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…
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.…
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…
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.…
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.…
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…
Assimilation and Resistance of the American culture may be seen in the text “A Homemade Education” by Malcolm X. Assimilation is when immigrants travel to the United States and has adapted to the beliefs and values of the American culture. In the text, Malcolm was inspired to read and re write words in the dictionary as a way to learn English and to express what he feels in writing. He also wanted to further understand Muhammad’s teaching through reading books and writing about it. Being able to express himself through letters, Malcolm showed willingness to learn English when he stated, “In my slow, painstaking, ragged handwriting, I copied into my tablet everything printed on that first page, down to the punctuation marks.” ( Malcolm 249)…
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…
Malcolm had the freedom to write in his notepad without authority telling him anything about it and he wrote about that was the only thing he loved to do in his free time. Meanwhile, Jimmy said he’ll never do any work unless his is working on his G.E.D and the captain replied back by saying Jimmy will be working no matter what. So they put him in maximum security for twenty-three hours a day in one of those cells. Later on they put him in isolation cells multiple times, one for fighting the guards, and later on they moved him to the nut-run where they mentally messed with him so much that he couldn’t talk. Lastly, Malcolm is short to the point with his experience with education himself in prison, while Jimmy elaborates on his emotions towards education himself and how his experience afterwards made him feel. When I say elaborate, he helps the reader picture and experience what he is going…
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…
The author in the Autobiography of Malcolm X starts by telling us how his family would receive threats because his father would give preachings of Marcus Garvey. He would use worlds such as “I” or “me” to make it first person point of view. His mother was pregnant during many unpleasant moments in their life in chapter one. Malcolm also introduces his family in chapter one.…
But now, trying to write simple English, I not only wasn’t articulate, I wasn’t even functional.” He first realized that he wanted to increase his knowledge of the English language when he met a fellow prisoner that commanded everyone’s attention. In Malcom X’s words, “Bimbi first made me feel envy of his stock of knowledge. Bimbi had always taken charge of any conversations he was in, and I had tried to emulate him.” This is where Malcolm first describes how he was as a reader at the beginning of his time in prison. Malcolm X grabbed a dictionary and started reading and memorizing what was on the pages. He says, “I began copying. In my slow, painstaking, ragged handwriting, I copied into my tablet everything printed on that first page, down to the punctuation marks. I believe it took me a day. Then, aloud, I read back, to myself, I read my own handwriting.” Malcolm simply believed everything he read. He wasn’t absorbing the true meaning of the words or how to use them in context. He simply memorized and learned. He was reading like a child. He read to learn how to read not how to understand or increase his understanding. Malcolm X did not think critically. Its like when I child reads about Spiderman and doesn’t stop for a second to think how that would never happen. The child just happily accepts…
In Learning to Read, Malcolm X, one of the most articulate and powerful leaders of black America during the 1960s, describes his struggle of self-education while being incarcerated. Malcolm X composed his journey of self-in order to convey the message that the reader should strive to look for more than what is taught to them by the public school system, to, in a way, look outside the box.…
Unlike most books, The Autobiography of Malcolm X discusses a problem in the first chapter. This problem of racial segregation was a reoccurring theme before Malcolm Little was even born. The author sets up an issue when Malcolm X was in his mother’s womb to set the tone of the book. Malcolm X developed as a character from significant incidents in his life that changed him into the man that would be historically idolized. The book uses three central ideas, systemic oppression, racial identity, and separation vs. integration to graphically reveal the prevailing schism in American race relations.…
Malcolm X was a black activist speaker in his time. He fought for equality for all races and was role model for the black community in this time in history. He was born May 19th 1925, in Omaha, Nebraska. (“MALCOLM X OFFICIAL WEBSITE 1”) He was very smart, his dad was killed in a supposed accident but most historians believe the K.K.K. murdered his father while Malcolm was at the age of six. His mother shortly after had an emotional breakdown and was admitted to a mental hospital. This forced Malcolm and his 8 siblings to orphanages. (“MALCOLM X OFFICIAL WEBSITE 2”) Even though he went through all of this he was still a good student and dreamed of being a lawyer until his teacher told him that an African American would…