How we cite our quotes: (Chapter. Paragraph)
Quote #4
For the next years, I was the nearest thing to a hermit in the Norfolk Prison Colony. I never have been more busy in my life. I still marvel at how swiftly my previous life's thinking pattern slid away from me, like snow off a roof. It is as though someone else I knew of had lived by hustling and crime. I would be startled to catch myself thinking in a remote way of my earlier self as another person. (11.10)
Two of the great transformational moments in Malcolm X's life occurred while he's in prison. What is it about prison that makes it so easy for him to change his entire personality? Do you think he would've been able to do this if he was still on the streets?
Quote #5
He was The Messenger of Allah. When I was a foul, vicious convict, so evil that other convicts had called me Satan, this man had rescued me. He was the man who had trained me, who had treated me as if I were his own flesh and blood. He was the man who had given me wings—to go places, to do things I otherwise never would have dreamed of. We walked, with me caught up in a whirlwind of emotions. (16.63)
You could almost see The Autobiography of Malcolm X as a love letter to Elijah Muhammad. Malcolm X attributes his entire life after prison to this guy.
Quote #6
In America, "white man" meant specific attitudes and actions toward the black man, and toward all other non-white men. But in the Muslim world, I had seen that men with white complexions were more genuinely brotherly than anyone else had ever been. That morning was the start of a radical alteration in my whole outlook about "white" men. (17.76)
Malcolm says these words after he goes to Mecca to perform the Hajji. Have you noticed a theme in his transformational moments? What relation does travel have to change in Malcolm X's life? What about religion?