NELSON MANDELA'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY

After much discussion on Nelson Mandela’s autobiography, I realized that my life is nothing compared to the life that he had. 3 decades being imprisoned and fighting for a cause larger than himself. I don’t know whether I have the ability to be as selfless as him who out aside his personal gain to be a prison bound martyr and tirelessly fight the war of apartheid. What I am interested in the autobiography is that clothing can symbolize a person stature and the power that he possessed. For instance, like what Dr Edwin said, short pants was for those from the lower ranks and a long pants was worn by those from the higher ranks. That is why Mandela insisted on having long pants for all African prisoners, and when the prison warder gave him long pants but did not give the same pants to other prisoners, he refused to wear it. He said that “…if he was willing to give me long trousers, why couldn’t everyone else have them?”. Here, it shows that he is not fighting a personal war, but a war to represent every discriminated people out there. His sacrifice and willingness to suffer for a cause that he believes in makes him the symbol of resistance against racism.