Blog Post #1
- In the essay by Malcom X the argument embedded within is about internal literacies. I think he is arguing that even though he was in prison, it was a great outcome for him. Being in prison was eye opening for him, that he taught himself how to read. Before he was completely unable to read and or write and then with all the time being in prison and talking to Bimbi and Mr. Muhammad, he was fascinated in the way they knew knowledge.
- The larger conversation between this essay would be about conversation and different ways of communicating. With different ways of communicating are different voices, there is Malcom X internally learning to read and write. Himself talking to only him to try and learn as many words as possible. Another important voice in this essay would be the voice of Mr. Muhammad. Even though they don’t really exactly talk, but Malcom X is so intrigued by him that he reads all his word and learns everything that he is interested in. The evidence that Malcom X uses concisely is the dictionary. He writes every single word and phrase in it, until he can memorize all the words in the dictionary. This then comes into Malcom X’s counter arguments, the idea that he talks about in the very beginning. That he was so frustrated in not being able to read that he couldn’t function. Malcom X lastly brings in the audience by talking about if people hear him today, they would know who he is. He eventually went around the world reading. With Malcom X traveling this can then relate to any type of culture. This is what I think he wanted, because when he was in prison, he was very interested that a lot of history books didn’t talk about African Americans, that he had to go digging for them.
- I am in fact very convinced with Malcom X’s argument with internal literacies. His essay shows that everyone has many things in their life where they might not be able to do something that others can. This then can frustrate people, but in fact if you put your mind to it you can achieve the literacy that you didn’t know before. The was that he writes about his struggles and his process through reading makes me believe that I can accomplish way more in life. That Malcom X didn’t know how to read or write, and he learned all by himself in jail. With all the resources I have and any type of help I could get I can obtain anything.
