A Time Out is all you Need Imagine that you are sitting in a jail cell with nothing but some books and dictionaries. You decide to pick them up, read them and copy them down because what else are you supposed to do in a boring, old jail cell. Do you believe this would change you? Do you think it would spark interests that you didn’t know that you possess? In “Literacy Behind Bars”, by Malcolm X the author tells us about his experience of being in jail and how it manifestly changed his lifestyle for the better. Malcolm starts by telling us how he never went pass the eighth grade. He ended up in jail and then grew jealous of the other inmates’ education levels. To obtain knowledge, the author feels the need to study, both the books
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The imagery that Malcolm X uses in his article allows the readers to visualize how Malcolm viewed the jail he was staying in. The author illustrates in paragraph thirteen how “right outside my door was a corridor light that cast a glow into my room”. This example of imagery illustrates to his audience how at night his room was too dark to read, but outside of his door he had just enough light. We can visualize in our minds a jail cell with just a sliver of light coming from a hallway. In paragraph five, Malcolm confessed that he “copied into my tablet everything printed on that first page, down to the punctuation marks”. The audience can imagine him sitting there, looking at a book, and then typing up every little thing into his tablet. This helps us be able to picture what Malcolm did while he was locked up. Malcolm X even describes to his readers some of the words and pictures he seen in his dictionaries. He recalls a “funny thing” in paragraph seven, one of the pages of a dictionary he had reminded him of the “long-tailed, long-eared, burrowing African mammal”. Not only can visualizing this “funny thing” be easier in this article but it lets the audience earn things about their author. They learn how Malcolm has a sense of humor and things that he finds humorous. The imagery that Malcolm X inserted into his article helps his readers …show more content…
In paragraph eight, Malcolm X declares, “I was so fascinated that I went on.” This allows his readers to be straightly told from the author himself of the incredible literature he was intaking. Also said by Malcolm is that he “preferred reading in the total isolation of my own room”, in paragraph twelve. His audience could understand more things about him. With that being said, he enjoyed being by himself while he was reading and writing, that way he could concentrate and learn more. His use of ‘I’ allows anybody that reads his piece to connect and get a complete understanding of Malcolm, whether they knew him or not. The author also mentioned in paragraph nine, “I could for the first time pick up a book and read”, showing to his audience that he had taught himself how to read at this point in his story. Malcolm X has now completed his goal to be able to read and write. Malcolm X starts almost every sentence in his article with the word ‘I’, connecting his audience to his story. But, not only does it connect his audience to his story, it also allows them to see that he is saying these things, and these are his actions during his stay at the jail, not just anybody
The imagery that Malcolm X uses in his article allows the readers to visualize how Malcolm viewed the jail he was staying in. The author illustrates in paragraph thirteen how “right outside my door was a corridor light that cast a glow into my room”. This example of imagery illustrates to his audience how at night his room was too dark to read, but outside of his door he had just enough light. We can visualize in our minds a jail cell with just a sliver of light coming from a hallway. In paragraph five, Malcolm confessed that he “copied into my tablet everything printed on that first page, down to the punctuation marks”. The audience can imagine him sitting there, looking at a book, and then typing up every little thing into his tablet. This helps us be able to picture what Malcolm did while he was locked up. Malcolm X even describes to his readers some of the words and pictures he seen in his dictionaries. He recalls a “funny thing” in paragraph seven, one of the pages of a dictionary he had reminded him of the “long-tailed, long-eared, burrowing African mammal”. Not only can visualizing this “funny thing” be easier in this article but it lets the audience earn things about their author. They learn how Malcolm has a sense of humor and things that he finds humorous. The imagery that Malcolm X inserted into his article helps his readers …show more content…
In paragraph eight, Malcolm X declares, “I was so fascinated that I went on.” This allows his readers to be straightly told from the author himself of the incredible literature he was intaking. Also said by Malcolm is that he “preferred reading in the total isolation of my own room”, in paragraph twelve. His audience could understand more things about him. With that being said, he enjoyed being by himself while he was reading and writing, that way he could concentrate and learn more. His use of ‘I’ allows anybody that reads his piece to connect and get a complete understanding of Malcolm, whether they knew him or not. The author also mentioned in paragraph nine, “I could for the first time pick up a book and read”, showing to his audience that he had taught himself how to read at this point in his story. Malcolm X has now completed his goal to be able to read and write. Malcolm X starts almost every sentence in his article with the word ‘I’, connecting his audience to his story. But, not only does it connect his audience to his story, it also allows them to see that he is saying these things, and these are his actions during his stay at the jail, not just anybody