The AUtobiography of Malcolm X p 319 -- 421

The final section of The Autobiograohy of Malcolm X centers around his trip to Mecca, Africa, and other places across the Holy Land to learn more about true Islam. When Malcom arrives in the Middle East to make the Haj, the spiritual pilgramage to Mecca that Islam asks all able-bodied Muslims to attempt at least once in their lifetime, he feels like an outsider since he does not know many of the traditions and he does not speak Arabic.

Since only true Muslims are permitted inside the walls of Mecca, Malcolm, being an American was not immediately allowed inside the city. He had to stay in a dormitory at the airpoit awaiting a trial of sorts to prove he was a true Muslim. While staying in the dormitory with many other people, Malcolms suspicion of people with pale skin begins to drop when he his treated very hospitably by Middle Easterners with very pale skin. Malcolm explains that these people would have passed for white people in the United States, but here, people were all treated as brothers in Islam, no matter what they look like. This is where Malcom's attitudes begin to turn. He is still angry about the situation in the United States that has kept his people constantly oppressed, but readers can immediately see him begin to re-evaluate some of the beliefs Elijah Muhammad taught Malcolm.

When Malcolm returns to the United States, he continues building his new ministry and making speaking arrangements about what he had learned in the Middle East. He speaks of uniting the balck people across the globe to pressure the United States through the United Nations to give black people the human rights they have been denied since Europeans stepped foot in North America. Malcolm also makes many references to the fact that Elijah Muhhamad, though he never speaks ill of him, has people in his following dedicated to killing Malcolm in the name of the Black Muslim movement. Though the event is not printed in the book, Malcolm X is aware that he is unlikely to live to see the publication of this autobiography.

I firmly believe The Autobiography of Malcolm X should be required reading in American schools. It is extremely arrogant for anyone to deny that black people have been systematically degraded and denied access to the resourses of our country to this day. In schools, we are taught mostly about people like Martin Luther King Jr. because people (white) feel he is safe and peaceful, but it is impossible to understand the entire story without looking at the other side of the coin at a man who was angry and not afraid to show it, and not afraid to speak his mind to white people. I am not saying I understand the entire story of the struggle for equality that black people still fight, but now I feel I am a bit closer.

The Autobiography of Malcolm X p 179 - 318

Once Malcolm gets out of prison, he begins to meet personally with Elijah Muhammad, and eventually becomes one of his ministers. As a minister for the Nation of Islam, Malcolm X makes speaking arrangements across the country and later opens his own mosque in Harlem. The paraphrased speechs are some of the most interesting passages in the book. Malcolm X speaks very harshly about the white power structure that has kept black people an underprivelidged minority for 400 years. He points out that black people have been in North America longer than English colonists and other European immigrants, yet they have stayed at the bottom.

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Malcolm X is probably more critical of black people who seek integration with the white people more than the white people themselves. He sees these people as a much bigger problem, and he constantly chides them for being so complacent and gullible to think that the white power structure will ever give them anything.

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One part that will always stick out to me is his criticism of the 1963 march on Washington that Malcolm calls the Farce on Washington. As he explains, black people had been talking of marching on Washington for years and years before it happened, but this march was not going to be very civil. As originally planned, but not well-organized, black people were talking of marching on Washington to make specific demands of the government and show how angry they were with the way they have been treated. As Malcolm X explains, the US government began making huge contributions to the rally that also came with some of their suggestions, which eventually watered down the march to a picnic. Malcolm X is very critical of the middle-class blacks that were at the rally to make a scene -- showing off for the white people, he says. He goes further to criticize Martin Luther King Jr. among others for allowing this to happen.

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Malcolm serves as a minister for the Nation of Islam for twelve years before he begins to hear rumors about Elijah Muhammad's sexual misconduct. Any other Muslim would have been excommunicated for doing what Elijah Muhammad had done, yet Malcolm X tries to find ways to rationalize and excuse Elijah Muhammad's actions. Malcolm X's stature in the Nation of Islam was already making Elijah Muhammad jealous, and when it reaches the point that his sexual misconduct is reaching the mass of Black Muslims, he uses some comments Malcolm X made about the assassination of John Kennedy to suspend him from the Nation of Islam.

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Malcolm X heres of the first orders for his death while hanging out in Miami with Cassius Clay.

The Autobiography of Malcolm X pages 1 - 178

Up until now I have known very little about Malcolm X. If you would have asked me what I knew, I would have said he was a civil rights leader who did not believe in peaceful protest. I would have said he was the polar opposite of Martin Luther King Jr. in that he did not believe in turning the other cheek. I probably would have gone as far to say he hated white people and called them all devils.

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I am learning fast that some of my preconceived notions about Malcolm X are inaccurate. Many of the things I may have known come from the philosophy of Elijah Muhammad, Malcolm X's mentor for many years. Even though I am less than halfway through this autobiography, Malcolm has made reference many times to his split from Elijah Muhammad and how he now disagrees with his philosophies since they are not supported by true Islam.

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The beginning of this book is very exciting. It chronicles Malcolm Little's early life up until he is around 21 years old. Readers meet Malcolm's parents and his brothers and sisters. Malcolms father is a preecher who also holds meetings for the Marcus Garvey society, which troubles the white people in his town. One night a group of white men kill Malcolms father, and then lay his body across the train tracks to be run over. The insurace company cheats his mother out of the money she and her family have coming to them. Malcolm's mother eventually has a mental breakdown and is taken to a mental hospital. Malcolm and his siblings are split up into different homes.

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Malcolm's life changes several years later when he moves to Boston to live with his sister. It is here that Malcolm begins a life of pimping, hustling, drinking, and smoking 'reefers'. Malcolms talent for hustling eventually takes him to Harlem where he is eventually charged with burglary and sentenced to ten years in jail. I left many of the details out here. This part of the book was very easy to read since it caters to people's interest in crime and street living. Malcolm was smart to grab his readers attention in this way.

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I am now reading about Malcolm's first years in jail. He is beginning to learn more about Islam, and is coresponding with Elijah Muhammad on nearly a daily basis. I have been really interested in learning about Muhammad's philosophies, especially how he explains how the races developed.

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I am glad I am finally learning more about this important figure in American history. I am also glad I have not watched Spike Lee's film yet. It will be interesting to see how well it represents what I am reading now.

We Were the Mulvaneys by Joyce Carol Oats

I have not been keeping track of my reading records as of late, so there will be another book coming very soon. I finished this book last week while I was at the beach. I suppose I should have taken a picture of the book when I was there.

We Were the Mulvaneys is a novel that follows a family over the course of about twenty years. At the beginning of the book in 1976, the Mulvaneys have everything going for them: they own a beautiful farm, a successful roofing business, and their four children are all successful in their own ways.

The theme here is how a family may choose to deal with tragedy. In this case, the family tragedy happens to the daughter, Marianne on prom night 1976. Initially most memebers of the family deal with their pain in unproductive ways; in fact, by the midpoint of the novel, the family is in shambles -- almost all the things they have going for them are gone.

Joyce Carol Oates shows how a family can be torn apart, and then put back together, something that takes nearly two decades in the Mulvaneys' case. I liked this novel because it is the kind I like -- the kind that follows a family or another group of people for many years or generations. I also enjoyed Oates' writing style. She is very descriptive and can be witty at times. I am likely to read another of her novels.

This novel was from Oprah's book club. I do not know from where or whom I got this book. It was on my bookshelf for at least four or five years before I picked it up. I am glad I did.

p.s. : There is a copy of We Were the Mulvaneys in the Classic City High School media center.