The definition of freedom is having the power to speak, act, and do anything, without anyone or anything stopping them. Through literature, Malcolm X feels like he can accomplish the world. Literature isn’t just about reading, it’s about understanding the words and seeing how powerful they are.

When Malcolm saw how intelligent and powerful Bimbi was, he envied him and tried to match his intelligence. Malcolm hated the idea of being ignorant, so he wanted to learn how to read and write. He would spend hours reading the dictionary and writing words down. Through his motivation, he learned how to read books. Now that Malcolm understands what he is reading, he is fascinated with books. Malcolm states that reading has changed his life. “I knew right there in prison that reading had changed forever the course of my life.” [Malcolm X]. Through reading, he feels empowered and sees the world differently. Malcolm spent the majority of his time in prison reading books and felt like he wasn’t even in prison. Malcolm states, “…never had been so truly free in my life”. He had all the time to read and have no worries about what was going on in the real world. Through Literature Malcolm was able to feel free even though he was in prison, all the books he read and the words he learned gave him this power to understand the world around him. This goes to show how literature can change the way you view something and how words can make such an impact on you.

While imprisoned, one would usually feel less free. But, the exact opposite happened to Malcolm X who felt even more free, as he states, “In fact, up to then, I never had been so truly free in my life”, while he was in Charlestown Prison. There he would learn how to write by looking through the dictionary and read until the morning, getting three to four hours of sleep. Now, the question is why does he feel like he had more freedom in jail than in his actual life? Well the reasoning behind it is because in jail, he had no worries, other than the guards who would walk by his cell. He didn’t have to worry about a pet dog to feed, a job that has deadlines, or any bills that needed to be paid for. With this, he had all the free time to go through the dictionary and to read books until late at night. One thing that really stuck out was when he says, “No university would ask any student to devour literature as I did when this new world opened to me, of being able to read and understand“. In this, he emphasizes the word “understand”. What’s important about this is the fact that he is able to understand due to the amount of time and the freedom that he has that allows him to fully take in what he is reading with efficiency. He become well learned in vocabulary and writing as well from this freedom that he has, showing this correlation between freedom and literature. It is something that is rarely done in today’s society, depending on who the person may be.

Literature is important to the people, literature is not just words put together to make a sentence, literature allows for the gain of knowledge to understand others and to understand oneself. Through literature you learn to appreciate the power that words have, you learn to empathize with characters whether that’s feeling their joy or feeling their pain. There is a sort of freedom when it comes to literature because it allows you to make the words of what you want.

While incarcerated, Malcom X once said that he “never had been so truly free in [his] life” directing this towards him being able to enjoy books and writing. When Malcom X first came into prison, he did not know how to read or write, he picked up books and would try to read them but “every book [he] picked up had few sentences which didn’t contain anywhere from one to nearly all of the words that might as well have been in Chinese.” He envied a fellow inmates stock of knowledge because they were able to coherently carry on a conversation and though Malcom would try to emulate him, he could not. This motivated Malcom to want to study to allow him to gain knowledge. As days passed, he read more and more, a love for learning and reading grew in him. In prison there was intense emphasis on rehabilitation so “an inmate was smiled upon if he demonstrated an unusual intense interest in books,” meaning that those like Malcom himself, carried respect from others wherever they walked. To Malcom, a whole new world had been opened to him, it was not just about being able to read or write, it was about being able to finally understand what the words meant and being able to give the words meaning. Malcom was able to open himself up, “the ability to read had awoke inside [of him] some long dormant craving to be mentally alive.” The knowledge he was gaining was allowing him to get one step closer to becoming free hence why he believed he felt free while reading though he was incarcerated. His “homemade education [had given him], with every additional book that [he] read, a little bit more sensitivity to the deafness, dumbness, and blindness that was afflicting the black race in America.” Back in Malcoms time, an educated Blackman was seen as dangerous because they were seen as a threat to the hierarchy. A person like Malcom gave his people hope and advocacy to fight against the inequities being given to them. Malcom states that in prison he was able to attack his ignorance by educating himself. Ignorance is the biggest problem in our society because it keeps us cooped up in our own worlds with very little knowledge of what is really going on, education allows for ones mind to flow freely and see what it stored beyond our own realm.

The phrase “knowledge is power” has a unique interpretation in this section of Malcolm X’s autobiography. In the literal sense, Malcolm having more knowledge with words and literature gave him appreciation in prison because “an inmate was smiled upon if he demonstrated an unusually intense interest in books”(The Auto-Biography of Malcolm X). His knowledge made him out to be more rehabilitated than the others, thus he gained the favor of other inmates. X felt awoken to the problems staining the black community because of his insatiable curiosity. At that moment, a black man with a book was more dangerous than a black man with a gun because there was potential for the hierarchy to be shifted. High incarceration, school-to-prison pipelines, heavy policing, segregated school, low minority college enrollment only further prove this idea. The “power” was the ability to spread long-lasting ideals that would motivate future black scholars and activists into reshaping their current stance on the balance of power. 

