The Motivation and Persation of Malcolm X

In this speech, Malcolm X is given a motivational and persuasive speech to his fellow believers. It was given to fight for the independence of African Americans in the 1960s.

First, I want to start off by recognizing Malcolm X's ability to get his audience involved. Throughout the entire speech, feedback was being communicated between Malcolm X and his audience in a variety of different ways. His audience communicated to him by vocal response, laughter, and applauding. Malcolm X brought himself closer to his audience by using the phrase "You and I" [2:45-3:42]. This phrase makes him seem as an equal to his audience and not someone of higher authority. This phrase also makes his audience feel comfortable during the speech. It is obvious that Malcolm X communicated to his audience by words, but he also used his facial expressions and hand gestures to fully communicate with his audience. His facial expressions let his audience know how important the issue at hand was to him. They also told his audience about what kind of sense of humor he had, as well [0:25-0:45][1:40-1:50]. His hand gestures added to the seriousness and the importance of topic and, again, proved to the audience how passionate Malcolm X was on African American independence. His facial expressions, hand gestures, and emphasis on words and phrases presented his attitude, beliefs, and values on the independence of the African American people.

Malcolm X also uses his great speaking skills to his advantage by metaphors, rhyming words, and references to major literary works that built the United States of America. He uses a metaphor that states, "...stop running away from the wolf into the arms of the fox" [6:21-6:30]. This is inspiring to his audience because it is telling them to stop running away and start defending themselves as African American people. His use of rhyming words [3:00-3:10] just shows how clever of a speaker Malcolm X was in his day. I believe that it shows his sense of humor in a serious way. And, he uses references to the Charter of the United Nations, Universal Declaration of Human Rights, The Bill of Rights, and The U.S. Constitution to bring a sense of expert opinion to the table of the issue he is so passionate about [5:06-5:30]. His use of pauses was also helpful to show his transition from one topic to another.

I believe that Malcolm X was a fantastic public speaker. He was very influential by his use of words and passion towards African American independence. I believe that Malcolm X did a great job in knowing his audience and getting feedback to and from his audience. He was a little sloppy in some areas, but overall his use of eye contact, audience feedback, reference to the occasions, emphasis, facial expressions, and hand movements were great! He represents a great motivational speaker of the century.