With age comes...

We can see quite a shift in Malcolm's life as his story unfolds. If I could think of a couple words that I would us to describe the changes that he made later in his life, I would use "broadening," or "enlightening." We can see his scope of vision begin to change. The primary changes that I see in his life are his view of women and also his belief system. He began his early life with a very narrow view of women. “All women, by their nature, are fragile and weak: they are attracted to the male in whom they see strength.” This was just one of his demoralizing views that he held toward women during the early period of his life. After he became a Muslim, his viewpoint was not as severe, but he still held women as the exception. As the weaker of the genders, too fragile and frail to fret over. However, what I find so fascinating is his reaction to his wife. It seems that he was quite unemotional when it came to their relationship in the beginning. I must insert that I actually agreed with what he had to say about love. He believed that too often, couples base "love" on a feeling. When the feeling fades, there is nothing left the relationship and the union fails. However, if a couple's relationship is based primarily on mutual trust, friendship and accountability, the union will be able to stand strong despite difficulties that might come its way. In the end of the book, however, Malcolm states how much he ended up relying on his wife as a source of strength during his moments of complete weakness and attack from the world. He he completely transformed his way of thinking about women, which only experience could repair.