Malcom X describes the difficulty he has with writing due to his homemade education. He says that everyone who has heard his speeches or the way he spoke would think he had an education farther than the eighth grade. His impression of education began in Charlestown, Prison where he was envious of Bimbi for his stock of knowledge. Malcom X tried to read books to try improving his knowledge, but he had to quit because everything seemed foreign after a few sentences. He decided to study from a dictionary and improve his penmanship. He started by copying the words and memorizing what each word meant. He continued learning each word and its meaning until he got out of prison. After learning the definitions of words, he was able to read books. He read books anywhere and anytime he could. Malcom X read mainly in his room and would read on the floor when the lights were out. He read the teachings of Elijah Muhammad, who stressed how the white men wrote history with the black men left out. He could relate to Muhammad’s emphasis and knew that many other black Americans could too. He looked in the library for books about black history. Malcom X mentions readings that interested and caught his attention. He was especially interested in slavery, which made an influence on him. He read about Nat Turner, a slave who had lead other slaves to kill white Americans. Malcom X read books about how other ethnic groups had suffered besides the African Americans. He also read about philosophy, preferring Oriental over Occidental. He emphasized that reading has changed his life. Malcom X states that if it was not for his fight against the white men, he would be reading for the rest of his days. He says that it was prison that enabled him to study. He says college has too much distractions, he studied the most in prison.
In Malcom X’s autobiography Saved, he describes a subject that had influenced and changed his life. In the beginning where I read about where he started his home education, I was surprised to find out that it had been in a prison. His motivation for his “home education” was due to the jealousy of another person’s intelligence. I can understand how his jealousy had been his motivation, I had felt that way too; you just want to be as good or if you can just a little better than that other person. I was very intrigued by the way he learned how to read; he started by learning the meaning of words from dictionaries. When Malcom X began reading and finding things that he was passionate about, I could feel his compassion towards the subjects he described. The sarcasm he used when describing how China had started a war by trying to stop its people from being narcotized caught my attention. His emphasis about books changing his life is motivational. Although I have heard it before, it is still surprising to find out that reading can change a person’s life.
My answers to the post-reading questions are: Question one: Malcom X improved his vocabulary because when he picked up a book, he did not understand the meaning of the words he read in books. Some sentences seemed to be made of foreign terms. Question two: To build his vocabulary, Malcom X requested a dictionary, tablets, and pencils from the Norfolk Prison Colony School. He spent two days looking through the dictionary, unsure where to start. Afterwards he decided to copy the first page onto his tablet, and then read what he had written aloud. The next morning he would think about what he had written the day before, and review the words he could not remember the meanings for. He continued copying the rest of the dictionary. Question three: Malcom X’s emotional response after he had copied the first page of the dictionary was pride, motivation, and joy. Question four: Reading changed Malcom X’s outlook on life. He became mpotivated to do more for his people.
My answers to the strategies and structures questions are: question one: Starting his paragraphs with the first person pronoun “I” causes the essay to have a more personal meaning. It suggests that the results of education are about one’s one self. Question two: Malcom X’s concluding statement, “ In fact, up to then, I had never been so truly free in my life” sums up the value of a homemade, personally tailored education as more meaningful and beneficial compared to the rigid learning methods often used in schools. Question three: The transitions that lead the reader from one step in Malcolm X’s educational process to the next, was how he began his education to what motivated him, and what his thoughts are. Question four: The phrases that Malcom X uses to keep his writing conversational, are the terms showing emotion; such as when he was describing how he was proud of being able to write down words from the first page of the dictionary. The words that he uses to show that he is educational are his references to the writings that he has read. The effect of balancing both educational and conversational is that more people will be willing to listen and pay attention to what he has to say. It says that Malcom X is a sociable person who likes to engage with others.