Jocelyn Torres

                                    Pages 10-14 the Autobiography of Malcolm X

      In the autobiography of Malcolm X there was major of problems between their family. Everyone in his family had each others back, but most of the time people looked at them different because they were Negroes. They were a very strong family. After a devastating tragic the family broke apart.

     Some kind of psychological deterioration hit Malcolm’s family and began to push away their pride. After the father’s death Malcolm’s mother began to have difficulties. She was thirty four years old with no husband, no provider, or protector to take care of her and her eight children. She began to buy on credit and didn’t take much care of her children. Sometimes the children would starve because she didn’t cook. “I remember waking up to the sound of my mothers creaming again.”

     Argument by authority would take place in this section of the book because the mother goes through psychological issues after her husband’s death. She is sent to a Mental Hospital. People are authorized to take care of the children. They are in charge of the deciding for them. The children are separated and are sent to new homes and families.  The state welfare takes care of the children. “When I began to get caught stealing now and then, the state welfare people began to focus on me when they came to our house.” They began to check up more on Malcolm because he wasn’t doing right actions.

        An implicit and stated assumption was that the company that had issued the bigger policy was claiming that Malcolm’s father had committed suicide. Visitors came to their house to talk more about the issue. “How could my father bash himself in the head, and then get down across the street car tracks to be run over?” The white man assumed that he had killed himself, but he was murdered. His mother had paid out a lot of the issue of the father’s death for the funeral and expenses. She began going into town and returning very upset.

      “And for as long as the first insurance money lasted, we did alright.” This is a weak evidence which is Anecdotal because he doesn’t give much proof or evidence. It just shows that they lived their lives alright with insurance money. Malcolm’s mother began to buy on credit. It wasn’t a good idea because it would just make them fall into dept. “Credit is the first step into dept and back into slavery.” It meant that by buying on credit they would become even more poor then what they already are.

      Malcolm’s mother went through a lot. She would go into Lansing to find different jobs, such as housework or sewing for the white folks. The whites didn’t really realize that she was a nergro. The whites in Lansing didn’t want Negroes in their property. She did fine until the whites realize who she really was and whose widow she was. When the whites knew who she was they let her go. “I remember how she used to come home crying, but trying to hide it because she had lost a job that she needed so much.” This is an example of personal attach because they were against her just because she was a nergro and poor. 

         In this section of the book, Malcolm and his family went through a lot of trouble. They went though racism, discrimination and cause of the father’s death. With out the father/husband their family broke apart. Everyone was separated to different families and they all went different ways.