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One of the most prominent themes of the text is Malcolm X’s transformation of his personal morals, beliefs, and ways of life. Throughout much of the autobiography, X harkens back to his past to reflect on those moments to help him create his own present beliefs that offer a more detailed, specific understanding of his life. The strongest example of X’s self-reflection is his initial conversion to Islam. In the middle of the text, X undergoes an over-whelming change while he is in prison to “’accept the teachings of The Honorable Elijah Muhammad’”, who believes that all white people are evil and the history of man on Earth starts with Blacks (187). “’The devil white man,’ down through history, out of his devilish nature, had pillaged, murdered, raped, and exploited every race of man not white” (187). During his first initial learning about the teachings of the Nation of Islam, X only has a vague understanding of Islamic belief and is only able to view the public outlook on racism through the narrow lens of American culture. Because of this narrow view through which X creates his understanding of Islam, X lives much of his life against white people and only adds to the growing level of segregation in America.
As the text progresses, Malcolm X’s understanding of the teachings of Islam turns into a completely opposite view of what was previously believed. Upon reaching Mecca, X immediately realizes the “throngs of people, obviously Muslims from everywhere…of all complexions, the whole atmosphere was of warmth and friendliness” (369-370). Malcolm’s pilgrimage to Mecca offers a wider, more accepting and inspirational view of Islam, and he realizes his key misconceptions in the beliefs and teachings of Islamic belief. By examining Islam through a wider lens than just through America, X realizes that “there really wasn’t any color problem here. The effect was as though I had just stepped out of a prison” (370). By mentioning his past experiences in prison, X reflects upon his previous misconceptions and learns to realize that the role of racism in Islamic belief is not for separation between colors, it is to accept all backgrounds under a common Islamic culture. In Mecca, Islamic culture is shown at its greatest light, where the idea of people of all colors, nationalities, and backgrounds can come together in an environment where segregation is non-existent. “Packed in the plane were white, black, brown, red, and yellow people, blue eyes and blond hair, and my kinky red hair – all together, brothers!” (372).
Malcolm X’s transformation from a narrow minded, racial-based Muslim to a more broadened, understanding man is one of the most realized thoughts of the text. This evolution of Malcolm allows the reader to reflect on how one’s environment can greatly alter their perception of the world, and in this case creates a metamorphosis of Islamic practices and beliefs.
Throughout the text, Malcolm X undergoes a series of pivotal transformations that drastically alter his perceptions of the dominant hegemonic culture that surrounds him. Many of X’s shifts in character and personal transformations are deliberately designed by Alex Haley in order to present a specific image of X to the reader. Alex Haley intentionally exaggerates the depravity of X’s sins and crimes on his road to Satan in order to over-emphasize X’s reclamation of his life and his transformation to El Hajj Malik El Shabazz. Haley also uses design to maximize X’s mysterious social prowess with the intent to present the reader with a calculated “truth” regarding X’s character and social effect on people.
Alex Haley’s design of the Russian Roulette scene not only demonstrates X’s ability to command the attention of a room, but also subtlety reveals X’s downward spiral into a life of violence, crime, and reckless behavior. The criminals reaction to when X “ twirled the cylinder, and put the gun to [his] head” is Haley’s attempt of presenting the reader with the captivating yet reckless nature of X’s personality (165). When Haley describes the other criminals as “there mouths flapped open”, Haley is presenting the audiences reaction to X’s fearlessness as shock in an attempt to illustrate the uniquely enthralling nature of X’s presence in a given social situation (165). Although this event epitomizes X’s ability call attention to himself and dominate a given social situation, Haley’s design also reveals a sense of indifference regarding X’s own life. Haley presents X’s motives for engaging in Russian Roulette as “ I’m doing this, showing you I’m not afraid to die”(165). Haley’s choice to include these lines is largely a design moment because it allows a backdrop for Haley to contrast Malcolm’s transformed personality in the final chapters of the text. Right before X’s assassination, he describes how “each day [he] lives is as if [he] is already dead…[he] does not expect to see this book in its finished form”(439). Haley’s inclusion of these lines indicates X’s paranoia regarding his impending death demonstrates X’s fundamental transformation from a willingness to take his own life as a fulltime hustler to his fear of death and longing to live and support Islam as El Hajj Malik El Shabazz in the final moments of the text.
