Michael Ejigu
Mr. Rodberg
Period-
B
Analysis of the Autobiography of Malcolm X: Pages
94-99
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T |
he New York Times has depicted The Autobiography of Malcolm X as
“Extraordinary.
A brilliant, painful, important book.” In the pages 94-99 of the book, different types of arguments, assumptions and
evidences are used to discuss the themes of sex, women and race. Malcolm’s
purposes are to show how sex and race had effect on women in
Malcolm
uses argument by causation to explain why a lot of men go to prostitutes early
in the morning. As he was talking to his friend prostitutes, they told him a
fact that he did not know. He write,”…after most men passed their virile
twenties, they went to bed mainly to satisfy their egos, and because a lot of
women do not understand it that way, they damage and wreak a man’s ego” (pg.
95). Wives not knowing this fact and prostitutes knowing what the men wanted
are what cause the man to look for other partners. If the wives had knowledge
about this, then men would not be looking for sex in the morning before going
to work. On the other side, I think it is partly the men’s fault that this is
happening. If they really were committed to their wives and if they tried to
solve the problems, then they would come to a solution with their partners.
This is a strong argument concerning that the prostitutes knew why they get a
lot of men everyday and why it is mostly during the morning hours.
To shed light on the effect of race in
having to lead a successful life, Malcolm assumes that everyone was forced to
do what they had to do. He says,”… almost everyone in Harlem needed some kind
of hustle to survive and needed to stay high in some way to forget what they
had to do to survive” (Pg 94). Malcolm defends what the people in his building
are doing by generalizing the assumption to everyone in
To argue the behaviors of women, Malcolm
uses anecdotal as well as logical evidences. He uses anecdotal evidence to
prove that women are weak. He says,” All women by nature are fragile and weak:
they are attracted to the male in whom they see strength” (Pg 96). This
evidence generalizes based on insufficient evidence. He only observed the women
around him or the women in
In order to make the reader feel sorry for
the men whose wives are demanding, Malcolm uses appeal to pity. He says, “These
wives were so disagreeable and had made their men so tense that they were
robbed of the satisfaction of being men” (Pg 95). Malcolm is trying to convince
the reader that the women are to be blamed by making him/her feel sorry for the
men who were being deprived of their manhood. But again, he leaves out the fact
that men also play a part in this. Instead of just going to prostitutes, they
should be talking with their wives trying to solve problems. Moreover, he uses
false dichotomy to emphasize why a white woman would be with a black man. He
writes,” the white woman with a Negro man would be with him for one of two
reasons: either extremely insane love, or to satisfy her lust” (Pg 99). Malcolm
gives only two reasons as to why white women could be with black men. This is a
weak argument because he leaves out other possibilities which can cause such a
relationship.
Throughout this section, one thing Malcolm is credible on is the issue
of a black man gaining status among other black men when he is seen with a
white woman. Malcolm uses himself as an example. He says,” even among
Overall, Malcolm X tries to persuade the
reader on his perception of different issues. He uses argument by causation to
show why men go off looking for prostitutes and his stated and unstated
assumptions show why people in