Response (“Learning to Read”)

A reaction I had while reading the excerpt was how Malcolm X dedicated his imprisonment to reading books, gaining knowledge, and learning how to become literate. It was surprising to know that he didn’t let anything stop him from reading and it was shocking to know that he would copy every single word from the dictionary. The detail that stood out to me and made an impression is how he describes the joy reading brought to him. While reading you can almost feel emotion coming from and how grateful he sounds to gain that knowledge. When the author mentions “a homemade education” I would describe it as Malcolm X’s journey to teaching himself. When he became imprisoned it was just him and he didn’t really know much. Just the basic knowledge and even with that he still didn’t know a lot of words. He used his time wisely in jail and chose to build on his education with the resources he could find. He wanted to become someone just like Elijah Muhammad and Bimbi. It was his way of teaching himself.