“Malcom X Compare and Contrast”           

The main idea of “Learning To Read” by Malcom X is that the ability to read gave Malcom new eyes into a world in which he had never known before, and it helped him learn more about how the white man took over the world and how he knew almost nothing of his own race based just upon the textbooks that the white people made. When he talks of teaching himself the dictionary in prison, he mentions his “slow, painstaking, ragged handwriting” (pg. 1) that he had to read back to himself every night so that he could understand the words he wrote. He continues to talk about “the new world that opened” (pg. 2) when he learned to read and how what he read taught him about his past and how he never learned it in public school. However, the main idea of “Rescuing Malcom X From His Calculated Myths” by Peniel Joseph is one that states that the autobiography by Malcom X is exaggerated and is overshadowed by the biography “Malcom X: A Life of Reinvention” by Manning Marable, which shows Malcom as an actual flawed human being rather than a flawless leader. He states that Marable rescues X “from his own mythology” (pg. 1) that he created when writing his autobiography, where Malcom “purposefully exaggerated his criminal exploits” (pg. 2) to his readers. While Joseph writes this article, he also seems to have a fairly authoritative tone while talking about the biography versus the autobiography. Malcolm, according to Joseph on page 3, is “stripped from the cocoon of his posthumous aura of invincibility” within this biography, and seems to make him an actual, flawed human. Malcom X, however, seems to be knowledgeable in his tone at first, then he transitions into his anger about racism against his race. He sees no flaw in his views, such as when he is talking about the original human as black, where he states “the conclusion is clear” (pg. 3). He also loudly spouts multiple times how the white man is devilish, describing him as “vicious, arrogant” (pg. 5), and “bestial and ruthless” (pg. 5). Using these specific words to describe the white man, whom Malcom X views as the enemy, an antagonist in the world, shows how he truly despises the white race and what they have done to those whose skin is different. Whilst Malcom’s main tone is aggressive, Joseph’s main tone is less so, as shown by his wording, which seems to be calmer and doubtful of Malcom’s anger. Joseph finds that in Marable’s biography of Malcom, he is stripped of “literary clichés and autobiographical fictions” and is finally human, with a less unbelievable existence or slant on opinion.