of Islam from his family and he steps toward becoming Muslim. His perspective over blacks is changed by how Elijah Muhammad explains how blacks were the first humans and how they lived peacefully before the whites in chapter 10. This made Malcolm think of white people as the “devil white man” since he learned that blacks had been torn down and taken control of by the whites.
This religion helped Malcolm change his life. He developed his writing skills, read more books, and increased his vocabulary. He develops his new beliefs for his people and he is introduced to public speaking and tries converting others to his Muslim beliefs to his fellow prisoners. He grew a passion for his religion instead of being the wild person he used to be, he now expresses his hatred for the whites through his knowledge and belief in his religion.
To conclude Malcolm’s perspective and development it is shown that when he was a child he dealt with his parents being broken down by the white society from his dad being murdered and his mothering being put away. When he dealt with the ghetto’s of Boston and the white people in New York living such better lives. The time he spent in prison breaking through his addiction state and having a light temper to learning about being Muslim and educating himself instead of being this uneducated white hating human he can have knowledge behind what he is preaching for. He abandoned his old self and began to embrace his new hatred that he has for the white people.