Malcolm X Essays (1870 words) - English-language Films,

Malcolm X Malcolm X One of the most influential men of his time, not only with the black community, but also with other people of every community. His beliefs for many people are hard to understand and probably thought as if his beliefs are wrong, but until someone actually reads The Autobiography of Malcolm X, then people will not really understand the complexity of the man Malcolm X. His autobiography takes you on a tour of probably lots of black men of this time and shows all the hardships and struggles that they had to go through. Showing the misleading teachings of the honorable Elijah Muhammad and the Nation of Islam, and how Malcolm learns the real truth of his religion. All should study the journey of Malcolm X's life because it gives great insight into one of America's great leaders. The struggles he had as young black boy and the influences he got there. To his teenage years where he developed most of his street smarts and learned how people really worked. Also his autobiography shows how for some people prison can teach and really help people to rehabilitate their lives. Then how Malcolm finds a way out in his new found faith in Allah. The autobiography also shows how Malcolm sees the true light of the Muslim religion with his pilgrimage to Mecca. At first Malcolm grows up as a typical black child, but soon his life changes with some of the most terrible things that can happen to a young boy. I think one of the most influential things that happened to Malcolm is when his father is killed. Not only is this very terrible to a any young boy, but it is the way that his father is killed and by whom is killed that makes the most influence. Malcolm's father was a Baptist minister and an organizer for the Marcus Aurelius Garvey's Universal Negro Improvement Association. When Malcolm used to go with his father to the meetings that his father threw for the people, I think that Malcolm took a lot of what his father did to what he did and how he influenced later in his own life. An example of this is in The Autobiography of Malcolm X where Malcolm says but still the image of him that made me proudest was his crusading and militant campaigning with words of Marcus Garvey. (9). Malcolm's father leaving him was very influential because he ne ver had that guidance that a father gives his children, but more importantly that his father was killed by the white Black Legion. The Black Legion was a hateful group much like the Ku Klux Klan, but they wore black robes instead of white robes. The killing of his father by the Black Legion stood in Malcolm's head as he gets older and affects the way he thinks of white people. The fact that the insurance company would not give his mother the money that she deserved because they found his father on the streetcar tracks. So he obviously bashed himself in the head and stumbled over to the tracks to commit suicide. This was just another reason in Malcolm's head why the white people are the devil. The way that his father was laid half dead on the streetcar tracks by white people who just let him suffer half dead. The event of his father's death just put more and more aggression towards white people in Malcolm's life. One of the most important events that shaped Malcolm's life was when Mr. Ostrowski, his eight-grade teacher, told him he should be realistic in life. In The Autobiography of Malcolm X his teacher says, Malcolm, one of life's first needs is for us to be realistic. Don't misunderstand me, now. We all here like you, you know that. But you've got to be realistic about being a nig*er. A lawyer-that's no realistic goal for a nig*er. You need to think about something you can be. (43). The things that his teacher told him crushed his dreams, and made him feel worthless. His teacher if not the most is one of the most influential people because of that statement, that's the statement that pushed him away from