When describing how he felt after learning how to read and write, Malcom X states that he has “never had been so truly free in life”, regardless of being incarcerated. The narrative shows the relationship between literature and freedom by explaining how even though Malcolm X was in jail he still made a way to educate himself. As it is explained in the narrative, his ambition for reading and writing began when he was first incarcerated in Charlestown Prison. Malcom X became envious of the knowledge that Bimbi had that he then began to read books even though he barely understood them, shortly he began to write down words that he didn’t know and find out the meaning with a dictionary. Every time he learned new words and looked at his progress, X became “immensely proud to realize that not only had [he] written so much at one time, but [he’d] written words that [he] never knew were in the world”. By realizing how much he had learned Malcom X became very proud of his growth that he continued to read even more. This gave him the feeling of freedom. It is quite ironic that he felt free due to his situation.The narrative shows how literature and freedom have a very close relationship to Malcom X. Everyone views freedom differently, and to Malcom X reading and writing is what made him feel free. In the narrative it is also stated that Prison was more helpful than it was harmful to Malcom X, he questions “Where else but in a prison could [he] have attacked [his] ignorance by being able to study intensely sometimes as much as fifteen hours a day. The sense of being trapped in one place opened him up to something better, the knowledge that he lacked.

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