Haley also uses design as a mechanism to convey X’s ability to exhibit social power in personal relationships. When X breaks up with Laura “ she [is] a wreck of a women…in and out of jail…drinking liquor…selling herself to men. Learning to hate the men who bought her, she became a Lesbian.”(80). When X describes Laura’s monumental shift to a life of pure depravity after being a virtuous girl, he “ [blames] himself for all of this”(80). Haley’s choice to include X’s feelings of guilt regarding Laura is a moment of pure design intended to convey X’s intangible social attraction to the reader. Because Haley’s design implies that Laura inability to stay in a relationship with X caused her downward spiral, the reader automatically infers that X has superior social prowess in a relationship.
In The Autobiography of Malcolm X, the text at multiple times seems designed to make X be seen in a different light or way than he normally would not be seen. In Malcolm X, Alex Haley writes the text in such a way that the readers would believe X to have risen from the darkest depths of evil into a new light, one of almost holy qualities.
In the first part of the book, X is a little boy looking out for his little brother after his mom and dad died. However his descent begins after his 8th grade teacher, Mr. Ostrowski tells him he should not pursue his dream of being a lawyer, that “one of life’s first needs is for us to be realistic” (43). Instead he highly recommends to Malcolm the profession of “carpentry,” because “everyone admires” it (43). From there, X says himself that he “began to change – inside” (44). From that moment until chapter 10, X descends morally in a dramatic fashion. An example of his descent is his relationship with Laura. When he met Laura, she was “an honor student,” one who “wanted to go on to college” (71). X admits that “her meeting [him]” was one of many “cruel blows” that “life” gave her (75). He admits to his own accusation because instead of staying with a woman who he felt a genuine, deep connection with on the dance floor he began to date Sophia, a white woman, simply because “to have a white woman [was]…a status symbol of the first order” (78). His actions concerning Laura and Sophia are telling of his moral decay. He continues down the path through “hustling,” stealing, staying high on drugs, and ultimately going to prison. In prison was where he reached the depths of his moral discrepancy. Alex Haley designs his time in prison as the bottom of his moral bankruptcy by referring to the chapter and X himself as “Satan” (181). By having others refer to X as Satan, especially convicts, Haley is designing X’s downfall to the point where even the dregs of society refer to him as the pinnacle of evil.
However far down he is in his process of moral decay, he starts to rise again by simply following his younger brother’s instructions to not eat pork, and to not smoke cigarettes. From the base of blind faith he exhibits by not doing these two things, X slowly becomes more and more moral through his involvement with the Nation of Islam and takes on the identity – Minister Malcolm X. After being a minister for quite a while, X travels to Mecca and embarks on the Hajj. In Mecca, he realizes that the American race issues are trivial in comparison to other problems. He sees the way people of different races act around each other in a setting other than America and is almost enlightened to the fact that nowhere but America is there ‘a race problem.’ His enlightenment here is one of his final steps of rising from his moral discrepancy. The final phase in his rise is Haley’s implication of a comparison between him and Jesus. X gives a speech in the last chapter, preaching on the streets of Harlem for all to accept each other and be good to each other, like Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. And also just like Jesus, he died a martyr, a man looking to spread the word of acceptance and peace and was killed for it. In conclusion, Haley designed the text in order to drop X down from innocence into moral bankruptcy, a Satanic figure, and proceeded to bring him back up again in a fashion where his final appearances in the text are nearly Jesus-like.
The Autobiography of Malcolm X charts the spiritual and intellectual progression of the revolutionary as he makes his way through America’s deeply conflicted racial landscape. As a young thinker straight out of jail and in thrall to the teachings of Elijah Muhammad, Malcolm X is intensely biased against the entire white race. At this point in his journey he strongly advocates the philosophy that all whites possess a devilish nature and moreover feels that whites and blacks cannot under any circumstances be allies in the struggle for black liberation. The inability of whites to alleviate racial animosity is explicitly stated when X tells a white college girl that she can do “nothing” to help unite a racinated America. However, X’s trip to Mecca catalyzes a complete transformation in his beliefs since in the holy city he is confronted with the spectacle of Muslims of all races united by their shared religious submission. In Mecca, X comes to the understanding that “the white man is not inherently evil, but America’s racist society influences him to act evilly… since the society has produced and nourishes a psychology which brings out… the most base part of human beings” (427). This revelation causes him to completely reformulate his ideas of race relations. However, it is difficult to discern the extent to which Malcolm X’s ideology is truly transformed because he still identifies a “racial malignancy in America”(437).