Malcolm’s power is being able to regain full autonomy in his life. Prison provided a place where Malcolm could hone his inquisitive nature onto the inequalities facing his community. The knowledge Malcolm X sustained propelled him to a level of influence and political power within his community. Although college may seem like the one-stop-shop for all things educational, that may not always be the case for everyone. “I imagine that one of the biggest troubles with colleges is there are too many distractions, too much panty-raiding, fraternities, and boola-boola and all of that”(The Auto-Biography of Malcolm X). Books gave the same (if not more) amount of knowledge that a few college courses would consist of.

The Language of English can be interpreted in many different ways by all types of people, what is understood by someone as perfect English for the next person can be simple or watered down. This is portrayed in “Mother Tongue” by Amy Tan , as she illustrates to the audience how from her perspective her moms English was Perfect but to others it was “Broken” or “Water Downed” to the public’s perception.  The role that language played in Amy Tans life helped her mature and deal with things you wouldn’t regularly see a kid handling with due to her moms lack of English. Having to deal with instances such as, “When I was fifteen, she used to have me call people on the phone to pretend I was she. In this guise”.  Amy’s Mom had Amy talking over the phone to her stock broker in New York, Amy would have her mom telling her things like “Why he dont send me check, already two weeks late. So mad he lie to me, losing me money.” Amy would hear her mother say these things and translate over the phone, “Yes, im getting rather concerned. You had agreed to send the check two weeks ago, but it hasn’t arrived”. This shaped Amy’s perception by not understanding the value of what her mother had to say earlier in life saying, “My mother’s ‘Limited’ English limited my perception of her.” Amy thought that because her mother expressed herself imperfectly that her thoughts were imperfect, which wasn’t the case. Amy became aware of her own language biases late in life when she realized,  that when she described the English as broken and limited it was being described as something that needed to be fixed, and the person behind the speech was limited as a person.

I believe people who have English as their second language are constantly aware of the language being used around them due to it being a secondary language. If they were to hear there native language they wouldn’t think to much about it depending on their Environment, but naturally when they hear English their brain will tell the difference and make them aware. I am always aware of the English around me because i am always code switching depending on the environment im in, in order to adapt. If I walk into a professional Environment I would talk use a more correct and socially accepted English, and in contrary if im in my social environment i would use a more broken down English.

Language played an important role in Amy  Tan’s life. Due to Amy and her family being from China, English isn’t their first language. Since English isn’t the family’s first language Amy’s mother seems to struggle with speaking “proper” English which leads to them facing some obstacles, like Amy having to make phone calls for her mother pretending to be her mother and others making fun or her or being rude which leads to Amy being ashamed of her mother’s English. Unlike her mother, Amy is a English fluent speaker and is even able to code switch the ways she speaks depending on the situation she is in. It isn’t until one day while giving a speech, which her mother attended that she realized the different “Englishes” that she uses on a day to day basis. Her mother’s “broken English” as she refers to it has helped shape Amy into the reader and writer that she is today by making her more open to expressing herself in different ways. In the text she explains how her “mother’s English is perfectly clear, perfectly natural. It’s my mother tongue. Her language, as I hear it, is vivid, direct, full of observation and imagery. That was the language that helped shape the way I saw things, expressed things, made sense of the world.

Since English is also my second language I can relate to Amy’s mother in the sense that in school we were taught a certain way to speak and any other way was considered “improper”. When I reached middle school that’s when “standard English” was really enforced it made it difficult because I didn’t know what made english considered standard or not. Often times people learning English seem to use incorrect terms without being aware since English is so complex and words can be used in many different ways and have different meanings. I personally am aware of how English is used around me because it helps me know how to communicate with the other person and how to interact with them.

Language had a secluded presence in Amy Tan’s life. Although she wasn’t the most academically skilled at it, she understood the importance of speaking and how language is interchangeable. Her own perspective of herself was that she doesn’t conform to certain ideas of the English language. She was thinking in a broader way than the rules of grammar permitted and interacting with her family more intimately than how conversational/casual English would dictate. As a child she learned of code-switching and how differently a situation could play out when done properly. For Amy’s mother, “broken” English was a primary form of communication in a language that was foreign to her. She did her best to express her grievances and ask questions to business officials with her limited English. However, bias and preconceived notions about people with “tampered” English exist heavily in American culture; in some cases, Amy would have to take over and present herself as her mother in order to avoid the bias. “The fact that people in department stores, at banks, and at restaurants did not take her seriously, did not give her good service, pretended not to understand her, or even acted as if they did not hear her”(Mother Tounge, Tan). The idea of “proper English” gives an image of superiority from one person to another. The listener sees the speaker as an educated person, a person of status, etc. Broken English gives off the idea that none of those features apply to the speaker and is less deserving of service and/or respect. 

