In the excerpt from “The Autobiography of Malcolm X,” the writer explains Malcolm’s road to building his vocabulary. In prison he discovered that he didn’t know how to read or write well. He realized that “the dictionary is like a miniature encyclopedia” and began to copy it page by page in his tablet. Reading books opened his mind to a “new world” and for the first time in his life he felt free. The author concludes that while Malcolm X was incarcerated not only was able to read and write correctly, but he could understand the material as well.
Advertisement
