Malcolm X
How Malcolm X found his enlightenment.
Enlightenment is the act or a means of enlightening (to give intellectual or spiritual light to; impart knowledge to). It’s also a philosophical movement of the 18th century that emphasized the use of reason to scrutinize previously accepted doctrines and traditions and that brought about many humanitarian reforms.
The "Allegory of the Cave" by Plato represents an extended metaphor that is to contrast the way in which we perceive and believe in what is reality. The thesis behind his allegory is the basic tenets that all we perceive are imperfect "reflections" of the ultimate Forms, which subsequently represent truth and reality. In his story, Plato establishes a cave in which prisoners are chained down and forced to look upon the front wall of the cave. He starts with: “Behold! Human beings living in an underground cave, which has a mouth open towards the light and reaching all along the cave; here they have been from their childhood, and have their legs and necks chained so that they cannot move, and can only see before them, being prevented by the chains from turning round their heads. Above and behind them a fire is blazing at a distance, and between the fire and the prisoners there is a raised way; and you will see, if you look, a low wall built along the way, like the screen which marionette players have in front of them, over which they show the puppets”.
When we start reading Malcolm X’s self-education story described in the “Learning to read”, we see that he was prisoned for 7 years convicted in robbery. This is a parallel to people in the Cave, same as them he couldn’t see the World, he got stacked in the Prison, which is his start point from where his journey to enlightenment has begun.Here in the Charlestown prison Malcolm X first started understand that he can’t express clearly his minds. Malcolm X said: “I became increasingly frustrated at not being able to express what I wanted to convey in letters that I
Enlightenment is the act or a means of enlightening (to give intellectual or spiritual light to; impart knowledge to). It’s also a philosophical movement of the 18th century that emphasized the use of reason to scrutinize previously accepted doctrines and traditions and that brought about many humanitarian reforms.
The "Allegory of the Cave" by Plato represents an extended metaphor that is to contrast the way in which we perceive and believe in what is reality. The thesis behind his allegory is the basic tenets that all we perceive are imperfect "reflections" of the ultimate Forms, which subsequently represent truth and reality. In his story, Plato establishes a cave in which prisoners are chained down and forced to look upon the front wall of the cave. He starts with: “Behold! Human beings living in an underground cave, which has a mouth open towards the light and reaching all along the cave; here they have been from their childhood, and have their legs and necks chained so that they cannot move, and can only see before them, being prevented by the chains from turning round their heads. Above and behind them a fire is blazing at a distance, and between the fire and the prisoners there is a raised way; and you will see, if you look, a low wall built along the way, like the screen which marionette players have in front of them, over which they show the puppets”.
When we start reading Malcolm X’s self-education story described in the “Learning to read”, we see that he was prisoned for 7 years convicted in robbery. This is a parallel to people in the Cave, same as them he couldn’t see the World, he got stacked in the Prison, which is his start point from where his journey to enlightenment has begun.Here in the Charlestown prison Malcolm X first started understand that he can’t express clearly his minds. Malcolm X said: “I became increasingly frustrated at not being able to express what I wanted to convey in letters that I