Coming to an awareness of language malcolm x summary

62 WRITING FROM RESEARCH

Mqica, Mauro, and Robert Underwood. “Should English Be

the Official Language of the United States?” CQ Re-

searcher 19 Jan. 1996: 65.

National Education Association. “NEA Statement on the

Debate over English Only.’’ Teacher’s College, U. of

Nebraska, Lincoln. 27 Sept. 1999 <http: //www. tc.unl

. edu/enemeth/biling/engonly.html>.

Price, David. “English-Only Rules: EEOC Has Gone Too

Far.” USA Today 28 Mar. 1996, final ed.: A13.

Underwood, Robert A. “English-Only Legislation. ’’ U.S.

House of Representatives, Washington, D.C., 28 Nov.

1995. 26 Sept. 1999 <http://www.houae.gov/

underwood/speeches/english. htm>.

COMING TO TERMS WITH LANGUAGE

Conain, to an Awaveness of Lan8Hag.e MALCOLM X

On February 21, 1965, Malcolm X, the Black Muslim leader, was shot t o death as be addressed an afternoon rally in Harlem. He was thirty-nine years old. In the course of his brief lqe, he had risen from a world of tbieving, pimping, and drug pushing t o become one of the most articulate and powerful African Americans in the United States during the early 1960s. In 1992 his lqe was reexamined in Spike Lee’sofilm Malcolm X. With the assistance of the late Alex Haley, the author of Roots, Malcolm Xtold hisstory inThe Autobi- ography of Malcolm X (1 964), a moving account of his search for fulfillment. This selection is taken @om the Autobiography.

All of us have been in situationsin which we have felt somehow be- trayed by our lanfluage, unable toofind just the rkht words t o express ourselves. “Words,” as lexicographer Bergen Evans has said, “are the tools for the job of saying what you want t o say.” As our repertoire of words expands so does our ability t o express ourselves-to articulate clearly our thou&ts,fielinas, hopes, fears, likes, and dislikes. Frustra- tion at not being able t o express himselfin the letters he wrote drove Malcolm X t o the dictionary, where he discovered the power of words. W R I T ~ G TO DISCO^^ Write about a time when,someone told you that it is important t o have agood vocabulary. What did you think when you heard this advice? Why do you think people believe that vocabulary is important? How would you assess your own vocabulary?

http://www.houae.gov

64 COMING TO TERMS WITH LANGUAGE

I’ve never been one for inaction. Everything I’ve ever felt strongly about, I’ve done something about. I guess that’s why, unable to do any- thing else, I soon began writing to people I had known in the hustling world, such as Sammy the Pimp, John Hughes, the gambling house owner, the thief Jumpsteady, and several dope peddlers. I wrote them all about Allah and Islam and Mr. Elijah Muhammad. I had no idea where most of them lived. I addressed their letters in care of the Harlem or Roxbury bars and clubs where I’d known them.

I never got a single reply. The average hustler and criminal was too uneducated to write a letter. I have known many slick sharp-looking hustlers, who would have you think they had an interest in Wall Street; privately, they would get someone else to read a letter if they received one. Besides, neither would I have replied to anyone writing me some- thing as wild as “the white man is the devil.”

What certainly went on the Harlem and Roxbury wires was that De- troit Red was going crazy in stir,* or else he was trying some hype to shake up the warden’s office.

During the years that I stayed in the Norfolk Prison Colony, never did any official directly say anything to me about those letters, although, of course, they all passed through the prison censorship. I’m sure, how- ever, they monitored what I wrote to add to the files which every state and federal prison keeps on the conversion of Negro inmates by the teachings of Mr. Elijah Muhammad.

But at that time, I felt that the real reason was that the white man knew that he was the devil.

Later on, I even wrote to the Mayor of Boston, to the Governor of Massachusetts, and to Harry S. Truman. They never answered; they probably never even saw my letters. I handscratched to them how the white man’s society was responsible for the black man’s condition in this wilderness of North America.

It was because of my letters that I happened to stumble upon starting to acquire some kind of homemade education.

I became increasingly hstrated at not being able to express what I wanted to convey in letters that I wrote, especially those to Mr. Elijah Muhammad. In the street, I had been the most articulate hustler out there- I had commanded attention when I said somethmg. But now, trymg to write simple English, I not only wasn’t articulate, I wasn’t even functional. How would I sound writing in slang, the way I would say it, something such as, “Look daddy, let me pull your coat about a cat. Elijah Muhammad-”

Many who today hear me somewhere in person, or on television, or those who read something I’ve said, will think I went to school far beyond the eighth grade. This impression is due entirely to my prison studies.

