Symbolism In Alex Haley's The Autobiography Of Malcolm X

Symbolism is a critical element in literature. Alex Haley’s The Autobiography of Malcolm X displays an abundance of symbols that offer insight into his life. These symbols demonstrate the adjustments that he went through during his dramatic development, as a person, from who the world viewed as unimportant to one of the most controversial and influential men during the civil rights movement. Alex Haley paints a vivid picture of how status became a crucial piece of the movement leader’s life. The author explores how the simple hair straightening process called conk tied him to the Caucasian world. Finally, Haley points out the significance of how eyeglasses, watches, and suitcases play a significant role in Malcolm X’s life, by being the

He did not feel a sense of belonging to the groups around him. Therefore, when he moved into the city he did not squander his time acquiring all the materialistic stuff he felt he needed to establish his status. When touching on the reasoning behind his transition, he concludes, “Like hundreds of thousands of country-bred Negroes who had come to the Northern black ghetto before me, and have come since, I’d also acquired all the other fashionable ghetto adornments- the zoot suits and conk that I have described, liquor, cigarettes, then reefers- all to erase my embarrassing background” (Placeholder2). As a result of the childhood that he found shameful he found the status that his conspicuous consumption provided him as a symbol of the life he had overcome. Coupled with the power he felt he had over his own life. His procurement of paraphernalia symbolized a self-worth that he found in the status that the items provided him with. The civil rights activist refers to the problem that he saw other people facing as well,

He acknowledges the symbol of his hair after joining the Nation of Islam. When referring to the hair that he and his brothers had removed he says, “They had just banished from their lives forever that phony, lye-conked, metallic-looking hair […]. It grieves me that I don’t care where you go, you see this symbol of ignorance and self-hate on so many Negroes’ heads” (Haley 278). Wearing a “conk” brought him from the sensitivity of feeling being unnoticeable to a feeling of belonging. On the other hand, it also forced him to the realization of his own internalized racism. Once he joined the Nation of Islam, which taught him that being black made him better than other people, for no other reason than the color of his skin, he found the strength to discard the hair that tied him to the viewpoint that black is only beautiful if it resembles white. Ultimately, symbolizing the transformation in his mentality. No longer seeing a reason to alter his hair to resemble a different race, he allowed himself to eliminate his own