After reading “Literacy Behind Bars” By Malcolm X, the narrative that anyone incarcerated would feel free in prison, suggests that the relationship between freedom and literature does not exist and one does not need to be free in order to become literate. X was incarcerated and learned how to read and write more fluently while serving his sentence. When he was serving his time in Charlestown prison, he first became interested in literacy due to a fellow inmate when he writes, “It had first really begun back in the Charlestown Prison, when Bimbi first made me feel envy of his stock of knowledge” (X 577). X became envious of the abundance of knowledge one of his fellow inmates had and wanted to learn more in order to increase his own intelligence. He first started with the use of a dictionary to increase his knowledge when he writes, “I saw the best thing I could do was get hold of a dictionary to study, to learn some words” (X 577). X’s ability to learn more about literacy reinforces the idea that one does not need to be free in order to become literate and even he had a chance to become literate. After some time the efforts of X were paying off when he writes, “I was so fascinated that I went on- I copied the dictionary’s next page. And the same experience came when I studied that” and “With every succeeding page, I also learned of people and places and events from history” (X 579). As he went on, he was slowly learning while being incarcerated at the same time serving his sentence, proving that while still imprisoned physically, mentally he was still free. When X’s word base broadened he finally had the ability to read a full on book when he states, “I suppose it was inevitable that as my word-base broadened, I could for the first time pick up my book and read and now begin to understand what the book was saying” and “Anyone who has read a great deal can imagine the new world that opened” (X 579). X’s ability to finally read opened up a new world to him certainly proving how free he was within his mind. Malcolm X’s journey to learning to read proved that one does not need to be free in order to be literate.