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*Slang for being in jail

65 MALCOLM X: Coming to an Awareness of Language

It had really begun back in the Charlestown Prison, when Bimbi first made me feel envy of his stock of knowledge. Bimbi had always taken charge of any conversation he was in, and I had tried to emulate him. But every book I picked up had few sentences which didn’t contain anywhere from one to nearly all of the words that might as well have been in Chinese. When I just skipped those words, of course, I really ended up with little idea of what the book said. So I had come to the Norfolk Prison Colony still going through only book-reading motions. Pretty soon, I would have quit even these motions, unless I had received the motivation that I did.

I saw that the best thing I could do was get hold of a dictionary-to study, to learn some words. I was lucky enough to reason also that I should try to improve my penmanship. It was sad. I couldn’t even write in a straight line. It was both ideas together that moved me to request a dictionary along with some tablets and pencils from the Norfolk Prison Colony school.

I spent two days just riffling uncertainly through the dictionary’s pages. I’d never realized so many words existed! I didn’t know which words I needed to learn. Finally, just to start some kind of action, I began copying.

In my slow, painstaking, ragged handwriting, I copied into my tablet everything printed on that first page, down to the punctuation marks.

I believe it took me a day. Then, aloud, I read back, to myself, every- thing I’d written on the tablet. Over and over, aloud, to myself, I read my own handwriting.

I woke up the next morning, thinking about those words-im- mensely proud to realize that not only had I written so much a t one time, but I’d written words that I never knew were in the world. Moreover, with a little effort, I also could remember what many of these words meant. I reviewed the words whose meanings I didn’t remember. Funny thing, from the dictionary’s first page right now, that “aardvark” springs to my mind. The dictionary had a picture of it, a long-tailed, long-eared, burrowing African mammal, which lives off termites caught by sticking out its tongue as an anteater does for ants.

I was so fascinated that I went on-I copied the dictionary’s next page. And the same experience came when I studied that. With every succeeding page, I also learned of people and places and events from history. Actually the dictionary is like a miniature encyclopedia. Finally the dictionary’s A section had filled a whole tablet-and I went on into the B’s. That was the way I started copying what eventually became the entire dictionary. It went a lot faster after so much practice helped me pick up handwriting speed. Be- tween what I wrote in my tablet, and writing letters, during the rest of my time in prison I would guess I wrote a million words.

I suppose it was inevitable that as my word-base broadened, I could for the first time pick up a book and read and now begin to understand what the book was saying. Anyone who has read a great deal can imagine the new world that opened. Let me tell you something: from then until I

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66 COMING TO TERMS WITH LANGUAGE MALCOLM X Coming to an Awareness of Language 67

left that prison, in every free moment I had, if I was not reading in the li- brary, I was reading on my bunk. You couldn’t have gotten m e out of books with a wedge. Between Mr. Muhammad’s teachings, my corre- spondence, my visitors . . . and my reading of books, months passed without my even thinking about being imprisoned. In fact, up to then, I never had been so truly free in my life.

FOCUSING ON CONTENT

1. What motivated Malcolm X “to acquire some kind ofhomemade education” (7)? 2. For many, vocabulary building means learning strange, multisyllabic, difficult-

to-spell words. But acquiring an effective vocabulary does not need to be any of these things. What, for you, constitutes an effective vocabulary? How would you characterize Malcolm X’s vocabulary in this passage? Do you find his word choice appropriate for his purpose? (Glossary: Purpose) Explain.

3. What is the nature of the freedom that Malcolm X refers to in the final sen- tence? In what sense is language liberating? Is it possible for people to be “prisoners” of their own language? Explain.

FOCUSING ON WRITING

1. In paragraph 8, Malcolm X remembers thinking how he would “sound writ- ing in slang” and feeling inadequate because he recognized how slang or street talk limited his options. (Glossary: Slang) In what kinds of situations is slang useful and appropriate? When is Standard English more appropriate? (Glossary: Standard English)

2 . In paragraph 8, Malcolm X describes himself as having been “the most artic- ulate hustler out there” but in writing he says he “wasn’t even functional.” What differences between speaking and writing could account for such a dis- crepancy? How does the tone of this essay help you understand Malcolm X’s dilemma? (Glossary: Tone)

3. Malcolm X narrates his experience as a prisoner using the first-person pro- noun I. Why is the first person particularly appropriate? What would be lost or gained had he told his story using the third-person pronoun he? (Glossary: Point of View)

LANGUAGE IN ACTION

Many newspapers carry regular vocabulary-building columns, and the Reader’s Dzhest has for many years included a section called “It Pays to En- rich Your Word Power.” You might enjoy taking the following quiz, which is excerpted from the April 1999 issue of Reader’s D&st.

IT PAYS TO ENRICH YOUR WORD POWER

Zeus and his thunderbolts, Thor and his hammer, Medusa and her power to turn flesh into stone: these are all fascinating figures in mythology and foklore. Associ- ated with such legends are words we use today, including the 10 selected below.

