Reading Response Malcolm X – Richard

Part One

Sorry About My Handwriting

Part Two

Excerpt 1: Paragraph 2

“I had really begun back in the Charlestown Prison, when Bimbi first made me feel envy of his stock of knowledge. Bimbi had always taken charge of any conversation he was in, and I had tried to emulate him. But every book I picked up had few sentences which didn’t contain anywhere from one to nearly all of the words that might as well have been in Chinese. When I just skipped those words, of course, I really ended up with little idea of what the book said. So I had come to the Norfolk Prison Colony still going through only book-reading motions. Pretty soon, I would have quit even these motions, unless I had received the motivation that I did.”

• This excerpt begins with the introduction of Bimbi, a fellow inmate of Malcolm during his stay at the Charlestown Prison. Malcolm’s tone in sentences 1-2 is one of envy as he admires Bimbi’s skill and knowledge in literacy. Malcolm then goes on to explain in sentences 3-4 how he tried to mimic Bimbi by reading and increasing his knowledge. Though his efforts were failing as he couldn’t understand a good majority of the words present in the literature he would try to read. He expresses a feeling of hopelessness in sentences 5-6 as he continued to struggle with reading and understanding literature, even as he moved to a new prison. He mentions the fact that he would have given up, though he also alludes to something that kept him from doing so. The last sentence of this paragraph ignites hope in the reader.

Excerpt 2: Paragraph 4-5

“I spent two days just riffling uncertainly through the dictionary’s pages. I’d never realized so many words existed! I didn’t know which words I needed to learn. Finally, just to start some kind of action, I began copying. In my slow, painstaking, ragged handwriting, I copied into my tablet everything printed on the first page, down to the punctuation marks. I believe it took me a day. Then, aloud, I read back to myself, everything I’d written on the tablet. Over and over, aloud to myself, I read my own handwriting. I woke up the next morning, thinking about those words– immensely proud to realize that not only had I written so much at one time, but I’d written words that I never knew were in the world. Moreover, with a little effort, I also could remember what many of these words meant. I reviewed the words whose meanings I didn’t remember.”

• We start off this excerpt with sentences 1-2, which highlight the excitement and wonder Malcolm felt as he delved deep into reading the dictionary. The sheer amount of words that he finds leaves him directionless, unsure of what he needs to know. So he opts to just copy words from the dictionary onto paper in an effort to learn something, as evidenced by sentences 3-6. His tone and the use of the words “slow”, “painstaking”, and “ragged” in these sentences really cements how this process wasn’t an easy one for him. Malcolm goes on to describe the next steps of his learning process: memorization, as evidenced in sentences 7-8. After writing down everything on the first page of the dictionary, he proceeds to read his writing out loud to himself, repeating this process as a way to cement every single word into his brain. These sentences give off a feeling of dedication and helps me visualize Malcolm’s determination to rise beyond his limitations in literacy. A determination that ended up paying off, as evidenced in sentences 9-11, where he rejoices at the fact that he was able to write and partially remember the definition of so many words. Even if those words are only from the first page, Malcolm’s feelings of accomplishment and pride make it seem like his action was comparable to something monumental like becoming the US President. This whole process gives me an insight into the struggle and thoughts of Malcolm and possibly other black men who struggled with literacy in a time when a majority of society was against people of color.