Those who struggle to attain education are those who truly comprehend the importance of possessing an education. Whether it is the un-educated slave Fredrick Douglas, the semi-educated leader Malcolm-X, or the savvy mid-aged student David Sedaris, all three men comprehend the advantages and disadvantages of being educated. When Malcolm X states, “My homemade education gave me a little bit more sensitivity to the deafness, dumbness, and blindness that was afflicting the black race in America” (Malcolm X 232), this idea could be applied to every race on every continent and in all facets of life. Through out all three selections the apparent theme is the importance of total immersion into the realm of self-education.

In the cases of both Fredrick Douglas and Malcolm X, without education neither man would have lived out the life he did. It is also safe to presume that with out the facts of slavery, the motivation behind the two men’s education would have been lacking. In Douglas’ instance being a slave in the first place started him on the path of education. He mentioned, “The first step had been taken, my mistress in teaching me the alphabet, had given me the inch, and no precaution could prevent me from taking the ell” (Douglass 223). When Douglas learned to read, it helped him to understand the gravity of the situation he was in and to what extent it would take to get himself out. Like Douglas and Sedaris, education gave Malcolm X the feeling of being “mentally alive” (Malcolm X 232). After using the dictionary to learn to read, he later ingested such novels as Uncle Tom’s Cabin, The Story of Oriental Civilization, and other books about races struggles for existence. Both Douglas and X have made an important connection between educations vs. mental slavery. While one learned to read using “bread crumbs” (Douglass 223) and the other learned to write by consuming the