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 …show more content…
When he began to read a lot of books it “opened [his] 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 non-white people” (194). All this time when he was illiterate, he was easily influenced to believe the white men’s narration on how history had happened. By understanding of what each text is saying, Malcolm X is engaged into the texts and views white men in a negative perspective. “Book after book [showed him] how the white man had brought upon the world’s black, brown, red, and yellow peoples every variety of the suffering of exploitation,” (194) which contrasts to what Malcolm X and most peoples believe into in America. The dominant narration in American history texts shows Americans are the heroes, victims, and the protagonists, but what most people do not know that there are horrific actions Americans have done that have put aside and ignore in history texts. By reading a lot of books, Malcolm X is able to grasp the entire American history that has been ignored and come to formulate his perception of white