Amy Tan who speaks English very well and has developed her own English besides what she speaks with her mom. She and her husband have made it an intimate language or them. Amy’s mom’s struggle with “perfect American English; has most definitely been a burden for Amy. she has been forced to take care of people who don’t treat her mom fairly. As she does this to protect her mom she at times turns red from being uncomfortable Amy sees writing as a way to portray a story with imagery and feelings. Amy feels like her mom does that perfectly even though sometimes people try to make it seem like they completely can’t understand her mother. Amy prides herself on being able to have that shift between the English she speaks with her mom and the English she writes with. Amy took the statics of Asians typically being better at math and science and threw it out of the window. She decided to Major in English when she started college and only got better from there. She would get the 60s or 70s on reading and writing assessments but is flourishing with her English. Ss the passion of writing grew for Amy she was more clearly seeing how “broken’ her mom’s English was. Amy did not like people referring to her mom’s English as broken, as if it had to be fixed. Amy would still support her mom. She was able to understand her completely and still understand and feel her mom’s feelings. Amy is just perfecting her craft of English but to her, her mom’s English is perfect.

While incarcerated, Malcolm X was able to educate himself further in the English language. I found it fascinating when he mentioned re-writing the entire dictionary and reading it aloud afterward. In doing so, he was able to learn of “people and places and events from history”. As mentioned in the beginning, he would pick up a book, skip over words he did not understand, and leave with little to no understanding of the entire book. I believe his idea to study a dictionary to learn some word was a creative idea which worked out great on his end. Be it that he was incarcerated, he had no excuses as to why he could not complete his goal. When he mentioned he felt free, although incarcerated, I feel as though it was an escape for him. With an understanding of Malcolm X and his life story, it is easy to say that bettering his reading skills was one of the few things the “man” could not take away. Thus, allowing him to feel free.

Rather than sulk and imagine a different story of his life, he took initiative to change for the better which was in his case; his literacy skills. As mentioned in his narrative, his new profound ability to properly read had awoken a “dormant craving to be mentally alive”. I feel as though everyone has that same dormant craving which only they can discover. Reading, for Malcolm X, had become a new hobby that took up his agenda a majority of the day. The narrative helped introduce the understanding that reading can be a fundamental part of a person’s life in terms of expanding their vocabulary and better reading skills overall. Malcolm admitted to always remaining curious and reading helped him keep that element. It allowed him to succeed in a personal goal he had set for himself.