the differences and similarities

The stories that Malcolm X, Benjamin Franklin, and Mike Rose wrote, are all educational narratives, as you well know.  What is important in them all is the motivation that led them to really pursue an education.  They all kind of drifted through life until a set of circumstances and choices enabled them to realize their inherent thirst for knowledge.  However each had very different motivation to pursue and education.

 Malcolm X started out on the streets.  As a hustler he was considered articulate, but he began to realize that in order to speak with the man that changed his life, Elijah Mohammed, he would need a more rounded education especially in the English department. He wanted to pass on the knowledge he gained from Elijah on to his fellow African Americans and the vocabulary of a street hustler just would not cut it for that task.  That being said I believe that Malcolm X’s motivation was the desire to help his people, a self-less desire to be admired.

Benjamin Franklin on the other hand started out with an innate desire to learn and had the opportunities to do so.  He came from a well to do family who continually tried to set him up for success.  It seems to me that he had a more selfish motivation though as referenced when he speaks of his rival.  This rivalry is between himself and john Collins and it was his desire to surpass john intellectually that I think was the real motivation behind his education.  This seems to be more for a personal gain than Malcolm’s desire to help others.

 Mike Rose is more along the line of Malcolm x.  He tells of the social/ economic struggle that is depicted in the story of Malcolm X as well as the intro where it tells us he is a proponent of uplifting those who are socially crippled based on their economic or ethnic backgrounds.  Unlike Malcolm however, mike first bows to the views of society in a manner that is detrimental to his education.  Then one auspicious moment changed his outlook on life and education.  Thanks to Ken Harvey and his statement of “I just wanna be average” (Rose-3).  He takes a slight Benjamin Franklinesque tone at this point and starts to learn for his own benefit.