Malcom X and Sherman Alexie

Both articles were extremely similar in the fact that both writers taught themselves to read at different times in their life. They were not given spelling tests and workbooks to help them learn how to read and write in school. They both lived in a period of time in this country where treatment wasn’t exactly equal, and they didn’t have the opportunities that many of us so selfishly take for granted. In Malcolm X’s “Learning to Read” he taught himself how to read while he was in jail. This was at a relatively older age, considering most of us begin our study to read around the age of 5 or 6. Teaching yourself how to read from a prison is a completely different way of literacy. But he did teach himself how to read and write and became quite literate. Not only literate but he became hungry for more information and that should be admired.

            In “Superman and Me” by Sherman Alexie he taught himself how to read by reading whatever he could get his hands on since the time he was three. If it was a comic book, he would read it. A automobile manual, he would read it. Even the newspaper, which is impressive taking into consideration his age. Like Malcolm X Sherman taught himself how to read, but at a much younger age. These two situations just show that race/class/status all do play into literacy. It may be a little better today then it was in the past, but the amount of schooling and experience you get defiantly affects your literacy. If you are poor and do not get the chance to go to school, or go to a good school, your literacy will not be as good when compared to a white American who got to go to a private school all their life. This is an injustice to the citizens of this country.