Compare And Contrast Malcolm X And Alexie

During hard times, when schools in America were racist against other minorities, Malcom X and Alexie had difficulties in school because of their skin color. They were not educated and did not have the any knowledge about their culture and their history because their schools would only focus on Caucasian history. However, they became educated people by teaching themselves. Malcolm X, the author of “learning to read”, had attended to school, yet he did not receive the knowledge he wanted. When he was in prison, he became educated because “Prison enabled me to study far more intensively” (266). He proves that school is not the only way to be educated. Likewise, Alexie, the author of “The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me”, also proves …show more content…
He declares that his school did not provide information about his history because his school were providing only information about white people history. He shows that he did not have any knowledge about his Indian history until he became a writer. To illustrate, according to Alexie, “In all my years in the reservation school system, I was never taught how to write poetry, short stories, or novels” (18). He illustrates that if he had not been in self-education, he would not know how to write poetry or short stories because of his imperfect school education. Moreover, he states that he “was certainly never taught that Indians wrote poetry, short stories, and novels.” (18). He explains that his school did not teach him the history of Indian people, his school only taught the history of white people. Furthermore, in the other hand, Malcolm X proves that he remember how his school provides enough information about white people history, but he says, “The history of the Negro had been covered in one paragraph.” (260). He explains the injustice of white people school that they do not provide information about his Negro history. Along these lines, Alexie and Malcolm X clarify that if they had not taught themselves how to write, they could not read and gain information and knowledge about Negro history. Because of the self-education, they …show more content…
They also share a significant agreement that not only schools make people educated, but also people can be educated by teaching themselves. In addition, they have a similar experience in which they started self-education by learning to read. They also explains that using self-education might engage the user to spend most of his time learning to read in order to overcome the hindrances. The both authors had difficulties in their schools before they became educated people. They explains that their schools did not teach them what they wanted, and they were very unfair to Alexie and Malcolm X. They claim that their schools provided only white people history, and did not focus on other people with different skin