It is here he meets someone who is seen throughout much of the rest of his life. "Shorty" Jarvis could be said to be a surrogate father, introducing Malcolm to the world he lives in. Following this, it is his job as a shoeshine boy that develops much of Malcolm's life during this time. He does all of the necessary jobs but it is him selling alcohol and weed that eventually leads his life to one of violence and suspicion. It could be said that it is his life in Boston that leads him later into a life of hustling and criminal activity. .
Malcolm finds certain respite with a white woman named Sophia. What is interesting about this is that Malcolm doesn't quite view Sophia with respect. She seems more like a means to an end. He gains a certain level of respect and notoriety for dating her, relations between white women and black men were illegal then, even though he dislikes the idea of white people having more status. Culturally during the time though, dating a white woman who wasn't a prostitute was a huge deal. Malcolm almost seemed to like the status of it. If she was going to use him for her pleasure then he would use her for his own gain. That could be why he never really saw her as anything more than an object. His relationship with her only confirmed in his mind the racial differences. .
His life in Boston was one of pleasure and living for his sensory feelings. The reader can see the gritty, almost surreal, nightlife that Malcolm lives in, "Neon lights, nightclubs, poolhalls,[cq] bars, the cars they drove! Restaurants made the streets smell-rich, greasy, down-home black cooking. Jukeboxes blared Erskine Hawkins, Duke Ellington, Cootie Williams, dozens of others" (Haley 1992, 66). He has no time for religion or need for it. The pull for living life is too strong. But it is during this living that he experiences the oppression that crawls through Boston's nightlife streets.