Malcolm X

Malcolm X writes about his newly found love of reading and ability to read: "In fact, up to then, I never had been so truly free I my life." Freedom was obtained by Malcolm X through his love of the ability to read and write. This freedom was not just given to Malcolm, he had to learn it and teach himself.

From his early days at Charlestown Prison, where the spark of intuition flourished, to his later years at Norfolk, where he came across the most influential book in his life, the dictionary. Malcolm X learned his freedom from making it imperative that he learn every painstaking work in the English dictionary. He did this by repetition and writing every single word he wanted to know on paper. After he wrote a page of the dictionary on paper he would study it until he learned and understood every word in front on him. The more words Malcolm could comprehend, the less he felt incarcerated. "Between Mr. Muhammad's teachings, my reading of books, months passed without my even thinking about being imprisoned. In fact, up to then, I never had been so truly free in my life..."

The freedom that Malcolm was able to achieve through books was given to me in school. I too cherish books, but I will never feel that accomplishment Malcolm felt through reading. A freedom that I cherish is my ability to own and operate a car. This is the freedom that I feel comes close to how Malcolm felt when he reads. I know that I will never feel the freedom that Malcolm felt because I never had the pleasure to face the insurmountable odds that Malcolm did in jail to learn how to read. I say insurmountable because to the average man only a very small percentage of people could have done what Mr. X did.

I remember when I was only fifteen and I had dreams and aspirations to own a car. I was going to cruise the streets, looking slick with some good beats playing, I was finally going to be free. By the time of my sweet sixteen birthday, I was able to drive a car with a permit. But a permit wasn't enough, I had to achieve D License standards. I constantly bugged my parents to let me drive there cars. I called practice; they called it something like harassment. Sure, driving there cars was great but I still couldn't call the car mine.

One thing that really never crossed my mind was how I was going to pay for all of it. My parents weren't going to loan me the money and I only had a little saved up. If I wanted a car just as bad as Malcolm X wanted to read, I was going to have to work for it. And work I did! I was previously working