Later in life, X does advocate racial equality claiming that Islam removes all color boundaries, however, he also claims that if left to their own devices people self-segregate according to race. While X believes that social and religious unity can supersede racial barriers he still retains the contradictory viewpoint that, “Where true brotherhood exist(s) among all colors, where no one (feels) segregated, where there (is) no superiority complex, no inferiority complex- then voluntarily, naturally, people of the same kind (feel) drawn together by that which they (have) in common” (395). The true extent of X’s transformation from a racially divisive member of the Nation of Islam to a leader with a far more inclusive stance remains unknown due to his tragic and untimely death which may sever the opportunity for a complete transformation. The ambiguity of X’s final thoughts parallel his earlier attempts to pray. Initially, when he is in prison, it hurts him emotionally to submit to the higher power of Islam. Later, when he is in the airport at Cairo, he is emotionally ready to pray, but it hurts him physically. At the end of the text, the reader is forced to question whether X merely intellectualizes racial equality as a strategy or whether he wholly accepts the previously unthinkable stance that all races are unequivocally equal.
Final Thoughts: Is X still hustling at the end of the book? Essentially is X the same hustler earlier in the book versus
Earlier in the book, X completely defines a hustler because he is someone who tries to manipulate the truth and his audiences. X understands through hustling that there is a hustler “code” in which “face” and “honor” are important. He understands that “no hustler could have it known that he’d been hyped, meaning outsmarted or made a fool of. And worse, a hustler could never afford to have it demonstrated that he could be bluffed” (147). X applies his knowledge as a hustler to his role as a public activist in the Nation of Islam. X writes, “From the old hustling days [he] knew that there were tricks to everything. In prison debating [X] had learned tricks to upset [his] opponents, to catch them where they didn’t expect to be caught” (213) The use of the word “tricks” is interesting because X applies the skills, values, and lessons learned from his years as a hustler to help him serve his later role as a religious authority and media mogul.
The ideas of “public image” and the role of the “hustler” in black society (Harlem) solidify that Malcolm X has the ability to shape his public image as an activist just like he does earlier as a hustler. Even though Malcolm X is obsessed with defending his image, leading him to a near death experience with West Indian Archie, defending his image allows X to deal effectively with all the new publicity he is attracting. Malcolm uses his powerful yet simple rhetoric to tackle the press’s questions directly.
X uses his straightforward speech to fine-tune his public image to his advantage. His understanding of the similarity between hustling individuals and hustling the public enables him to stay temporarily out of the way of the dangerous intentions that his ideas provoke. For example, X uses the knowledge he gained while in Harlem (“to distrust people”, “to know his enemies”, and to always pay important attention to his “public image” that he constantly felt he needed to change to fit a certain role in black society) in his relations with the Nation of Islam and with the press.
Despite the fact that X is a hustler earlier in the book, by the end of the book he no longer defines a “hustler” because he seeks racial truth outside the realm of the Nation of Islam. X begins to question the extremist message of the Nation of Islam. His decision to take the title “El-Hajj” after making the pilgrimage to Mecca symbolizes his faith in international Islam. His journey to Mecca parallels to his change in prison because in both instances X abandons his radical views on race and broadens his perspective.
Right before X is assassinated, he tries to start his own pan African National Muslim group in America, suggesting that he has broadened his horizon on the idea of racism. X admits that one of his major problems in building this organization is that- his earlier public image, his so called “Black Muslim” image kept “blocking [him]. X then recognizes that the “true brotherhood [he] had seen in the Holy World had influenced [him] to recognize that anger can blind human vision. Clearly, by the end of the book X no longer embodies a “hustler” because he seeks racial truth.
Does the text represent X’s persona before his death as the final one or does Haley suggest that if he did not die he would continue to change?
Malcolm X is constantly adapting and changing his beliefs as a result of his experiences with people and places. He goes from Hustler all the way to a man who is deeply religious. He goes from jail to making holy pilgrimages to Mecca. Haley represents X’s persona in the end of the autobiography as the final one. Haley does not hint to the possibility that if X was not murdered he may adapt to other circumstances and alter himself even more. In the last chapter and more specifically last pages, there is a large focus on X’s anticipation of being killed. X declares, “Every morning when I wake up, now, I regard it as having another borrowed day” (388). This quotation displays X’s prediction that he was in the final stage of his life. This type of prediction shows the reader that X felt he had arrived at the end and no matter the path he took; he went from point A to Z.
X also acknowledges his unusual path and constant change in position in the last chapter. Haley writes, “My life in particular never has stayed fixed in one position for very long … I have often known unexpected, drastic changes” (385). This quotation displays X’s reasoning behind his various characters. He says it is simply adaptations to various occasions leading to adoptions of certain beliefs. Many may say that this quotation is a sign of X describing how he may continue to adapt. However, in the following paragraph X talks about how it was inevitable for him to die a violent death. Haley’s choice to include this provides the reader with the idea that X always new his destiny and that he was preparing himself for this moment. X said, “Even before I was a Muslim – when I was a hustler in the ghetto jungle, and then a criminal in prison, it always stayed on my mind that I would die a violent death” (385). This quotation indicates that, no matter where X would go or where life would take him, he always felt he would wind up in the same final situation. His ability to voice this to Haley before his death implies that he has adapted and accepted this final realization about his death.
