Prison-Made Education

Prison-Made Education

Malcolm X is a well know figure in African-American history and he is recognised as a master of language, specificly for his developed preaching skills, on a noational basis. Many thought of the "charismatic leader of the black movement" as insperational and others saw him as rasist and absurd, but no one can denny his great impact on "so called negros" (Malcolm X) in North-America and in the intire world. The fact that he saved a large number of black people, if not from a life of sin and slavery, then from a life in the dark, a life in silence and illeteracy, is not up for discussion. Honestly, I knew verry little about Malcolm X befor learning about his experience in jail and the way he pushed himself to learn and grow from a piece of writing, by the man himself, in the anthology, the eleventh edition of The Short Prose Reader. In this fragment, he elaborates about the transformation point of his life, his time in prison as a young man; the african-american Ð''boy' went into prison for theft as an ileterate Ð''lost soul', Malcolm Little, and got out six years and a hlaf later as a master of the english language and a member of The Nation of Islam (an international organization for black muslims, led at the time by Elijah Muhammad in Chicago), Malcolm X. Malcolm X came to realize that literacy, or knowledge equaled power and that there is no limit to knowledge, therefore, he went all out to gain as much as he could from books and his surroundings and each step on "his road to enlightment" led to another.

Malcolm Little, a young man of color living in North-America, spent his days trying to be something he is not, a white man. Malcolm would dress, eat, drink and even take drugs as the white man did; he even enjoyed turning white women into his servants, in a way or an other. For instance, Malcolm would make his white girl friend, Sophia serve him and even kiss his feet to receive a feeling of superiority. (The movie: "X", scene 7: Sophia's story) He led a life of crime and drug abuse befor he was sentenced to eight to ten years in prison for robbery and sleeping with white women. Malcolm, or shall I say "Red", was of a rebelious kind, therfore he spent the first period of his sentence in solitary confinement for not following police orders. Once he got out, he met Bimbi while he was taking a shower and flatenning his hair. Bimbi, a wise muslim man working for the Nation of Islam, tried sharring his knowledge and wisdom of life, religion and books with Malcolm and he accompanied Malcolm to the prison library. Malcolm became envious of Bimbi's knowledge which stired up the ambition to improve his penmanship and reading skills; "Bimbi had always taken charge of any coversation he was in, and I had tried to emulate him". (X 74) This is when the black boy, Red started transforming into the black man, Malcolm X.

After Malcolm started reading books, eager to expand his knowledge, he realized that he lacked the sufficient vocabulary and english skills to understand what he was reading; therefor, the young man started reading and copying the dictionnary to help him enrich his voacbulary and improve his comprehension of what he read. Malcolm spent most of his time copying page after page from the dictionary and reading it aloud to himself over and over again till he knew the meaning of every word. He also learned