In personal experience, my vernacular differentiates between my family, friends, teachers, and co-workers. My mother was in a similar place as Mrs. Tan. She came to America in her 20’s with very little knowledge of English and only understood what she could from TV and her co-workers. She attended school for a while before marrying my father and proceeding to have my siblings and I. However, my father could be seen as far more skilled in English than my mother. He attended universities in Sudan, Scotland, and the United States before securing his P.H.D. and teaching for the next 20 years. My childhood consisted of helping my father with his grading and coursework, which elevated my knowledge of “professional English” and allowed me to excel in ELA in school whilst my mother would communicate in English and Arabic simultaneously; I was interacting with two different worlds and understanding different languages. Non-English households give insight into the importance of communication and how they can interpret any form of English because at some point, that same version was used in their own homes. 

Language played a big part in Amy Tan’s life. Why wouldn’t it?Amy tan is an author, a writer, and a well known speaker. After reading her short story “Mother tongue” Language greatly influenced her life in manys ways. From Home, to school, to work. The way she spoke always mattered. Usually she would have to speak for her mother for appointments and money which she spoke in a different tone of voice and chose different words and grammar.Which was very different from the way she spoke at home with her mother. She spoke in “broken” english. In my opinion there is no such thing as broken english. She spoke with words and descriptions her mother was very familiar with. She never felt as though she changed the way she spoke with her mother, she always found it normal and never realized that when she made speeches and talked about her books and life she spoke differently. Although it was her and her mother’s way of speaking to each other would be considered as “ broken” it was her “ normal” .Statistically Mrs.Tans perception of herself was that she was somewhat limited in her English comprehension abilities and or may have affected her grades due to her being Asian American and having “broken” english at home. The short story states “..Asian students ,as a whole, always do significantly better on math achievement tests than in English. And this makes me think that there are other Asian-American students whose English spoken in the home might also be described as “ broken “ or “limited.” And perhaps they also have teachers who are steering them away from writing and into math and science. Which is what happened to me.” She became more aware of what her own language biases were and those of others by realizing the way others treated her and the way she talked with certain people. Also, this could be a problem in today’s society where students whose first language is not English who are better at science and math than English due to English teachers who give up on those students and try not to understand tham..People who are raised with English as there second are constantly aware of the word choice they use and say. I have many friends whose second language is English and many times they are corrected by people to speak a certain type of way or to use a different word choice or grammar and I tell them that there is no “ right” or “proper” way of speaking English. Even though my first language is English I am still taught to speak “proper” english. I usually speak with slang which is not professional but it is my norm. Oftentimes I am like Mrs.Tan and I don’t realize that I am speaking differently. I am aware of the way I use English because I want to always say the right thing to get my message across and for others to understand what I am saying.

Despite being incarcerated,Malcolm X was still able to educate himself more about the English Language.I was stunned when he mentioned that he had re-written the entire dictionary and read it loudly to himself afterwards considering the number of pages and words in a dictionary.Fortunately for him he was able to know a wide range of words,people,place and history from the dictionary.I believe it was his envy for Bimbi’s style of speaking and expressing himself gave Malcolm the idea of studying a whole dictionary. As stated” When Bimbi first made me feel envy of his stock of knowledge. Bimbi had always taken charge of any conversation he was in,and i had tried to emulate him”.Malcolm had envy for Bimbi not because of jealousy but rather he had taken Bimbi as his role model.I consider this to be determination and passion due to the fact that he was incarcerated he still made it no excuse not to educate himself and instead he had made up his mind to achieve his goals and feel free.He mentioned he felt so free and proud of himself on what he had been able to achieve in prison.”I do not think anybody ever got more out of going to prison than i did.In fact,prison enabled me to study far more intensively than i would have in my life had gone differently and i had attended some college.Due to his belief of how free he felt in prison he also believed colleges where full of distractions.He stated “I imagine that one of the biggest troubles with colleges is there are too many distractions,too much panty-raiding,fraternities, and boola-boola and all of that”.

Malcolm took a very huge step in his life,considering the fact that it could have been a different story but rather he changed for the best in terms of his literature skills.Malcolm was able to turn from a man who could barely understand a word to a well educated man who can read and write.I am really positive that everyone has at least one thing he or she is not that good at,but with time and determination one can become if not perfect then very good at it.Malcolm made the exploring of new words something he mostly used most of his time with,in other words his hobby.I feel as though everyone can make time for reading and explore new words considering that one can never know all words but one can always learn new words and expand their vocabularies.Malcolm was able to achieve his goal in reading i believe him to be a mentor to all of us who intend to be very good in English language.

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.