Malcolm X Reading

The excerpt we just read from The Autobiography of Malcolm X completely sums up what we are supposed to write about for our first Formal Paper. He writes about an educational experience that made an immeasurable influence on his life. He wrote about how while he was in prison, he started to read books. He would get a hold of as many books as he possibly could. There was a set number of books that each inmate could borrow at a time, and he would exceed that number as often as he could. He talks about how the prison system he was in had a major focus on the rehabilitation of their inmates, so they were very happy with Malcolm X, and other inmates like him, who used their time to better themselves. He talks about his motivation for his self-education being his lack of articulation in his letters, mainly to Elijah Muhammad, the founder of Islam, of which he had become a disciple while in prison. He also talks about how when the lights went out at night, he would sit by his cell door for the light, so he could keep reading, but he would have to pretend to be asleep when the guards went past. This is a perfect example of what our formal papers should be like.