Preview

Literacy Behind Bars By Malcolm X And Alex Haley

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
311 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Literacy Behind Bars By Malcolm X And Alex Haley
Through the story of Malcolm X’s prison life, in Literacy behind Bars by Malcolm X and Alex Haley, it becomes evident that life is what one makes it. Bettering oneself will only give them a better, happier, life. Therefore the opportunity that one may learn will always be there if one decides to accept the opportunity and seek the knowledge from it. Malcolm X knew how stultified he was when compared to others. While in prison, at the Norfolk Prison Colony, Malcolm X never had a monotony moment. Through challenging his lack of knowledge and studying the dictionary word for word, Malcolm read and learned. Giving him the ability to read books changed his outlook on life. Accordingly, he began reading and never put a book down, as stated, “from

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Malcolm X spent time in the Charlestown prison during the Civil Rights movement. While confined, a fellow prison mate named Bimbi displayed a certain presence that Malcolm tried to imitate. Bimbi showed dominance when talking to others that Malcolm often grudged. As a result, Malcolm obtained a dictionary so that he can learn a few words.…

    • 390 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Malcom little, known as Malcom X was human rights activist and Muslim minister, Malcom x, autobiography tittle “Learning to Read,” recounts his self-education and his endeavors to learn how to read and write while he was prison in Charlestown prison for a robbery he committed in 1946. Malcolm X’s purpose was to illustrate the struggle to educate his mind and his people from the pervasive racist ideology of the 1960’s. He experience and emotions of African Americans engaged in struggle of the civil rights. Malcom X begins his excerpt by acknowledging the frustration he felt trying to convey his own thoughts and feelings in letters to friends while in prison. He was not only physically imprisoned but a prisoner of his own mind as well. Malcom…

    • 289 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    While in Norfolk Prison he checked out a dictionary, tablets and pencils from the Norfolk Prison Colony School. After months of crash course memorizations of the dictionary, books start to reveal stories, meanings, and to teach history. As his new found knowledge increased from reading every book he could get his hands on, so did his disgust for the whitened world in which he lived. His education started with the teachings of Mr. Muhammad who stressed “how history had been whitened” meaning when the history books were written by white men, the black man was simply left out. This bothered Malcolm and because of this he hunted down any book in that library that had any information at all about black history. Books like The Wonders of the World and Negro History taught him about black empires before black slavery and the early Negro’s struggle for freedom. He also came across some bound pamphlets of the Abolitionism…

    • 549 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Unfortunately, I am finding it surprisingly difficult to respond to Malcolm X’s “Learning to Read” excerpt. This, however, is not because I am an inarticulate writer, nor is it due to a lack of provocation from the piece. In truth, I believe that I am experiencing complications with my response because I find myself torn between two separate topics brought up by Malcolm X. On one hand, he discusses the massive importance of literacy and his own journey to self-obtain said literacy; however, on the other hand, it is mentioned that he advocated for implementation of black separation, and his harsh criticism of the white race is rather prominent. Malcolm X’s dedication to becoming an educated man despite enduring a multitude of oppressing struggles…

    • 276 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    In Malcolm X’s “Learning to Read,” he talks about his time in prison and how he decided to teach himself about things he never learned in school. While Malcolm X was in jail he decided to improve his vocabulary by reading the dictionary and copying all of the definitions. This helped him become more eloquent of a writer and paved the way for him to be able to read more difficult books. When Malcolm X began to read seriously he discovered a violent past that most people tended to avoid mentioning; the history of the white man. He read about how white people conquered lands, enslaved countless numbers of people, and tricked trusting people.…

    • 465 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    In "A Homemade Education", Malcolm X admits his frustration about his inability to express himself the way he'd like to. It can be said that Malcolm X was discouraged as he mentioned that he "wasn’t even functional" (Malcolm X 134) and though he did feel this way he turned the negative feelings into something to strive for. In the Charlestown prison Malcolm X was in there was another inmate named Bimbi who he envied because of his ability to use words and his knowledge. Malcolm X's envy of Bimbi drove and inspired him to seek and ultimately further his own education in a sense in deciding to read and copy out of the dictionary. Malcolm X gained a hunger for the knowledge he was obtaining as exemplified in the following quotation: " I could for the first time pick up a book and read and now begin to understand what the book was saying... in every free moment I had, if I was not reading in the library, I was reading in my bunk... In fact, up to then, I never had been so truly free in my life." (Malcolm X 135). Malcolm X used his time as way to learn everything he possibly could so that he wouldn’t have to be envious of the knowledge someone else possessed. In Maya Angelou's "Graduation", Angelou also showed her discouragement by the words of Edward Donleavy at her graduation who told the congregation of how many more opportunities whites had over blacks. Angelou's graduation was an occasion that had so many excited because they had worked so hard to accomplish the feat of gaining an education and they were also excited for what their future had in store for them; however, many of them including Angelou felt in the moment that those hopes and…

