Malcolm X and Julius Caesar - Assignment Example

 Malcolm X and Julius Caesar Gaius Julius Caesar and Malcolm X were influential men in their own rights. While they lived millennia apart and in extremely dissimilar societies, their lives have several parallels. Pundits and scholars of history concur that both defined and influenced the respective histories of their time and were loved or loathed in equal measure by those that their lives touched. This paper compares the lives of these two men and how they influenced the events of their day. The early lives of Caesar and Malcolm X were as distant as the space of time that separated their birth. Caesar was born into a patrician family – a noble Roman family - in 100 BC and as a child of the nobility he was brought up in luxury. His father, also called Gaius Julius Caesar, was governor of the province of Asia while his mother, Aurelia Cotta, was from an influential family (Fuller 9). He got privileged education and as a child, under his father’s watchful eye he would drive a goat chariot, pretending to be a triumphant general, perhaps an early pointer to the triumphs that would later define his adult life. Rome was ruled by such families and from an early age the young Caesar could have been indoctrinated with the idea that his role in life was to pursue the highest political ambitions and carry on the family name. Malcolm X – born Malcolm Little – on the other hand, was born into a family on the lower ranks of the socioeconomic spectrum. His mother, Louise Norton Little, was a housewife who spent her time taking care of the family’s eight children while his father was a Baptist pastor and civil rights protester. The young Malcolm, therefore, did not have a cozy childhood the which Caesar had. One begins to see how these two men would grow to embrace the causes and have the approaches to life around them that they had in their later lives – one seeking to conquer and the other seeking to be free. Events, however, begin to shape these two lives that started out so different towards a common destiny of greatness. Both Ceasar and Malcom X grew up in turbulent environments. The background would help give them the steely determination and ruthless ambition which they would later use to advance their respective causes. Caesar’s formative years were a time of turmoil in the Roman Republic; there were several wars from 91 BC to 82 BC. Roman politics was highly polarized. Caesar’s father suddenly died when the young Caesar was in his teens and was forced to be head of the family. He needed a guide and someone to protect him, especially from the then dictator, Lucius Cornelius Sulla, who did not like the Caesar family. He found this in the person of his distinguished uncle, Gaius Marius, who had achieved a position of immense importance in Roman politics and warfare. Marius was regarded as a champion of the underprivileged of Italy and with his guidance Caesar became a confident young man (Fuller 15). From around 82 BC to 80 BC, though, the dictator, Sulla, began to rid Rome of his enemies and Caesar was among the individuals targeted. Marius had died by now and Caesar was left vulnerable to Sulla’s reign of terror. The environment was so hostile, and he fled Rome to Asia Minor. Malcolm X, too, grew up in a particularly hostile environment. It was at a time when racial discrimination was at its height. His father’s civil rights activism encouraged death intimidation from the white supremacist group, Black Legion, making them to migrate twice before Malcolm’s forth birthday (biography 1). It is noted in his biography on his official website that in 1929, Malcom’s family home in Michiganwas burned by arsonists, and two years later “…Earl’s body was found lying across the town’s trolley tracks” (1). Malcolm and his other siblings were split up amongst various foster homes and orphanages. Hostility would remain with both Malcolm and Caesar even in their adult lives as public figures and eventually lead to their assassination. Caesar went on to become the most powerful Roman ruler in Rome’s entire history. He conquered and subdued several lands, but his political enemies at home tried, at every turn, to bring him down. As consul, the hostel was decidedly hostile to him and constantly sought to shoot down legislation that he proposed so much so that he came up with the triumvirate – a political alliance of three: Crassus, Pompey and himself – to help push legislation through Senate. Eventually, it is at the senate that he would be assassinated by stubbing by a group of senators. Malcolm X also went on to become a chief campaigner of civil rights for black people in America. He faced a lot of hostility from the racist white establishment. Several attempts were made on his life. On February 14, 1965 “the home where Malcolm, Betty and their daughters lived in East Elmhurst, New York was firebombed”. Luckily, the family escaped physical injury. Malcolm would not be lucky for long because a week later he is assassinated by three gunmen. Both Malcolm and Caesar had extraordinary powers of oration too. Caesar was well read in Latin and moved people with his gift of speech. He became a lawyer before he joined politics. Malcolm X also moved crowds with his articulate speeches. He had childhood dreams of becoming a lawyer, but he did not pursue that dream to end; a teacher at the school that he attended, when he told her about those dreams, retorted that there was no way that he could achieve them. Frustrated, he dropped out of school and would later find himself in jail. Perhaps the most conspicuous contrast that can be seen between Malcolm X’s and Julius Caesar’s life is that while Malcolm influenced his time’s history as an outsider to the establishment, waging a struggle against the said establishment, Julius Caesar influenced the history of his time as a member of the establishment. He had the resources of the state to support his military quests and political maneuvers and that he did meticulously. It can be said, in sum, that while Julius Caesar and Malcolm X faced a lot of hostilities and hurdles in their lives, theirs were decidedly eventful lives and remarkably similar and also contrasting in several respects. Works Cited Fuller, J. F. C. Julius Caesar: Man, Soldier, and Tyrant. New Brunswick, NJ:      Rutgers University Press., 1991. Print. "Biography." Malcolm X Official Website. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 May 2012.      . Read More