Blog #3 – Literacy Behind Bars

I feel I understand Malcolm X’s sense of freedom though being on lock down. I say this to highlight the moments in time when I’d often hear someone say reading and becoming engulfedĀ  in a book is like a great escape to a whole new world and into the mind of somebody else. There is also the common saying that goes, “Reading maketh a full man,” and in perusing this excerpt, proves that Malcolm X spared no effort and ensured to exhaust all his resources and avenues. In regards to freedom, Malcolm saw the potential benefit of being incarcerated because during this time he sought the opportunity to teach himself how to write, using the dictionary to learn new words, which ultimately lead him to become quite the excelled reader as well as scholar though having no formal education as such.

Malcolm spent hours upon hours reading, edifying himself, forever craving more knowledge, and it was in this period of his life he found true freedom in his literacy. He thought it a gift to be imprisoned because he felt that if he had been granted the rite of passage of going to college then he may have been sidetracked by getting caught up in the distractions of what the college lifestyle had to offer. Prison was possibly Malcolm X’sĀ  greatest blessing in disguise. He said, “I don’t think anybody got more out of going to prison than I did. In fact, prison enabled me to study far more intensively than I would have if my life had gone differently and I had attended some college.” He further went on to say, “Where else but in a prison would I have attacked my ignorance by being able to study intensely sometimes as much as fifteen hours a day.” What I gather is that Malcolm, although faced with adversities, used his unfortunate circumstances to his advantage thus elevating himself in spite of. The real meaning of rising above and beyond.

Comments ( 4 )

  1. Calvin Chao
    I believe that most people would be engulf in what they are reading if they like the story and they try to imagine what's going on in the story as they read.
  2. Aicha Ibrahima
    I agree when you said that reading is an escape and I believe that if you find the right book or genre and allow yourself to imagine yourself as the main character or at least understand them you will grow to love reading to the point where you crave for more just like Malcolm X
  3. Dylan Chan
    To add to what Calvin said, most people have the ability to actually become interested in a book or comic (since not many are book people) but often times it's hard to get the same kind of freedom to become fully engulfed in what they're reading.
  4. Cordelia Vohnout
    Hi, I liked the quote you gave, "reading maketh a full man", because without the ability to read and comprehend literature we lose such a valuable resource that life provides. Reading really does contribute to making us whole.

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