The times that show us who we can truly be are the times when we usually only have control over one thing in the situation. Malcolm X found himself in prison and locked away for months. He could have just moped around and been a cold thug when he was released, but instead he took the time he had to do something he had never been able to do…read. On the street he was a highly educated man, but if put into an academic scenario, he wouldn’t have been able to keep up. He decided he needed to keep up. He approached the literary world head on and dove right into the dictionary to discover new words and meanings. With his background, he didn’t have much to go off of so head on was the best way for him. It certainly showed after he got out of prison.
I hated Grapes of Wrath. It was boring, it was long, and the ending was creepy. That was my junior year of high school. I would love to know how a kindergartener made it through that book without dying of boredom. I love comic books though. I grew up with Spider-Man. So, we’re back on the more relatable subject. I remember, “reading” through those comics, aka looking at the pictures and then drawing them myself. What Alexie did with his reading skills is amazing. He started at such a young age, something not all kids get to do, and he shot off like a rocket in his passion for education. Because he had little, and had little to do, he was able to focus and enjoy the books more. Nowadays we have seventeen things going on around us that we rarely get to be consumed by the literacy we’re reading. Sherman Alexie got busy reading, and he stayed busy reading. It helped him achieve all that he’s done to this day.
I love the title of this blog because it is true for Malcolm X. If he didn't get busy living and fixing his life he would surely have died on the streets. I agree that Sherman is a more relatable story because we were all kids once that got curious about books however his passion far exceeded mine as a child.
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