    • 1371 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In “Learning to Read ‘excerpt from The Autobiography of Malcolm X’”. Mr. X tells us about how reading had such a tremendous impact in his life. In fact it made him who he was. While in prison he met an inmate named Bimbi who talked him into reading as much as he could. Mr. X started off with reading a dictionary, and as time passed he went on to more articulate readings. After reading book after book on Anti-slavery and realizing and gaining more knowledge of horrible things people did to African Americans. It showed him how…

    • 508 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    In “Coming to an Awareness of Language,” Malcolm X writes about the time when he learns to read and write by himself. Malcolm X was…

    • 376 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    3. During his six years of incarceration in Massachusetts Norfolk Prison Colony he took advantage of the extensive library and became an ardent reader of books and dictionaries; became self-educated and a jailhouse scholar. As well, Malcolm acquired his forensic skill by joining the debating classes, which made him articulate public orator and exceptional arguer. In 8th grade, Malcolm told his teacher that he want to be lawyer, but his said he should become a carpenter instead.…

    • 1051 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    He began to understand what the books meant. Malcolm said, “I suppose it was inevitable that as my word – base broadened, I could for the first time pick up a book and read and now begin to understand what the book was saying.” He spent the rest of the time in the prison reading and reading and reading more. In his own words Malcolm said, “until I left that prison, in every free moment I had, if I was not reading in the library, I was reading on my bunk. You couldn’t have gotten me out of books with a wedge. Between Mr. Muhammad’s teachings, my correspondence, my visitors…and my reading of books, months passed without my even thinking about being imprisoned. In fact, up to then, I never had been so truly free in my life.” Malcolm was finally free to learn and grow. His mind had been awakened. He wasn’t just sitting there letting life pass him by he was getting an entire new perspective on the world and it was opening up his life. As his reading progressed he began to realize things about the society. He was using his…

    • 1399 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Where does the desire to not just live, but strive come from? To not just succeed but exceed? To not just be great but be the only thing acceptable in one’s heart, the best. In “You Should Have Been a Boy,” Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s determination to make her father proud, drove her to do what most women of her time never did: earn a higher education or speak out against injustice. In the essay, “Superman and Me,” Sherman Alexie’s unrelenting passion for reading allowed him to turn a blind eye to the ridicule that his peers endowed upon him and helped him push pass the limitations that had been placed on his people. Malcolm X describes in “Learning to Read,” how his illiteracy prevented him from expressing his beliefs but his…

    • 1294 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Malcolm Little

    • 850 Words
    • 4 Pages

    His education inspired an urge to read, which was satiated in the prison library. However, all of the knowledge that was gained by Malcolm X during his incarceration was colored by the Black Nationalist teachings of Honorable Elijah Muhammad and the Nation.…

    • 850 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    He was so fascinated with there being so many words that he completed the dictionary writing about a million words in his days in prison. After his self-education, Malcom could finally pick up a book and understand the meaning behind it. He emphasized on the fact that with being able to read he was truly a free man and could interpret life from an open mind forming his own beliefs. Malcolm X says, “In fact, up to then, I never had been so truly free in my life” (Malcolm…

    • 512 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Malcolm X Hero

    • 1674 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Malcolm X began to fight what would be a lifelong battle of personal ambition versus the general racist perception (Religious Leaders of America, 1999). After the split from his family he moved to his aunt Ella’s house in Lansing, Michigan to find work, and explore opportunities, those opportunities led him to major trouble (Gale, 1999). Once Malcolm X found a job as a shoe shiner, he looked for new ways of making money. Those new ways were gambling, and burglary, after many accounts of burglary he was sentenced to ten years in jail (Gale, 1999). In jail, he was introduced to the ideas of Elijah Muhammad (God’s prophet), and to the Nation of Islam. Malcolm X read every book, magazine, and newspaper he got his hands on in the prison library (Gale, 1999). He gained more knowledge by reading history books with the newly-learned testaments by Elijah Muhammad (Gale, 1999). Thru Malcolm X’s reading he developed a mindset that the white history process had left out great things that black men had done for the United States, or the great “black men that gotten whitened (American Decades,1998)." He improved his leadership by copying the dictionary word for word to further his definitions, and participating in debates over justice, the law, and America in jail. He also preached independently to the prisoners about the Nation of…

    • 1674 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Douglass’ description of his mistress rushing at him, angry because she catches him reading a newspaper, affirms this. On the other hand, Malcolm was conscious of his verbal abilities, observing that he considered himself to be the most articulate hustler in the streets; but the realization that he lacked the skills necessary to communicate his ideas as convincingly as he knew he was capable of overwhelmed him. Able to recognize that speech is a critical component in how people perceive and relate to one another he declares, “Many who today hear me somewhere in person, or on television, or those who read something I’ve said, will think I went to school far beyond the eighth grade”. (Malcolm X)…

    • 760 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays