...“Learning To Read” from Malcolm X, is an autobiography surrounding his life and inspiration to read and fight for justice for the African American culture. He was first inspired to learn to read in prison when he found one of the inmates, Bimbi, was able to control much of the conversations due to his huge base of knowledge. For Malcolm X, uncovering his ancestor’s past and discovering the truth of his origins was one of the important pieces for bringing justice to the African American culture in America. For so long, he was led to believe that African American history could be summed up within a paragraph in a U.S history book. While many other people wrote that “Africa was the only continent that produced no history”, however, this only brought to light the truth of how the white man really was in history. For me, I was dismayed at first at how ignorant Americans can be to other cultures, yet I understood everything Malcolm X was saying when he described the white men as hypocrites....
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...Black and White “Learning to Read” is an excerpt from The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Alex Haley. In his quest to express his feelings towards “the white-man” in not such an envious way, Malcolm X also tells his life story of the long frustrating process it took to teach himself how to read and write in prison. Malcolm X not only uses the time period of the civil rights movement but also an emotional appeal to get the audiences attention. He wants the audience to know how he feels and wants them to feel the same. In the first attempts to teach himself how to read and write Malcolm X would become very frustrated with himself. Having to teach himself the basic abilities people learn in elementary school was not an easy task for...
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...In the excerpt “Learning to Read,” Malcolm X shows the concept of self-teaching to become a literate person. As a Malcolm X was learning new vocabularies and reading books in prison, his view of the world and he himself have changed. Malcolm X is able to express in writing words about how he feels at the moment and realizes the idea of American master narrative in history books. Throughout history texts, almost all historical events are written by white man's perspective and or by dominant views of how history had happened. Malcolm X’s argument regarding the importance of reading from self-education will bring benefits to one’s future is largely effective. Though this excerpt is an anecdote from Malcolm X’s prison experience, there are underlying...
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...Malcom X: Learning to Read conveys the message that literature can provide one with inner freedom through escaping from the harsh realities of life. This is exhibited as Malcom X proclaims “months passed without my even thinking about being imprisoned. In fact, up to then, I never had been so truly free in my life.” Through literature, he was able to forget his struggles of being imprisoned. Malcom X was an illiterate prisoner and was frustrated for being unable to articulate himself clearly through his letters. To resolve his frustrations, he learned to read and write by copying pages from the dictionary onto his tablet. With every page he copied he learned about people, historical events and broadened his word-base, which enabled him to...
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...Even though Frederick Douglass and Malcolm X are both African American men from two different time periods, both authors wrote with similar aspects. Douglass was a slave, while Malcolm was a criminal, both men did not have the ability to obtain a higher form education. It was their desire to learn that divided them from others around them, so the education that they gained changed them. Douglass and Malcolm both grew to understand the importance of an education, as well as being able to read and write, as well as any of the other simply basic parts of an education. In Frederick Douglass’ “Learning to Read and Write” and Malcolm’s “Learning to Read” we can find many similarities and many difference between then men. Frederick Douglass discusses the obstacle of learning to read, he states that “slavery and education were incompatible with each other” (Douglass, 2004, p.101). This quote shows us how hard it was to obtain an education for a slave. Obtaining an education wasn’t only hard for him but he had to do it in silence to protect him and his mistress, who had helped learn his education from his punishment. Although Malcolm X never was a...
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...Gaining knowledge and literacy is something people take for granted. A great deal of society does not understand that becoming literate is important. People do not think about the obstacles it takes to get to a certain level of undersandment. In the two articles written by Fredrick Douglass and Malcolm X they recount their journey to become well versed and knowledgeable. There are stark differences in their journey to read and there reactions to their newfound understanding of there position as African American men. In Fredrick Douglass’s case as a slave learning to read was frond upon. His mistress took several measures to ensure that Douglass did not have a book in his hands. As Fredrick become more knowledgeable his mistress became angry...
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...“A Homemade Education” Malcolm X Time Log: 10 minutes Vocabulary: Envy 1. A feeling of discontented or resentful longing aroused by someone else's possessions, qualities, or luck. Slang 1. A type of language that consists of words and phrases that are regarded as very informal, are more common in speech than writing, and are typically restricted to a particular context or group of people. Articulate 1. (Of a person or a person's words) having or showing the ability to speak fluently and coherently. Correspondence 1. A close similarity, connection, or equivalence. Emulate 1. Match or surpass (a person or achievement), typically by imitation. Summary: In “A Homemade Education” by Malcolm X, Malcolm X takes you through his uplifting journey while in prison of becoming more literal by aiding himself with books, and other materials the prison library gave him. Malcolm X started his educational expedition at Norfolk Prison Colony, where he read Elijah Muhammad’s teachings. Shorty Malcolm got his hands on a dictionary, where he began studying the pages, looking over all of the words that he had never knew even existed; furthermore, he began copying the words down on his tablets- word by word, a page a day. He would write it all down, then read aloud his own handwriting, until he became comfortable reading aloud. Even though he was stuck inside prison walls he felt as if he had never truly been free until he fully understood how “to read and understand literature”...
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...Malcolm X and Frederick Douglass were both incredibly intelligent men, and without them, the Civil Rights Movement would not have been nearly as successful. The two men were so significant not only because of their participation in the movement, but also their influence in many other activists for centuries to come. Both of these incredible human beings had to teach themselves how to read, and without doing so, they would not have made such an impact on the world. Malcolm X said that reading evoked a desire to be “mentally alive” (Malcolm X, 1925) in him, while Douglass viewed reading as a means to escape “mental darkness”. (Douglass) Malcolm X and Frederick Douglass were affected greatly by the power of reading, and it is important to note exactly how it impacted their lives, what prompted their decision to learn to read, the parallels between the ways they both learned to read, the knowledge they both gained through literacy, and what they both discovered about “the curse and not the blessing” of literacy. First off, it is safe to say that Malcolm X and Frederick Douglass were not simply impacted by their opportunities to teach themselves how to read, rather, their entire lives were...
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...and contrasting two of the essays that I have read. Malcolm X “Learning to Read , with Frederick Douglass “Learning to Read and Write”. Both Frederick Douglass and Malcolm X set a part an extensive amount of details to describing the process by which they learned to read and write, and, as important, the obstacles that they they confronted. Douglass explains that he had to acquire his reading and writing skills in secretive and, in one of the Important quotes from “Learning to Read and Write” regarding literacy, it said, “he had no regular Teacher” (para .1), and his owner and his mistress consider slavery and education to be incompatible, Douglass equates illiteracy with living in a” mental darkness” (para.1) and, from an early age he devotes Himself to learn first how to read and then how to write by the help of the young white boys. Just as with X, Douglass thrills at the challenges of learning to read and write and, sees this as part of the road to his salvation from “mental darkness” that once enslave him. Similary, X responds responds to his passion to learn to read and write by creating the conditions that made such learning possible despite some challenging circumstances. While in prison, X teaches himself to read by going through dictionary page by page. In order to remember what he has learned, he copied every single page. He explained in one of the important quotes from “Learning to Read”, “I’d never realized so many words existed!...
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...Learning to read and write is something everybody learns at young age in school. Literacy is something that takes effort and thought to develop a decent understanding of skills and materials. The process of learning how to read and write is shown by three authors shows different experiences they faced while going through the process of literacy. Alexie’s “The Joy of Reading and Writing”, Douglass “Learning to Read and Write” and Malcolm X’s “Learning to Read” have very different learning experience in learning to read and write. All the authors described the oppression certain they have when they learned something new. Although, it is three different essays by three different authors, all three main ideas are same, which is difficulty in learning to read...
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...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...
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...Tanner Schumm Mr. R Lambert English 122 26 April 2013 Learning To Read And Write Enslavement is a word that carries many meanings. Man can be enslaved by force, behind prison walls, by chains, or by one’s very own mind. Liberation is yet another word that brings to mind many meanings. Liberating one’s self can be the act of relieving that force, climbing the prison wall, breaking the chain, or freeing your mind from the very oppressions that hold it down. Fredrick Douglass and Malcolm X both shared the unfortunate common bond of oppression and enslavement and both found salvation and liberation through reading. Though the commonality of liberation was shared, the stories by which their journeys were told couldn’t have differed more. Through the essays of “Learning to Read” by Malcolm X and “Learning to Read and Write” by Fredrick Douglass, we see how their rhetorical techniques differ. After observing both essays we will come to understand why it is that due to his strong, convincing tone Malcolm X conveys a better story and catches our attention with his rhetoric better than Douglass. To fully understand how liberation is achieved and how enslavement of the mind can be completely abolished, we must join both Douglass and X in learning how read. Fredrick Douglass was born a slave and was never given the luxury of education until his master instructed his wife to teach Douglass to read. Taking advantage of being in the situation he was placed in, Douglass did whatever...
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...Prison can cause people to reevaluate their lives and change themselves. In this case, “Learning to Read” by Malcolm X and “Yes, One Book Can Change Your Life, Even in Prison” by Dwayne Betts, both men went through different aspects by just picking up a book to read to further their education. Changes in Malcolm X and Dwayne Betts articles both have similar and outcomes based on their knowledge they gain. Although both articles have different aspects, they proved that reading can help you out for the better. In “Learning to read” by Malcolm X, he changed his last name by stating X stood for what he had been and what he had become. In this article Malcolm X gave himself a “homemade education”. This article basically explains how knowledge is the key to success. Malcolm X worried about having streets sense but not book sense. He set a goal and made it come true. He took it step by step every day, because he motivates...
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...your life. Ladies and gentlemen of the jury what if I said to a student, “You’ve got to be realistic… A lawyer is no realistic goal…”(Mascot pg. 34). As a man in a position of high regard, and a role model and mentor these words are profoundly discouraging. Although, the student triumphs over their peers academically, for some reason this student does not suit my standards. These are words of advice Mr. Ostrowski had given to a young Malcolm X. Malcolm had the highest grades in his class, But Mr. Ostrowski belittled him but not his peers. Malcolm stated that the students, “All reported that Mr. Ostrowski had encouraged what they had wanted, yet nearly none of them had earned marks equal” (Mascot, pg. 34) to his own. Even though he was the smartest in the class, he still wasn’t intelligent enough, like his fellow classmates to be what he wanted to be (Mascot, pg. 34). What I find to be interesting is that Malcolm was never capable of reading or writing during his younger years at school and it would be in prison that he learned to read and write. Malcolm said, “I...
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...What does it mean to be mentally alive? In the Autobiography of Malcolm X, he briefly writes about a time in his life when he became mentally alive. Though Malcolm doesn’t come forth and specifically state what it means, its assumed that to be mentally alive is to be aware of what is going around, and to be open to information; to be ready to dig deep and pick apart each and every little detail. Not only does he describe his mental epiphany, he also raises the question: how is this related to learning, and why should individuals strive to be mentally alive? In the Autobiography of Malcolm X, Malcolm writes of his time in prison. He even goes as far as to say that the time he spent there actually motivated him to become mentally alive in his education. He writes, “I knew right there in prison that reading had changed forever the course of my life. As I see it today, the ability to read awoke inside me, some long dormant craving to be mentally alive” (X, 2013, p. 199). Because he had a lot of time to himself, Malcolm had the opportunity to take up reading. This awakened his mind, and caused him to think beyond the surface. He states, “And I read the histories of various nations, which opened my eyes gradually, then wider and wider, to how the whole world’s white men had indeed acted like devils, pillaging, and raping and bleeding and draining the whole world’s nonwhite people” (X, 2013,...
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