In conclusion Malcolm X’s acceptance of the prediction that he would die a violent death in the near future is the proof that the person, who he is in the final chapter, contains his final persona. It is easy to hypothesize that he may be a different person if he had lived longer, but his acceptance of his premonition illustrates his feelings of finality. Regardless of when one actually dies, once a person is in the mindset that there is not much more they can do, they most likely have accepted this final reality as the end of the long journey. X’s reception of his fate in the final chapter is his final persona.
In the autobiography of Malcolm X, there is a distinct difference in X’s views of the rights movement, and the views of other power figures. Others, like Martin Luther King Junior are fighting the civil rights movement of America. Malcolm X on the other hand, is fighting the human rights movement of the world. The beliefs of Malcolm X are unique because he is more focused on the humanity aspect of rights, rather than civil and political rights.
The civil rights movement in America was focused on getting voting privileges and other political power for the minorities of American society. Martin Luther King Junior was probably the most influential figure in the civil rights movement. King believed in fighting with no violence at all. Instead he led rallies and marches, like the March on Washington. X did not fully agree with the ideas that King had to offer. X accepted the original idea of the march on Washington. He did not disagree with the idea of an angry mob of African Americans filling the streets of Washington and not standing down to the white race. He began to call it the “Farce on Washington” when whites began to join the cause. White leaders became a part of the “big ten”, and white people talked about coming to the march, “It had become an outing, a picnic”(322). X was tired of being told what to do and helped by white people that thought they were better than him. He wanted he people to stop accepting favors as the only way to make things better, and to fight to make their lives better.
X wants so much more than to be given civil rights by the American government, he wants to be treated as a human. He says, “What I am trying to say is that it just never dawned on them that I could understand, that I wasn’t a pet, but a human being”(32). He wants to be treated as though he can fully comprehend simple life situations, and not have white people talk to him as though he is an animal. He wishes that older whites would treat him the same way as they would treat a white boy of his age, “They didn’t give me the credit for having the same sensitivity, intellect, and understanding that they would have been ready and willing to recognize in a white boy in my position”(32). X just wants to be thought of as a completely capable human being and not some lower leveled animal.
Overall X is on the same side as the civil rights leaders in America. He believes that they are his brothers and that they are important to gaining equality. However, he does not always agree with the methods that the civil rights leaders use. He feels as though they accommodate the ideas of whites, instead of thinking on their own. X disagrees with the Washingtonian belief of accommodation, and leans more towards the Du Bois argument of intellectual and human equality.
In his autobiography, Malcolm X grapples with various ways to navigate the ultimate truth of society, the concept of ‘othering’; initially, X yields to this hegemonic pressure, but as he becomes aware of his own double-consciousness he seeks a solution to the racial divide, adhering to principles of separation, active exclusion, and, finally, acceptance as methods of remedying the ‘othering’ experienced by all African Americans.
