Prison is a heavily guarded place, created to imprison criminals who broke the law. Prison is supposed to limit freedom — regularly scheduled outside visits, no smartphone devices or computers, limited variety of food, and you’re potentially trapped with another inmate. This however, did not matter at all to Malcolm X. In fact, Malcolm never felt more “…so truly free in his life.” In prison, Malcolm X would spend his time reading books and thus claimed he felt he was free. He found amusement with every new word he spent time understanding. Additionally, he would read the dictionary for “…fifteen hours a day.” Malcolm found comfort in reading the dictionary for so long in a place designed to be a human’s greatest fear. Although he doesn’t get accessed to the outside world and is stuck in solitude, staring at walls, he couldn’t be happier being confined in a space where he can still read. This says a lot about literature and freedom. Literature brings freedom to people because even though you can be stuck in prison staring at four walls with your freedom and rights limited, books can open up your imagination. It is like you’re in a whole new world. Not only does your language, creativity, and writing skills improve immensely, but you suddenly crave to “…mentally be alive” because you’re studying literature. Malcolm did certainly not regret going to jail and his curiosity soon blossomed into being able to seriously read. In jail, he read an entire book and wrote approximately one million words.

The role language played in Amy Tan’s life is fascinating to her. It makes her feel in control when she is speaking or writing it also gives her the ability to connect with others through the choice of words she uses. She stated how ‘’ I spend a great deal of my time thinking about the power of language- the way it can evoke an emotion, a visual image, a complex idea, or a simple truth,’’ meaning it’s something she thinks threw carefully. Language shaped her own perception of herself because it’s something she never gave up on its something she dedicated time to, to break the social norm that Asian Americans were more likely to be good in math and science rather than English. Making her feel as if she’s good enough like any well-educated American to master the ability to co switch perfectly and educating. She became aware of her own language biases when experiencing an event where her mother was present to witness her. She explained how ‘’ the talk was going along well enough until I  remembered one major difference that made the whole talk sound wrong. My mother was in the room. And it was perhaps the first time she had heard me give a lengthy speech using the kind of English I have never used with her’’ making her realize that the way she communicates with her mother is different from the way she communicates with others because if she uses the same English she uses with her mother with others they would instantly detect it as broken or unprofessional English and many wouldn’t be able to understand her the way her mother will. I do think that people who learn English as a second language are constantly aware of the language used around them from experiences I’m constantly aware that the way I speak to my parent is way different from the way I talk in school and if I write and speak the way I talk to my parents in school teachers would then consider me as below grade level or an unprofessional student.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

What the narrative suggests about the relationship between literature and freedom is that even though Malcolm X was in prison, a place that challenges people on an emotional and mental level. As well as making them feel weak-minded and powerless within themself, it gave Malcolm X the opportunity to experience something within himself out of his ordinary which was the power of knowledge. The power to learn more about what the world of white privileged people might have hidden from him as an African American and giving him the right and knowledge to defend himself. In addition, Malcolm felt that he had Freedom when it came to literature due to the fact that it was a skill he taught himself, in Malcolm’s perspective the word Freedom meant something that you do for yourself. With that being said this was something he learned without needing the help nor begging a White Man to teach him. Furthermore, Literature was a way for him to express his feelings and opinions towards what was going on in the world, without him being judged about how he felt.

When someone goes prison must of the time they decided to fit in and meet people so that they stay safe they might also just try to work out so they give the impression that they are strong and that they shouldn’t be a mess with. Malcon x however didn’t see it like that instead of acting like must people he decided to start and read books and decided to improve his writing. For him learning to read and write became such an important thing from him and e had fun learning something new, he never gave up on his goal to further his education even if it was a little bit. When he stated that he never felt so truly free is because after getting all of this amazing information and knowledge you start to see the world a little different. He is capable of controlling his own destiny and is able to chape his ideal to the point where anyone that hears him will believe that he does not like everyone else he has an amazing education. He stated it himself when he said that most people won’t believe that he has continued after his 8th grade because no one will believe that he put so much determination to learn how to read and write so he will be able to make a change.

A room surrounded by four walls with bars running vertically down. There is nowhere to go or hide, and an escape route seems impossible. With no privacy or the ability to be unseen, you are enclosed. Waiting for time to liberate you from this torture. I think that is how people envision imprisonment. But, Malcolm X, a well-known leader for black nationalism, had fully embraced and took a different approach when it comes to being imprisoned. Malcolm X used this secluded space from the outside world as a way to improve himself. He began to teach himself how to read, and with this skill came something powerful; freedom.

For Malcolm X, reading and writing wasn’t just a skill you learned from school and use without importance. He was self-taught while in prison and only had a dictionary, tablets, pencils, and I believe motivation as well. In the beginning, he “spent two days just riffling uncertainly through the dictionary’s pages… I began copying. In my slow, painstaking, ragged handwriting, I copied into my tablet everything printed on that first page, down to the punctuation marks. I believe it took me a day.” From there he soon completed the entire dictionary and was finally able to understand the words on a book. A whole new world opened when he could read his first book. But he also says that “In, fact, up to then, I never had been so truly free in my life.”

Literature was so vital for Malcolm X that it gave him a purpose and a sense of freedom to keep surviving. Physically he was trapped in his cell. But he had a deep-rooted connection with books, which erased that fact. He elaborates on this when he says, “Let me tell you something: from then until I left prison, in every free moment I had, if I was not reading in the library, I was reading on my bunk. You couldn’t have gotten me out of books with a wedge…months passed without my even thinking about being imprisoned.” Hence, through literature, Malcolm X got freedom he never felt before because through those books he was able to escape past those 4 walls of his cell. His prison sentence became meaningless; in the sense that, as he spent all his time in books, his time in prison would go by. This self-discovery leads him to realize that he didn’t have to be outside to feel free; his mind could go anywhere he pleased from reading a book. Literature and freedom may seem to not correlate, but once you lose yourself in the pages, you’ll find yourself being set free to a world that vanishes your reality.