The Autobiography of Malcolm X
Samirra
Robinson
Writers all over the world make
stated and unstated assumptions, wrong evidence and both weak and strong
arguments. In pages 37-38 of The Autobiography of Malcolm X, Malcolm X uses
different kinds of evidence, assumptions, arguments and Fallacies to show the
main points on Racism, Leadership, Education, Criticism, and Honesty. His
purpose in this section was to tell people that no matter what someone says
about you, that you can be what you want to be and don’t let people change your
mind about what it is that you want out of life. Malcolm X grew as a person
because he was strong and that no matter what his teacher Mr. Ostrowski said to
him he was persist ant in becoming someone when he got older. Today Malcolm X
is remembered as a Great man that stood up for what he believed in.
To
support the achievement in Malcolm X’s goals, in this
sections, he uses two types of argument. He first used Argument
by causation.
Malcolm X told his teacher that when he got older,
he wanted to be a lawyer. The argument of causation is that
because Malcolm is black, he cannot be a lawyer. Malcolm’s
teacher told him “But you have to be realistic. A lawyer, that’s no
realistic goal for a nigger.”
This argument seems to be strong
because when Malcolm was in school it was believed that
“niggers”
could not achieve. Secondly, Malcolm
uses the
argument by authority.
As
Malcolm converses with Mr. Ostrowski, Mr. Ostrowski
tells Malcolm, “Why don’t you
plan on carpentry?” This argument
is strong because his teacher
told him what he should be in life
when Malcolm told him he
wanted to be something else.
Malcolm also uses two kinds
of assumptions. He used a stated
assumption and an implicit
assumption. In Malcolm’s stated
assumption, Mr. Ostrowski
believed that “niggers” can’t achieve
their goals and dreams. To support that, Malcolm’s teacher told
him “Malcolm, one of life’s
first needs is for us to become
realistic.” Second, Malcolm’s implicit assumption is that
he
believed that he could become
a lawyer. “Well, yes sir, I’ve been
thinking, I’d like to be a
lawyer.” These are strong assumptions
because both of them had
strong beliefs. Mr. Ostrowski believed
that because Malcolm was
black, he was not intelligent enough to
become a lawyer. Malcolm assumes that since he was in school
with other white children and
was just as smart as the others, there
was no reason he couldn’t
become a lawyer.
To
achieve his purpose of explaining the effects of racism,
Malcolm X uses two types of evidence. The first type of evidence
was empirical evidence. “They all reported that Mr. Ostrowski had
encouraged what they wanted
to be, yet nearly none of them had
earned marks equal to
mine?” Malcolm believed that Mr.
Ostrowski encouraged the
white students with their goals yet he
told Malcolm to choose
another career. The second piece of
evidence was logical evidence. Because Malcolm X was black (a
“nigger”), his teacher told
him that he could not be a lawyer.
Because he was a “nigger”,
Malcolm wanted to become a lawyer.
Therefore, because Malcolm
was a “nigger” he couldn’t be a
lawyer. These are both strong evidence because for
evidence #1,
we have statistics, and for
evidence #2, A + B cause C to be true.
In sections thirty-seven to thirty-eight
Mr. Ostrowski showed one fallacy in that was ad homiem (personal attack). Mr.
Ostrowski told Malcolm that he needs to become realistic and honest with
himself. “That’s no realistic goal for a nigger.” Mr. Ostrowski believed that
blacks couldn’t have good jobs and make good money. So that meant that he did not have hope in
Malcolm and told Malcolm that he couldn’t pursue his dream.
There was a lot of credibility in
section thirty-seven to thirty- eight. The main part of credibility was on
racism. Mr. Ostrowski showed that he was racist when he told Malcolm that he
couldn’t be what he wanted to be. Malcolm X was really surprised when his
teacher told him that he couldn’t do that because he really liked and trusted
him but when he told him that. Malcolm lost respect for his teacher and his
classmates. Malcolm started to act very differently too.
Today, Malcolm X is remembered as a
great man that stood up for what he believed in. His arguments by causation and authority show
how he stood up for what he wanted to be when his teacher, Mr. Ostrowski, told
him that he could not achieve his goal.
His implicit and stated assumptions both show the power and the weakness
of his arguments. The evidence was very
strong and very detailed in the conversation that Malcolm and his teacher had
about Malcolm’s goals. Overall this
section was all about racism and beliefs of what someone can and can’t do.