As a child, X grows up with a sound understanding of race and racial distinctions; because whites killed his father, raped his mother, and his darker-skinned siblings always earned maternal favor, X has awareness of the tension in society caused by complexion. However, unsure of how to approach this conflict, he submits to the role that society expects of him; the ‘n’ word feels like his “natural name,” he generally accepts his place among peers and doesn’t seem to mind playing the likable, predictable role of ‘mascot’ (12, 28). Exposure to society inevitably changes this perspective, and X grows increasingly weary of his own subordinate position, assured that he can’t achieve his dreams (ex. lawyer) in a white man’s world. Instead, X adopts a strategy of separation, throwing himself into the midst of black culture in an attempt to shake the veil of double-consciousness and seek a larger truth. In Harlem, ‘mascot’ becomes ‘homeboy’ then a veritable ‘harlemite’ and, upon succumbing to a new image under the influence of a new, black hegemony, ‘Detroit Red’ and ‘hustler’. But if white society has little to offer him, nor does Harlem; drugs and deals go wrong and X finds himself locked up and forced to reconsider his perception of truth in regards to race in society. In prison, X is perfectly conditioned to accept any notion that condemns the white man, the reason he ended up a convict and not a lawyer. The concept of the white man as ‘satan’ serves as the perfect justification for his fall into darkness, an unescapable side effect of white hegemony. X asserts this appeal when he states that “the very enormity of [his] previous life’s guilt prepared [him] to accept the truth” proposed by the Nation of Islam (189). Furthermore, this religion appeals to X in its proof that the ‘othering’ of black americans does not necessarily imply their inferiority, as the Nation allows “black people…to be proud they were black” (224). Unfortunately, this truth does not hold. Elijah Muhammad, and the Nation of Islam, betray X’s seemingly sound perception of truth, as well as his firm conviction that whites should be actively avoided by blacks, who must remain separated in order to assert themselves. Malcolm X becomes ‘Icarus’, having become overexcited by the discovery of his own wings, or a solution to the racial divide, and flying too high, reaching too far, only to be let down. Dejected and lost, X finds his way ‘out’, and the autobiography finds a new beginning as he, once again, embarks on a quest for truth and justice in a divided nation. Similar to his arrival in Boston and in jail, X arrives in Mecca “in bad shape,” unsure of his own opinions (375). A number of recurring images and situations draw parallels between his initial search for a solution to hegemony, and the one that begins in the Middle East. For example, praying is difficult, this time physically rather than emotionally. Despite these obstacles, X finds new hope in the Islamic world as he observes that whites and blacks are both victims of ‘othering’. X’s perception fundamentally changes, as he finds that some whites do have a “sincere voice,” and have the ability to transcend the racial divide (433). However, this unity is only achieved through firm adherence to the religion of Islam, which is the synthesis, the only solution, to ‘othering’. This understanding enlightens X, as he rises above his old misconceptions as well as historic ones; he finds that Washington and Du Bois both make valid arguments, the former of the need to forgive and the latter, the importance of acknowledging the veil. In his final chapters, X asserts his new, transcendental perception of the truth, but laments that this view did not have ample time to fully develop. Always portrayed as an actively militant figure, X became largely associated with violent demonstrations and riots. However, his autobiography suggests that his main concern was the pursuit of truth, a solution to the racial divide and of learning itself. In its final pages, rather than assert an outwardly aggressive opinion, the autobiography does the opposite and reiterates X’s voracious reading, high intellectual aspirations and ultimate disappointment at the brevity of life in comparison to the expansiveness of knowledge.
Throughout the autobiography, Malcolm X undergoes many transformations that “correct” his former views. These moments of change cyclically pull his views back and forth to reach his final understanding of the black-white relationship.
X begins the autobiography with an acceptance of the hegemonic role he has been given in society. He puts up with the black stereotypes his classmates ascribe to him, the racist jokes of his teacher, and being called the “n” word on multiple occasions while remaining at the top of his class and imagining becoming a lawyer. However, once his half-sister Ella invites X to Boston, he can no longer suffer the “othering” inflicted on him by his community. At this point, there is a dramatic tonal shift in the text; he felt “for the first time in [his] life a restlessness with being around white people,” and “it was then that [he] began to change—inside” (43, 44). This change of tone marks X’s first transformation, identifying an urge to be a “part of a mass of [his] own kind,” as he had felt in Boston (43). Over time, X turns away from his scholastic aspirations and winds up as a hustler in pursuit of this quality, and the text emphasizes his misdeeds in order to show that change. Most notable are his thoughts about Laura, who he describes as a “wreck,” “in and out of jail,” “defying her grandmother,” “drinking,” doing dope, “selling herself to men,” and becoming a lesbian, all because of X dumping her for a white woman (80). After eventually going to prison, X is introduced to the Nation of Islam and again transformed. He suddenly begins reading/studying obsessively, writing to Elijah Muhammad, and submitting himself to prayer, which he states was “the hardest test [he] ever faced” (195). X turns himself completely around from his lowly-educated hustler persona, his vague resentment becoming a labeling of whites as “the devil” as he becomes the public spokesman of the Nation of Islam, perhaps the farthest he could go from his days in the ghetto. However, X undergoes yet another transformation in his schism with Elijah Muhammad. Mirroring previous transformations, Ella introduces X to true Islam by flying him to Mecca, and X finds a new method of prayer as difficult as he found the first one. His views shift from integration being the equivalent of assimilation and blaming whites for the situation of blacks to blaming American society and thinking that coexistence is possible.
X’s views are almost brought full-circle from the start of the text. On the way, he has jumped from one persona to the next, each one almost in opposition to the one before. His cyclical transformations have acted like corrections to his previous views. It almost seems that X’s beliefs have followed the back and forth pattern of transcendentalists seeking enlightenment. Perhaps X achieved his enlightenment, or maybe his beliefs would have been different if he’d only had more time.
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