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The Journey Of Malcolm X: A Hero's Journey

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Many people claim a hero is someone “special” no one normal can be a hero. What if I told you that people that are a hero to you thought they were normal until they went on their hero 's journey and discovered themselves? A hero 's journey comes in steps which are the Normal World, Call to Adventure, Refusal of the call, Mentor, Start the journey,Tests, Allies, Supreme ordeal, and lastly the Resolution. I 'm going to take you through the steps of Malcolm X’s hero 's journey. Malcolm X as we all know was a inspirational activist, but his hero’s journey was extremely unique. Let us take a look at Joseph Campbell (1904-1987) who was recognized worldwide as a mythologist, also working with comparative religion too. One of his many books, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, which has sold over a million copies and translated into twenty languages. Campbells concept, also called the monomyth, details on how all stories, fiction or nonfiction, follow a certain pattern.
The pattern is people go through the “key Steps” in their life, even though sometimes you do not realize it. Step One is a “Normal World” which is a world a person is used to. For example, most kids are used to school and when you get out of school it is a new world you have to get accustomed to. There is a chart in the Hero 's Journey and it states “every rule, and its concept to our everyday life” from start to finish (5). Next , Alex Haley’s The Autobiography of Malcolm X is an amazing book to illustrate Campbell 's
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Thesis: In “The Autobiography of Malcolm X”, Malcolm X in his telling of his life to Alex Haley uncovers the theme of positive and negative environments unearthed by the interaction of African Americans and White Americans in his life and what those kinds of environments inherently produce. Annotated Bibliography Nelson, Emmanuel S. Ethnic American Literature: an Encyclopedia for Students. Greenwood, An Imprint of ABC-CLIO, LLC, 2015.This encyclopedia points out that the negative interaction he held with the white man as a young hustler was countered by these same experiences pushing Malcolm X to reclaim his “African identity”. This shows, as described by the cited work, what a man pushed by his negative interactions with the oppressive white men is willing to do to find his identity (i.e. through hustling).

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There are multiple stages in a hero’s journey which Joseph Campbell explains in his book, The Hero with a Thousand Faces. He discusses the theory of the monomyth that the reality of life and the way the hero experience reflecting a part of an enormous universe In the book he defines two types of hero deed, physical and spiritual. Physical deed is the hero that performs a brave act in any given combat, on the contrary, a spiritual deed learns how to experience the supernormal range of spiritual life bring back a message. Campbell divides the hero’s journey into three stages: departure, initiation, and return. Campbell’s theory has been incorporated in many author books.

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Geoffrey Sirc wrote “The Autobiography of Malcolm X as a Basic Writing Text” to convey to his students and all students of literature that this book “teaches the importance of passion and strength of character” that these are “essential attributes to growth as a writer.” This journal article reaffirms the reason why all students should be required to read the book and Sirc states that autobiography allows the student to develop a deeper understanding of how to be inquisitive when confronted with stereotypes or ignorance. The affirmation comes in the form of a quote from Malcolm X in the epilogue of the book “People don’t realize how a man’s life can be changed by one book” (X and Haley 400) and the impact that statement would have on future

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In Malcolm X’s autobiography, The Autobiography of Malcolm X, he says “All of our experiences fuse into our personality. Everything that ever happened to us is an ingredient” (153). This quote holds true throughout the whole autobiography. Malcolm tells us about his whole life from the time his family suffered through the Great Depression to the time he was fighting for black rights during the civil rights movement. Malcolm goes through many challenges in his lifetime and throughout this book we witness him struggle to get by living on his own and eventually convert to Islam and find his path in life.

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Malcolm Little was better known as Malcom X, he was born on May 19, 1925 in Omaha's University Hospital, in Nebraska, and was the son of Louise and Earl Little. Malcolm was a very smart boy that grew up in Lansing, Michigan, he went through so much in life, starting with his father’s death, his mother psychological problems, and poverty. He eventually overcame all of this to become one of the most famous African American figures in history. Louise and Earl Little were both Garveyites, and of course that made Malcolm a Garveyite as well. Marcus Garvey played a big part in the lives of Louis and Earl, and years later, it even play a big role on Malcolm's life as a kid and adult.

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Joseph Campbell’s monomyth steps are the departure, the initiation and the return. The departure step is when the hero is forced to leave his/her everyday life and there is a boundary between the hero's life and the unknown challenges that await him/her. The initiation is when the hero faces challenges and also has a mentor that teaches the hero what they need to know and may also give them a weapon. Lastly, the hero goes through a transformation which is when the hero achieves their goal and the hero is also changed by his experiences and becomes a true hero. The Return is when the hero returns home for good, temporarily, or as a changed person.

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In “A Homemade Education,” Malcolm X expresses that reading and increasing your knowledge is extremely important and that it has helped him understand black history and slavery. Malcolm X was very frustrated with himself because he could not convey what he wanted to say when it came to writing simple English. Many people, who have heard Malcolm X on television or read something he wrote, would have thought that he had obtained an education “beyond the eight grade” (1). Malcolm X claims that this impression of him is a result of him studying during his prison sentence. It began when he met a man named Bimbi in the Charlestown Prison, where he felt as if he was far less knowledgeable than him.

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He learns to view the oppression and racism in his world from a different perspective as he matures in the autobiography. The story introduces the reader to Malcolm’s world before we meet Malcolm himself. It begins with the Klu Klux Klan’s visit to his house and mother. This foreshadowed the rest of Malcolm’s life, as it was filled with racism and oppression.

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There comes a time in everyone's life when they ask themselves the question, “Is there something bigger out there for me?” One won’t know the answer to this question until they venture out into the great beyond and discover it for themselves. It means having to step out of your comfort zone into a whole new world you’ve never experienced before and going on an adventure of self-discovery to find what’s really out there for you. Joseph Campbell’s mono-myth consists of six stages, call to adventure, threshold, challenges and temptation, revelation, atonement, and return. Every story created follows this pattern and one’s life is their own story.

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Through the analysis from the film, we can understand Campbell's (1949) Monomyth theory in a concise but perhaps oversimplified way, it illustrates to us the concept that the human psyche thrives to make a literal or figurative journey. That journey primarily involves traveling into darkness such as death, evil or difficult problems in order to bring back an object or unsolved an obstacle that will eventually save the hero and the society. Campbell concluded the notion that people in all times and all cultures possess the same psychological belief and that is the same Monomyth theory - the principal story that creates meaning for life. Campbell believes that the same story, the journey of the hero, is told again and repeatedly in various platforms

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What makes a leader? I believe a leader to be intelligent ,tough, and has the determination to achieve a goal. Having certain skills will have an impact on you being a trustable leader. Being selfless and caring are also characteristics. Malcolm X his birth name Malcolm Little is a fine a example of a leader and has most of these leadership qualities.

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