Most good stories start with a fundamental list of ingredients: the initial situation, conflict, complication, climax, suspense, denouement, and conclusion. Great writers sometimes shake up the recipe and add some spice.
Initial Situation
Born To A Broken Family
Malcolm X is born and raised in the country, where racism is so prevalent that his family frequently clashes with local KKK and Black Legion groups. This results in his father's death, his mother's mental breakdown, and the destruction of his family home. Knowing that Malcolm is a country bumpkin from a broken home helps us to understand how his personality changes as the book continues.
Rising Action
What's Wrong With The N-Word?
Malcolm gets sent to a detention home and moves away from his siblings. Everything seems to be going fine enough (considering that his dad is dead and his mom is institutionalized) until he goes to Boston to visit his half-sister, Ella. Boston changes everything, and suddenly when he returns home he can't stand the white people around him using the N-word anymore. Malcolm leaves his school, moves to Boston, and enters a life of crime. This is just the beginning of Malcolm's problems, so we're not at the climax yet, but things are definitely heating up.
Climax
But He Loved You, He Really Loved You!
All that crime doesn't pay and Malcolm winds up in jail. While he's in jail, he converts to the Nation of Islam and becomes a devotee of Elijah Muhammad. Once he gets out of the slammer, Malcolm becomes Mr. Muhammad's right-hand man. But this all comes crashing down around him when a scandal and jealousy kicks him out of his new community. You know this has to be the climax, because it's the most emotionally disturbing thing that happens to Malcolm during the entire autobiography.
Falling Action
One Love
Malcolm doesn't need those guys anyway. He goes to Mecca on the Hajj and learns all kinds of new things about Islam. He changes his view about white people and racism, and embraces Pan-Africanism. Even though he's still hurt by the things that happened in the Nation of Islam, Malcolm is getting over it. Things are finally starting to calm down.
Conclusion
Ready to Die
The conclusion of The Autobiography of Malcolm X is not exactly a conclusion. We all know that Malcolm X was assassinated, and the book ends with his prediction that he will be killed and vilified in his death. So the conclusion of Malcolm X's story is kind of implied, but it doesn't really happen on the page.