Malcolm’s father, Earl Little, a Baptist minister by profession, was also an organizer for the militant Universal Negro Improvement Association, a black nationalist group led by the Jamaican Marcus Garvey. Malcolm remembers him as a confident, self-sufficient man, willing to stand up to white men. It was this aspect of […]
Read more Character Analysis Reverend Earl LittleCharacter Analysis Elijah Muhammad (Elijah Poole, Elijah Karriem)
The spiritual leader of the Nation of Islam (the Black Muslims), the “Messenger of Allah” was born Elijah Poole in Georgia in 1897. From the beginning, he was a sensitive child, one who seemed to love learning. In 1931, he met Master W. D. Fard, founder of the Nation of […]
Read more Character Analysis Elijah Muhammad (Elijah Poole, Elijah Karriem)Character Analysis Malcolm X (Malcolm Little, El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz)
The narrator and central character of the Autobiography, Malcolm came to be one of the most important political figures of his time, and because of this book, his importance has probably increased, rather than diminished, since his death. His three different names describe the three phases of Malcolm’s career. First, […]
Read more Character Analysis Malcolm X (Malcolm Little, El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz)Summary and Analysis Chapters 17-19
Malcolm had been encouraged to make the pilgrimage to Mecca, called Hajj in Arabic, by orthodox Muslims he met on his speaking tours, as well as by other members of the Nation of Islam. Now, free of the doctrines of Elijah Muhammad, he was able to pursue the true faith […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Chapters 17-19Summary and Analysis Chapters 13-16
In 1953, Malcolm quit his job with Ford Motor Company to devote all his time to studying with Elijah Muhammad in preparation for becoming a Black Muslim minister. Chapter Thirteen follows the growth of the organization from this time, and Malcolm’s increasing importance in it, until the Muslims first began […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Chapters 13-16Summary and Analysis Chapters 8-12
Chapter Eight covers the two days immediately following the end of Chapter Seven. During this time, Malcolm’s life was in constant danger; he was trapped, through no fault of his own, in a web of circumstances. But just when he thought he had no choice but to be killed — […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Chapters 8-12Summary and Analysis Chapters 4-7
Malcolm’s brief relationship with the Hill girl Laura represents his last contact with the sort of “respectability” toward which Ella encouraged him. And his jilting of Laura for the white woman Sophia is perhaps the major turning-point of his life in Boston. Laura, bright, ambitious and from the middle class, […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Chapters 4-7Summary and Analysis Chapters 1-3
Chapter One of The Autobiography of Malcolm X describes Malcolm’s first twelve years of life, a time he remembers as a “nightmare.” Indeed, the main events of the chapter are all scenes from a nightmare: the Ku Klux Klan attack in Omaha; the burning of the family’s home in Lansing; […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Chapters 1-3Character List
Malcolm X (Malcolm Little, El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz) Author, narrator, and principal character of the Autobiography. Reverend Earl Little Malcolm’s father, a Baptist minister and an organizer for the militant Universal Negro Improvement Association. Louise Little Malcolm’s mother; a proud woman who is finally broken by family misfortunes. Elijah Muhammad (Elijah […]
Read more Character ListMalcolm X Biography
Malcolm X was born Malcolm Little in Omaha, Nebraska, on May 19, 1925; he dropped the “slave name” Little and adopted the initial X (representing an unknown) when he became a member of the Nation of Islam. Malcolm was the seventh of his father’s nine children — three by a […]
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