1. Malcolm X wanted to get his hair conked so that he could be initiated into sophistication. He wanted to become a part of urban life to fit in. At the end of the story he talks about how this was his big step toward self-degradation. Malcolm X endured so much pain to look more like a white man. This kind of mindset was instilled into people thinking that black people were “inferior” and that white people were “superior.”
2. I think he wanted to show the pain that he went through to look more like a white man. His feelings were shown more throughout the story by writing it as a process explanation rather than a set of instructions.
3. I think that Malcolm X includes so many references to the pain and discomfort that he went through to show what he and others went through. People were brainwashed into thinking that they should look like white men and they would go to great lengths to achieve this. I think he wanted to show the readers that going through pain and discomfort to look like something you aren’t isn’t right and what he called, “self-degradation.”
4. I think he used so many quotation marks in the last paragraph to show what people thought about black people and white people. There isn’t a skin color that is “superior” to the other and I think Malcolm X wanted his readers to understand what African Americans had to go through during that time period when they were considered “inferior.”
5. This message is definitely still relevant today. There are many people today that will try and act like the opposite race and will go through anything to achieve this. African Americans will bleach their skin to look more like white people and white people will perform practices that African Americans do. I think that people want what they can’t have and will try to be something they really aren’t. This story sent a good message to the readers that they shouldn’t try to change themselves into something they aren’t.
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