ENG 2100: Writing 1 with Jay Thompson

Week 4 Reading Responses: Wedad Mourtada

  • Choose one descriptive detail from X’s narrative that especially stands out to you. What do you think compelled you about it? Why did it linger in your mind? What did it suggest to you about X’s discourse community, his changing personal relationship to written literacy, or the widening of his idiolect while incarcerated?

One descriptive detail from  X’s narrative that stood out to me was when he said, “as soon as the guard passed, I got back out of bed onto the floor area that light-glow where I would read for another fifty-eight minutes- until the guard approached again.” The lengths X went to read is incredible; he didn’t use prison as an excuse. X didn’t make it past the eighth grade but still chose to learn even in prison. I can’t imagine how hard life was in prison, and the fact that he had to hide from the guards when reading makes it even harder for him. This lingered in my mind because it’s so fascinating to me that he still chose to widen his idiolect in a place that didn’t give him much freedom to do so.

  • Look back over the literacy narratives we’ve read so far (X, Tan, Sedaris, Manson, Ku, Anzaldua, Liao in excerpt) and describe one thing you want to imitate from these writers in your own literacy narrative. Is it Anzaldua’s mixing of languages? Sedaris’s strong, funny, weird characters? Manson’s focus on silence and not-quite-readiness? What technique, structure, or style grabs you, and how will you try to use it?

I want to mix languages the way Anzaldua did in her literacy narrative. Anzaldua says phrases in English then translates them into Spanish. For example, she says, “En boca cerrado no entran moscas. Flies don’t enter a closed mouth.” I will write about how I accepted English as my second language and how I used Arabic to help me in school. Writing the things I said in Arabic then translating them to English would capture how I went back and forth between languages to understand what I was learning in school. For example, I used to count in Arabic during my math classes and would do most of the calculations in my head in Arabic. I’m going to write the numbers in Arabic then translate them into English.

10 thoughts on “Week 4 Reading Responses: Wedad Mourtada”

  1. I understand why that line lingered in your mind. I see the fascination of X’s commitment to his literacy in prison. I always found it really cool when English is someones second language and they process and translate any English into their first language in their mind before articulating. I’m excited to see how you incorporate Arabic into your narrative.

  2. Hi Wedad,

    That descriptive detail regarding Malcolm X stood out to me as well. I found it very interesting that he chose to spend his time in jail educating himself rather than falling into the usual inmate stereotype.

  4. I love how you exemplified your thoughts on Malcom X, and the moment you found profound being how Malcom X used his years in prison to expand on his vocabulary and english.

  7. That quote from X also stood out to me and the way you explained it portrayed how I felt too when reading and writing about another portion of his writing. The lengths he took to do what he wanted to do in a place like prison is nothing less of inspirational.

  9. I’ve never seen a mixed Arab/English essay, I hope you truly are able to capture the journey you went through learning a new language, that would be an enthralling read.

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