Malcolm X: Part II

So I just finished chapters 5 and 6 cuz I'm a huge procrastinator. :/
BUT I found a lot of interesting things in the chapters...I think I'll write about them now:

First, I found it interesting how Malcolm's life sort of splits into two worlds between chapters two and three/four. The last paragraph in the Chapter entitled "Laura", aside from it being completely heartwrenching and disappointing, basically describes how he blames himself for getting Laura into drugs and the city life and the dangers of everything in Boston. It's interesting, however, how even though Malcolm feels sorry for Laura, he never feels sorry for himself. Although clearly outlining the dangers of Harlem and Boston and Roxbury and how different they are from Lansing (I'll get to that interesting shift a bit later), it is almost as if Malcolm feels those experiences were a key part of his learning and growing experience. 'Amazingly', he seems to tell the reader, 'I have overcome my petty childish ways and learned to grow into a new, better man...' Maybe I'm reading into this, but I find it interesting how he speaks about learning the "tricks of the trade", persay, as if he were proud of it...this could also just be because HE WAS proud of his cleverness when he was a younger man. ANYWAY...

About that shift thing I was talking about; when Malcolm is in Roxbury, he starts to get into the "wilder" life. This life was basically just crazier teen years--this was before he started to commit felonies and armed robberies. However, the momentous shift occurs when he meets Sophia. As quite a shocking move for one to read in his book, Malcolm describes how he meets and has relations with his first prostitute. Laura, who seemed like the girl who would (actually, let's say could) put him on the path to richeousness, didn't seem like a whole big deal to the reader after Malcolm meets Sophia. After Sophia, Malcolm gets involved in Harlem, a much rougher community and one of the most dangerous neighborhood--if one did not know how the city worked, that is. ***Although Harlem city life was so eye-opening to read about, I will not dwell on this matter for this blog would get too long*** I guess what I'm trying to say is that the life Roxbury with Laura is a symbol for the better life that Malcolm had, and better times with his guardian, Ella and that the life in Harlem with Shorty and Sammy is a symbol of tougher times and times where he thought Harlem was the only place he would fit in...All in all, the interesting relations he makes with various people give the reader good insight as to what it was like to "live on the edge", and escape the pressures of the real world because Malcolm, as a black American, did not feel like he could succeed in the real world.


PHEW!