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.

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