“Learning to Read” by Malcolm X

This excerpt from the autobiography published 1965 was showing the growth of Malcolm x that never would have happened if he did not go to prison. He was charged for Robbery and was sentenced to 7 years in jail. In those 7 years in jail he observed that he could not write very well or read that well and that the atmosphere in the prison was the more books you read the more educated you were. He began reading the dictionary and from there started writing and educating himself with Elijah Muhammad’s and converted to Muslim. From there he began educating himself more about the hardships that Black people have been through and how as he stated history showed only a white person’s perspective which later led him to become an activist for black people.

My interpretation is that knowledge is power. Malcolm went from being a hustler to an activist because of knowledge. He gained knowledge of history as he stated “The teachings of Mr. Muhammad stressed how history had been “whitened”—when white men had written history books, the black man simply had been left out…I never will forget how shocked I was when I began reading about slavery’s total horror”. Malcolm X was trying to stress how important knowledge and explain how he made such a big transition in life and how he became so educated and that was from books and the amount of books that he read. Another interpretation I got from this excerpt was that if people put their minds to it they can change. Even though in the excerpt it did mention that in the prison Rehabilitation was the main point and inmates that were well versed with books brought approval by many I think this was a reason of why Malcolm X educated himself I think the main reason was to better himself as a person overall by gaining good penship and a large vocabulary.

The purpose of  “Learning to Read’ by Malcolm X was to inform readers of the transition in life he took, what led to it and he showed what he learned during the process. The audience is black people or people that have been to prison or have had similar life experiences of his life before going to prison. He wrote this most likely to show that if you put your mind to something you can achieve it and to show the importance of knowledge. Also to make a point of watered down history was that it was written to show white people as more important and the main focus. 

The rhetorical features that are shown in this excerpt are Pathos and Ethos. Pathos is shown in the beginning of the excerpt that states the background story of how Malcolm X was self taught, converted to being Muslim, and the fact that he was assasinated. Another part that shows Pathos was when he informed us that he barely knew any words and could not even write in a straight line. Ethos is shown in two different ways in this excerpt. The first by showing the authority that the guards have by enforcing lights out and checking up on the prisoners to make sure that they are sleeping. The other way Ethos was shown was when rehabilitation was mentioned and how much the reinforced it in the prisoners that lead to most of them reading books.

This autobiography written by Malcolm X showed how powerful and valuable knowledge is. Which is how I interpreted the excerpt and what I took away from it how useful knowledge is. The purpose of why this autobiography was written was to explain the hardships faced Malcolm X. Based on the excerpt I read Pathos and Ethos was shown. It was also an eye opener in many ways and shows the power of putting your mind to things.