1. panic n. -A. pain. B: relief. C: mess. D: fear.

2. bacchanal (BAK ih NAL) n. - A drunken party. B: graduation ceremony. C: backache remedy. D: victory parade.

B: quirky. C: quarrelsome. D: mis- chievous . D: dirty.

4. cyclopean (SIGH klo PEA en) adj.-A wise. B: gigantic. C: wealthy. D: repetitious.

C: disown. D: injure.

6 . cupidity (kyoo PID ih tee) n.- A thankfulness. B: ignorance. C: abundance. D: desire.

pertaining to A memory. B: speech. C: hearing. D: sight.

8. stygian (STIJee an) adj.-A stingy. B: hellish. C: uncompromising.

9. narcissistic adj . -A indecisive. B: very sleepy. C: very vain. D: just.

10. zephyr (ZEFer) n.-A breeze. B: dog. C: horse. D: tornado.

7. mnemonic (knee MONak) adj.-

3 . puckish adj.-A: wrinkly.

5. hector v . - A to curse. B: bully.

ANSWERS:

1. panic- [D] Fear; widespread terror; as, An outbreak of Ebola led to panic in the small village. Pan, frightening Greek god of nature.

2. bacchanal- [A] Drunken party; orgy; as, Complaints to the police broke up the bacchanal. Bacchus, Roman god of wine.

3 . puckish- [D] Mischievous; prankish. Pack, a trick-loving sprite or fairy.

4. cyclopean- [B] Gigantic; huge; as, the cyclopean home runs of Mark McGwire. Cyclopes, a race of fierce, one-eyed giants.

5 . hector- [B] To bully; threaten. Hector, Trojan leader slain by Achilles and portrayed as a brag- ging menace in some dramas.

6 . cupidity- [D] Strong desire. Cupid, Roman god of love.

7. mnemonic- [A] Pertaining to memory; as “Spring forward and fall back” is a mnemonic spur to change time twice a year. Mnemosyne, Greek goddess of memory.

8. stygian- [B] Hellish; dark and gloomy. Svx, a river in Hades.

9. narcissistic- [C] Very vain; self- loving; as, The narcissistic actress preened for the photographers. Narcissw, a youth who fell in love with his own reflection.

10. zephyr-[A] Soft breeze; as, The storm tapered off to a zephyr. Zephyws, gentle Greek god of the west wind.

Are you familiar with most of the words on the quiz? Did some of the answers surprise you? In your opinion, is the level of difficulty appropriate for the Readw’s D&st audience? What does the continuing popularity of vocabulary-building features suggest about the attitudes of many Americans toward language?

68 COMING TO TERMS WITH LANGUAGE

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WRITING SUGGESTIONS

(Writingporn Experience) All of us have been in situations in which our abil- ity to use language seemed inadequate-for example, when taking an exam; being interviewed for a job; giving directions; or expressing sympathy, anger, or grief. Write a brief essay in which you recount one such frustrating inci- dent in your life. Before beginning to write, review your reactions to Malcolm X’s hstrations with his limited vocabulary. Share your experiences with your classmates. (Writingfiorn Reading) What do you usually do when you encounter a new word in your reading? Do you skip those words as Malcolm X once did, or do you take the time to look them up in a dictionary or try to figure out the meaning from the context? Carefully read the following passage from Lin- coln’s “Gettysburg Address,” paying particular attention to his use of the words dedicate, consecrate, and hallow.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate-we can not consecrate- we cannot hallow-this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. This world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.

Can you determine the meanings of dedicate, consecrate, and hallow from their context in the passage? For which word(s) will you need to consult a dictionary? Using your own words, write a clear definition of each one. What part of Lincoln’s message would you miss if you didn’t understand the pre- cise meaning of each of these words? (Writingfiom Research) Malcolm X solved the problem of his own illiteracy by carefully studying the dictionary. Would this be a viable solution to the national problem of illiteracy? Are there more practical alternatives to Mal- colm X’s approach? What, for example, is being done in your community to combat illiteracy? What are some of the more successful approaches being used in other parts of the country? Write a brief essay about the problem of illiteracy. In addition to using your library for research, you may want to check out the Internet to see what it has to offer.

The Day Lan-uage Came into My Life ~

HELEN KELLER

Helen Keller (1880-1968) became blind and deaf at the age of ekhteen months as a result of a disease. As a child, then, Keller be- came accustomed t o her limited world for it was all that she knew. She experienced only certain fundamental sensations, such as the warmth of the sun on her face, and few emotions, such as anger and bitterness. It wasn’t until she was almost seven years old that her family hired Anne Sullivan, a young woman who would turn out t o be an extraordinary teacher, t o help her. As Keller learned t o communicate and think, the world opened up t o her. She recorded her experiences in an autobiography, The Story of M y Life (1903), from which the following selection is taken.