The Turning Point In The Autobiography Of Malcolm X

Three key events in The Autobiography of Malcolm X as told to Alex Haley where Malcolm has an encountered his teacher Mr.Ostrowski, he ends up in jail, and his journey to Mecca. These events in the book interact to develop three central ideas; systemic oppression, racial identity, and integration v. separation. These turning points in Malcolm X’s life molded into the person he is famous and remembered for today. The early stages of Malcolm Little’s intelligence began when the family moved from Omaha, Nebraska to Lansing, Michigan. Once born in Lansing, Malcolm would start growing up and becoming very good inside the classroom at school. Little would be the only African American in the classroom during the 20th century but he would get good

Still using the last name Little at the time, he ends up in jail in Massachusetts and is struggling with the transition of having his freedom to cutting all connections from the outside world. The struggles continues to go until a man approaches him, tells Malcolm that he is one of the most intelligent negroes in the prison, and could be out of prison in a few years with good behavior. Malcolm doesn’t believe what the man says until he introduces Elijah Muhammad and the Muslim religion. Once the man takes Malcolm under his wing, he starts to change his character and begins to study what the Muslim religion is and how to act. After realizing that he doesn’t sound intelligent as he used to when he was young, he begins to read the dictionary to improve his vocabulary, read literature books, and get a full education while he’s behind bars. He starts to realize what the purpose of Elijah Muhammad’s message him and begins to praise him by calling him “The Honorable Elijah Muhammad teaches…”. Malcolm changed his last name because in the teachings of Muhammad and the Muslim religion the last name that was given to him was the last name of his grandfather’s slave owner; therefore making it unknown what his actual last name was and hence changing his name from “Malcolm Little” to “Malcolm X”. X would get out his prison well early and once out, he would continue to preach the

After getting banned ninety days by The Honorable Elijah Muhammad for his comments on the assignation on John F. Kennedy assignation, Malcolm decides to take a trip to Mecca to see if the same Muslim religion that Muhammad is teaching is just like the one in Africa. When he gets to Mecca, he is immediately found apron. X notices that there are a lot of major differences between the two of the supposedly same religions. Muhammad’s Muslim religion teaches that the white man is the devil, everything is their fault, and they shouldn’t be associated with the Muslim religion because they wouldn’t comprehend. However in Mecca, Malcolm noticed that there was nothing wrong with the white man according to the religion and he saw that some of the white species were preaching and praising the Muslim religion. X learns the proper way of praying on his knees and the Arabic language of the religion whereas in Muhammad’s teachings the language was English and the wrong proper way of praying. Malcolm makes the inference of noticing the segregation of the Islamic religion in Mecca while there was separation of the religion in the United States. He begins to realize that the teachings of Elijah Muhammad were completely false and everything he believed in was a lie to him. Once learning this, he changed his name from “Malcolm X” to “el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz”. This is when he starts to separate himself from the