Greek Myths are chronicled centuries ago in which in the denouement, the story will never leave a good ending. In the greek myth of Icarus; Icarus and his father, Daedalus, construct wings and puts them on. Daedalus exhorted that if Icarus were to fly near the sun, the wax that binds the wings together will melt and he will fall. During the flight, Icarus flies near the sun due to excessive excitement and the wax melts and Icarus falls to his death. In Malcolm X’s Autobiography, Malcolm names the fifteenth chapter, “Icarus”. Malcolm uses this name in order to demonstrate the relationship between him and Elijah Muhammad was similar to that of Icarus and Daedalus. In the story of Icarus, the wings that Icarus puts on represents the power of …show more content…
In the beginning of the chapter, Malcolm mentions to the reader, “The more places that I represented Mr. Muhammad on television and radio, and at colleges and elsewhere, the more letters came from people who had heard me.” The “more places I represented Mr. Muhammad” represents Malcolm going up into the sky and the top being absolute hate from the white population due to the fact that people are now focusing more on Malcolm’s comments than Elijah Muhammad, the leader of the nation of Islam.This represents that Elijah is in the middle of the sky while Malcolm is going up quickly. When Icarus is near the sun, this represents Malcolm receiving death threats and hate letters from the people. In the book, Malcolm mentions to the reader, “Only a few letters fell into the ‘Dear [Profane word for calling African Americans] X’ category, or the death threats.” Here, the death threats and the hate that he receives represents Malcolm being near the sun and since Elijah is not receiving much hate or death threats, this confirms that Malcolm is near the sun while Elijah is not near the sun. In the relationship between Malcolm and Elijah, Malcolm representing Elijah more in other places represents Malcolm going up in the sky and the death threats and hate mails that he receives implies that Malcolm is near the “sun”. In Malcolm’s autobiography, one of the chapters is named