Topic > Themes in Malcolm These are the themes of the novel that interest me the most, some that I agree with and others that are a little more unpleasant. Malcolm Of the many children Malcolm's parents had, he emphasizes in the book that he was the lightest-skinned child among them all, and while he seems to describe favoritism on the part of his father. As she describes her mother as always haunting him because because she was so light skinned she believed this was because her mother had been raped by a white man, and Malcolm served as a reminder to her of this event. As he continues to describe his young life, he learns more about his world and particularly racism and goes into detail about how his house was burned down twice and also how his father was murdered and how his company Life insurance refused to pay for his father. death. When his mother is hospitalized in a