The narrative suggests that there is a close relationship between reading and freedom. The knowledge that reading provides gave Malcolm X the ability to think critically, and an understanding of the world that can only be received through literature. For example, “My homemade education gave me, with every additional book that I read, a little bit more sensitivity to the deafness, dumbness, and blindness that was afflicting the black race in America” (581). The “sensitivity”, or understanding, that Malcolm X found through reading is closely associated with freedom. To understand a truth that society does not want you to know allows you to fight against an oppressive system, eventually freeing yourself from the grips of tyranny. In addition, “As I see it today, the ability to read awoke some long dormant craving to be mentally alive” (580). Malcolm X describes critical thinking here, the ability to read unlocked a thought process that he describes as being “mentally alive”, which means that what he had learned from literature allowed him to look at society and understand how it has been able to continuously keep black people down. Reading and freedom are so close in relation because it is not until you learn to understand and process information that comes from literature that you can shake off the shackles of oppression. Often times, oppression is not obvious, it stems from some tiny crack in society and blooms into a full blown culture that kicks a group of people down repetitively. Through reading, freedom can be reached, you can’t fight an invisible enemy, but reading works hard to reveal the not so subtleties in oppression.

This entry is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International license.