The
great journey of learning
4 Malcolm Xs considerable frustration at his inability to read and write launched him on
a quest to overcome his deficiencies.
He said, "I saw that the best thing I could do was
get hold of a dictionary -to study, to learn some words.
"And he was lucky enough to
reason also that he should try to improve his handwriting. "It was sad.
I couldnt even
write in a straight line, "he told us.
These ideas together moved him to appeal to the
prison authorities for some paper and pencils
For the hrst
Malcolm X just sk
through the pag
trying to negotiate his way through its unfamiliar format. He told us of his amazement
at how closely related the words seemed. How moist could be the root of moisture, and
advisable and advisor had the same root word! "I didnt know which words I needed to
learn, " he said, "finally, just to start some kind of action, I began copying. "In his slow,
careful, crude handwriting, Malcolm X copied everything on the first full page of the
dictionary into a notebook. He even copied the quotation marks! This took him one
full day. After that, he read everything he had written aloud. "Over and over, aloud,
to myself, I read my own handwriting, "Malcolm recalled. He also logged important
things that happened every day. Repetition helped move him from basic literacy
6 Malcolm X depicted how the next moming when he woke up, he kept thinking about
the words he had copied and read aloud and about the acquisition of the knowledge
he was pursuing. It was a marvelous feeling. He felt immensely proud
