Rhetorical Strategies

• Telographic sentence: "And then i knew" (349).
• "I paraded her" (79).
• "He was cordial" (367).

Telographic sentences are commonly employed throughout most of Malcolm X's writing, used essentially to mimic his style of speech in public. As a great public speaker, the use of concise sentences in mirrored in his writing. Doing so allows a point to be quickly made, as to avoid diverting from any message or purpose, a technique that would thus be applicable to both writing and public speaking.

• Asyndeton: "I walked, I talked, I functioned" (351).

The use of asyndeton is a tool of emphasis. In the case of Malcolm X, writing such a sentence omitting the use of any conjunctions allows for emphasis on the material using briefness. Another tool also used in his public speaking, asyndeton focuses the attention on just the subject and verb, emphasizing either their function or importance. The above sentence, for example, emphasizes how Malcolm lived his life as a normal man who has undergone hardship before his ascension to influential greatness.

• Simile: "It was like bing on a battlefield--with intellectual and philosophical bullets" (325).
• Onomatopoeia: "--we all heard it click" (165).

As many other writers do, Malcolm X greatly utilizes the evocation of the senses to illustrate and convey his ideas. Using similes and other sense-evoking language allows for the reader to vividly imagine what he is trying to express, either about a  situation or feeling at a specific time. In doing so, it adds to the understanding of the reader of X's experiences, overall adding to the effectiveness of relaying his autobiography's message by creating a better and more interesting comprehension of his life story.