Carson is an instructor of English literature and composition. In this essay, she analyzes Malcolm X's book as a spiritual autobiography.

The Autobiography of Malcolm X is not only a searing indictment of racism in America but also the moving story of one man's extraordinary metamorphosis from criminal to convert to religious leader. Among the forms of autobiography elucidated by William C. Spengemann, it most closely resembles the formal paradigm established by The Confessions of Saint Augustine in the fifth century. Like the The Confessions, The Autobiography has a three-part structure. It begins with an already converted narrator examining the sinful events from his past life that have brought him to the present moment. He not only has to accept the past as part of the Creator's divine plan but also to believe, and convince his readers to believe, that his old sinful life was a necessary...