Malcom X Reading Response

Summary

Malcom X’s “Learning to Read,” as dictated to Alex Haley, is a narrative of X’s literacy history. X tells interested followers and readers how he came to be the well spoken, well written, well read individual many knew him as through his informal self education at the Norfolk Prison Colony.

 

Synthesis

Malcom X’s literacy narrative shows us examples of the literary sponsors that Deborah Brandt introduces us to in her article “Sponsors of Literacy”.

 

Questions for Discussion and Journaling

1) Malcom X’s audience seems to be those who follow his political ideaologies, with no assumptions of a particular knowledge of composition theory on the part of the reader; that is, this article is meant for a non-academic reading audience. I know this because he does not use jargon words as Brandt does when talking of a similar subject. Furthermore, his smooth narrative style makes the piece accessible to most literate persons.

 

3) Bimbi, Norfolk Prison Colony, Mr. Elijah Muhammad, and Parkhurst. The most influential literacy sponsors were the Norfolk Prison Colony and Parkhurst, the former because it gave him the time to study so intensely and the latter because it was much of his personal collection that populated the Norfolk Prison Colony’s library.

 

4) Malcom X definitely misappropriated the intentions of the Norfolk Prison Colony. He took the time and opportunity that prison afforded him to become an intensely literate individual. This is definitely outside the normal hoped of prison literacy programs. Furthermore, he used the literacy he gained from prison as a means to validate his notions of violence against the white man.

 

Personal Thoughts

I love the pairing of this piece with the Brandt piece. I wish WAW did this more; using a more engaging piece of writing like a narrative as an example of what a theory heavy article is talking about seems to me a great way to get student to understand both pieces.