Malcom X and Sherman Alexie

           

Both Malcom X and Sherman Alexie overcame a great deal of adversity and strife to acquire the literacy that they did. I found the prominent difference to be in their motivations to learn to read, as well as why they read. Malcolm X viewed literacy as a means of gaining knowledge, and by extension, power. He implies that because of his race and social standing that he would not have been able to acquire this power; though he was able to while in prison via a prison library. Sherman Alexie aspired for literacy because of his own father’s obsession with books and reading. From there, he developed a great thirst for what we would call literacy. This was largely because the Indian reservation school system didn’t seem to work. Children didn’t learn to write and, as a result, often times didn’t amount to much. Sherman says of his intense drive to read and reading abilities, “If I hadn’t been an Indian boy on a reservation, I may have been called a prodigy. Instead I was an oddity.” He was using his literacy to help him get out of the reservation and out into the world.

Malcolm and Sherman both struggled with their race when becoming literate. Their race and socioeconomic statuses made it incredibly difficult for them to learn to read, and thereby improve their situation. For Malcom X it took a stint in prison to gain the access to literacy and literature, while Sherman had to go outside of the school system and ultimately his own culture to do the same.