JOURNAL 3

        I found it fascinating that Malcolm X educated himself in prison and became the man he was. I think it was most beneficial that he turned his life around and learned how to read instead of continuing his disagreeable lifestyle. He is a determined man because of how he would stay up at night reading the books he borrowed from the prison library. I feel like not a lot of people would have done what he did in prison. In my opinion people who are guilty and go to prison, they come out with really not much to offer. They do not try to better themselves in life most of the time. However, Malcolm X was different because he used the prison to his advantage. I loved that he turned being in prison into a beneficial thing by learning to read. He inspires me to work hard to receive what I really want in life and do not give up.

            While I was reading the part about Malcolm learning about the horrors of slavery, I felt that it was a good thing that he learned to read. Now he can finally learn about the world and what was occurring in his time of history. It must have been extremely frustrating that he did not know how to read in the beginning. I am not able to imagine my life without knowing how to read or write. It is extremely essential to me as a human being that if I lost my knowledge of reading and writing I would feel so helpless and make wrong decisions. I enjoyed reading this narrative that Malcolm X wrote and it shows how being literate is important in life.