University of Virginia Library

'Confining Structures'

So his real flight from the
"confining structures" of
ghetto imprisonment results in
his actual imprisonment behind
bars. But Thomas moves to a
state of consciousness outside
human "justice," Mr. Baker
claimed, and achieves a final
existential freedom.

The autobiography of
Malcolm X follows the same
pattern: movement from one
state of imprisonment to
another not far removed. Mr.
Baker asserted Malcolm X moves

away from mainstream
American capitalistic values to
the founding of a "new
society" based on Muslim
belief.

The narrative is a process of
ceaseless motion, similar to the
myth of Sisyphus, whose rock,
after it rolls down the hill, is
not far from where he began.