Malcolm X Themes

Director Spike Lee depicts the life of the civil rights leader Malcolm X (Denzel Washington), on how he came from a street hustler to a minister in the American nation of Islam and then came to an end in his assassination in 1965. Malcolm's father a baptist minister was murdered by the KKK and then later Malcolm and his siblings were sent off to foster parents after their mother went crazy. During his early academic years Malcolm was top of his class and was even elected class president but was told he would be a good carpenter when he grow up by his teacher. In his early twenties, X turned to a life of crime and it came to an end when he was thrown in prison for burglary charges. In prison he was introduced into the islamic religion and inspired

The main theme of the director was to show the audience what was going on during this time, “insight” through the eyes of Malcolm. Though the film shows some of the racism black were forced to live through. It mainly shows how X transforms throughout the movie from a hustler to a follower of islam with hatred towards the white people to forgiving the white people and try to compromise when he returns from the pilgrimage. Forgiveness and self redemption are themes shown in the

In the 40s the 2nd World War caused a battle ground all over the globe but mainly in Europe and in the Soviet Union, this war remains one of the deadliest conflicts up to date. The allied powers defeated the Nazi Germans and the rest of the axis powers but caused many deaths and economic loss around the globe. Over 11 million people were killed during the holocaust alone. After WW2 the beginning of the cold war erupted where tension grew between the USSR and U.S and neither nation could trust one another but never got into a full out combat war with one another. U.S believed that the spread of communism was threatening democracy and capitalism everywhere. Nuclear war between the nations was a constant fear throughout the cold war. In the 50s where the civil rights movement really kicked off in 1954, in the Brown vs Board of Education case, the Supreme Court declared that the separation of blacks and whites in school was unconstitutional. 1955, when Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white person she caused boycotts all over america and lead to bus companies not discriminating blacks. 1950s/60s, Civil rights leaders like Martin Luther King little by little led americans into a nation without segregation. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 ened the public segregation around the nation. These decades established big historical events in history for both the U.S and the