Rhetorical Analysis Of Learning To Read By Malcolm X

In Learning to Read, Malcolm X, one of the most articulate and powerful leaders of black America during the 1960s, describes his struggle of self-education while being incarcerated. Malcolm X composed his journey of self-in order to convey the message that the reader should strive to look for more than what is taught to them by the public school system, to, in a way, look outside the box.

The three portions of the rhetorical triangle, to analyze Learning to Read, are the audience, author, and text (sometimes referred to as the argument). In Learning to Read, the main audience is comprised of those who are being educated by the public school system. The author of Learning to Read is, simply, Malcolm X. Malcolm X was one of the most eloquent
This means that while Malcolm X was incarcerated, there were larger events affecting his perception. As Malcolm X taught himself to read, the racial events in America were very heated. The animosity that Malcolm X had toward the Anglo-Americans showed in Learning to Read. One example of Malcolm Xs despise of whites is when he states, Book after book showed me how the white man had brought upon the worlds black, brown, red, and yellow peoples every variety of the suffering of exploitation (X 248). After being in the dark for so long concerning the truth about racism, Malcolm X was shocked after reading about how the white man had brought about a large amount of misery to every other race. This fueled the need to stress black separatism and the need for African-Americans to separate themselves from White America.Another example of Malcolm Xs loathsome attitude toward the Anglo-Americans is concerning the Opium War in China. Malcolm X talks of white Christian traders who sent millions of pounds of opium into China. By 1839, so much of the Chinese population was addicted to opium that the Chinese government had to destroy twenty thousand pounds of the drug. Due to this event, the white Christian traders declared war against China. Imagine! Declaring war upon someone who objects to being narcotized! The Chinese were severely beaten, with Chinese-invented gunpowder (X
As I see it today, the ability to read awoke inside me some long dormant craving to be mentally alive (X 250). This statement by Malcolm X relates to the context of education in the United States. In Rereading America, a section entitled Learning Power, tracked the progression of education in the United States from the Puritan society to the present. As the requirements moved from stressing moral and religious training to the current requirements of modern education, so did the context of education in the United States did.

Additionally, Malcolm X, nearing the end of his work, stated that, I imagine that one of the biggest troubles with colleges is there are too many distractions, too much panty-raiding, fraternities, and boola-boola and all of that. Where else but a prison could I have attacked my ignorance by being able to study intensely sometimes as much as fifteen hours a day? (X 251). Simply meaning that he was unimpressed with the current education system. He argued that his ability to learn would be severely impeded by the distractions that the public education system