ipl-logo

Literacy Behind Bars: The Gain From Being Locked Away

282 Words2 Pages
The Gain from Being Locked Away In prison the author Malcom X teaches himself how to read and comprehend written word in the essay “Literacy Behind Bars”. It started in Charlestown Prison where Malcom felt envious of another inmate named Bimbi for his reading abilities. Malcom didn’t get past middle school, therefore, he couldn’t read well enough to comprehend the text in a book. This lead Malcom to start studying a dictionary “to study, to learn some words.” (X, 3), he also does this to improve his handwriting. To achieve his goal he starts to copy the dictionary, page by page, until he copied the fully dictionary. Each page he wrote he would read what he wrote out loud, so he would truly understand all of the word he was copying down. Malcom
Open Document