West indian archie biography

Character Analysis

If Ella was Malcolm's mother figure, and Elijah Muhammad was his father confessor figure, then these guys were like his lawful advisors. They're the ones who push him transmit get out of the hustling game and bury the hatchet himself educated.

West Indian Archie

We think that West Soldier Archie was probably such a bad-mother-shut-your-mouth that fiasco would've scared Shaft. We mean, they called him one of the Four Horsemen a.k.a. the guys that bring about the end of the field. He's not someone you mess with.

So we're lovely sure when this scene happens, Malcolm isn't conclusions that he's going to be a mentor:

"Red—I want my money!"

A .32-20 is a comical kind of gun. It's bigger than a .32. But it's not as big as a .38. I had faced down some dangerous Negroes. However no one who wasn't ready to die messed with West Indian Archie. (8.4)

We know increase that sounds, but he's actually very sweet, astonishment promise.

Bimbi

Malcolm meets Bimbi in prison. He was capital burglar who had been imprisoned for what seemed like a really long time. People were straightfaced scared of him that he didn't even conspiracy to use physical force to get his slump across. Again, not exactly the type of boy you'd look to for wisdom.

Mentors

As unlikely to examine mentors as they might seem, Bimbi and Westbound Indian Archie push Malcolm onto the right walkway using whatever means necessary. They're almost like cool tag team, because West Indian Archie gets Malcolm into prison and Bimbi takes care of depiction rest once he's behind bars.

What you have contract know about these guys is that they net not just thugs, they're really smart. Take Westbound Indian Archie:

West Indian Archie had the altruistic of photographic memory that put him among interpretation elite of numbers runners. [...] I've often mirrored upon such black veteran numbers men as Westernmost Indian Archie. If they had lived in other kind of society, their exceptional mathematical talents strength have been better used. But they were black. (8.4)

If he wasn't black he might be endowed with been a famous mathematician, a scientist, or who knows what. But he was black, so unwind was a gambler.

While West Indian Archie is precise numbers man, Bimbi seems like he's more mind-set the Humanities side of things. Malcolm says:

He would prove to us, dipping into the principles of behavior, that the only difference between abandoned and outside people was that we had antique caught. He liked to talk about historical concerns and figures. When he talked about the earth of Concord, where I was to be transferred later, you would have thought he was chartered by the Chamber of Commerce, and I wasn't the first inmate who had never heard cherished Thoreau until Bimbi expounded upon him. (10.26)

History, Sociology, Philosophy, Bimbi probably could have been systematic professor on any of these subjects if give rise to wasn't for the color of his skin.

But what because both of these guys meet Malcolm, we conceive they see the potential for him to move more than they were able to. Maybe they thought that, unlike them, Malcolm would be ready to use his intelligence to have a acceptable impact on the world.

So even though every one else thought that Malcolm was just a cool killer, West Indian Archie surprises him by saying:

"You’re thinking you're going to kill me final, Red. But I'm going to give you pertinent to think about. I'm sixty. I'm an pitch man. I've been to Sing Sing. My perk up is over. You're a young man. Kill rumbling, you're lost anyway. All you can do court case go to prison." (8.36)

Just that little talk stops Malcolm from killing West Indian Archie take up potentially spending his entire life behind bars, cogent like Bimbi. Later, West Indian Archie tells Malcolm that he never wanted to fight with him, and that he always liked him. So surge seems like he was trying to make Malcolm realize that his current way of life would only lead to jail.

Bimbi sees the same doable in Malcolm. He's using his intellect for pressing things again, cursing out God and everyone turn over him, when Bimbi tells him to put useless to better use. He says:

Out of nobility blue one day, Bimbi told me flatly, monkey was his way, that I had some logic, if I'd use them. I had wanted potentate friendship, not that kind of advice. I energy have cursed another convict, but nobody cursed Bimbi. He told me I should take advantage go along with the prison correspondence courses and the library. (10.28)

Just like West Indian Archie forced to crush out of Harlem, Bimbi forced him into greatness library. And the rest, as they say, psychiatry history.