Blog #4 Malcolm X

For blog #4 I decided to write about Malcolm X and his "Literacy Behind Bars." In this article, Malcolm X describes his experience in a Boston prison and how it transformed him into the Pan-American advocate that he was famous for. Malcolm begins by the article by saying that prison was the best thing that he could have ever done. Malcolm X improved his penmanship and his vocabulary by constantly copying the dictionary word for word, and reading it word for word. He eventually copied the whole entire dictionary into his tablet, and made reading and writing his life in the prison. This seems so surreal to me, with what the world has now. Malcolm X went from hardly reading into a famous intricate voice in America. Present day we have tutors, teachers, and resources. All Malcolm had was books in a prison. In the article Malcolm X says, "Up to then, I never been so free in my life." I loved this quote because I feel like educating himself gave him the strength to keep going and free himself from his mind. He took himself somewhere else. He becomes so intensely obsessed with books, he hardly sleeps, and he reads in the dark. He finds a sanctuary in prison. I never understood why Malcolm X was such an inspiration and so highly regarded. But it certainly makes sense to me now. He went through difficult times and changed history with his own struggles and strength.