Prison is a heavily guarded place, created to imprison criminals who broke the law. Prison is supposed to limit freedom — regularly scheduled outside visits, no smartphone devices or computers, limited variety of food, and you’re potentially trapped with another inmate. This however, did not matter at all to Malcolm X. In fact, Malcolm never felt more “…so truly free in his life.” In prison, Malcolm X would spend his time reading books and thus claimed he felt he was free. He found amusement with every new word he spent time understanding. Additionally, he would read the dictionary for “…fifteen hours a day.” Malcolm found comfort in reading the dictionary for so long in a place designed to be a human’s greatest fear. Although he doesn’t get accessed to the outside world and is stuck in solitude, staring at walls, he couldn’t be happier being confined in a space where he can still read. This says a lot about literature and freedom. Literature brings freedom to people because even though you can be stuck in prison staring at four walls with your freedom and rights limited, books can open up your imagination. It is like you’re in a whole new world. Not only does your language, creativity, and writing skills improve immensely, but you suddenly crave to “…mentally be alive” because you’re studying literature. Malcolm did certainly not regret going to jail and his curiosity soon blossomed into being able to seriously read. In jail, he read an entire book and wrote approximately one million words.