Malcolm X and Sherman Alexie:


Before you read: I remember the first book I ever read by myself aloud was Green Eggs and Ham by: Dr. Seuss.  Other texts and events central to my learning to read would be in preschool, kindergarden and up we were given reading exercises. I can remember having small reading circles with the teacher and two or three other class mates and we would go though basic reading books. Also vocabulary was a major impact on learning to read. In grade school we would always have a list of vocab words to learn.

Summary: Malcolm X is about his time spent in prison, it is about his determination to learn to read and write, He checked books out continuously. he started with reading the dictionary he taught himself the dictionary. Alexie was about being discriminated in school because of his race. he to was determined to read and write. he carried a comic book with him which helped him learn to read by using the pictures.

Synthesis: Malcolm X and Alexie can relate to each other because they are both about the process of learning to read and write and how the were discriminated. They can also relate to McCloud because they thought of the way they saw themselves as one way but it would be different of how other people saw them. Also McCloud uses comics and Alexie uses comics.
Disclaimer: I had never heard of Malcolm X before this.

Response	Quotation
I can't imagine being Malcolms age, and not being able read words, reading is such a huge part in my everyday life.	"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 been in Chinese."
When I read this I wrote wow next to it in my book because this is completely unbelievable. It is completely inspiring to read about how Malcolm X taught him self to read, and it all started by copying the dictionary.  This shows his motivation and dedication to his education.	"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."
This quote shows the power of reading has over people and Malcolm in particular. To say that he felt more imprisoned when he wasn't in prison, and truly free while behind bars. He felt free because he had a new world. I think this could be true for anyone. Maybe not in a prison situation but life in general can get tough and books can provide and escape from reality into a fictional story.	"My reading 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."
I related to this quote because when I was younger and had a bed time I would like staying up late reading my chapter books with a little flashlight under the covers and my mom would always walk by so I would quickly hide the light and book and fake sleep, when I heard she was gone I would pull it back out to continue reading until I fell asleep.	"At one-hour intervals the night guards paced past every room. Each time I heard the approaching footsteps, I jumped into bed and feigned sleep. And as soon as the guard passed, I got back out of bed onto the foor area of that light glow, where I would read for another fifty-eight minutes -until the guard approached again."
This quote is so true. College is full of so many distracting things, school work, friends, activities that there is never time to just sit down and read for enjoyment.	"I imagine that one of the biggest troubles with colleges is there are too many distractions."
When I was little I would carry around books, not to read because I could read them, just to carry around because I liked to carry them.	Sherman Alexie  "I can remember picking up my father's books before I could read. The words themselves were mostly foreign, but I still remember the exact moment when I first understood , with sudden clarity, the purpose of a paragraph."
I think it is really sad that Indian children were expected to be stupid. All children should be taught with the same expectations. Learning only makes society stronger, shutting out certain races only hurts society.	"We were Indian children who were expected to be stupid. Most lived up to those expectations inside the classroom but subverted them on the outside. They struggled with basic reading in school but could remember how to sing a few dozen powwow songs. "

Thoughts: I thought that both of these essays were eye opening. I couldn't believe that Malcolm X taught himself how to read by reading the dictionary. I think it is inspiring to think that he could do that. Alexie also was inspiring because he learned to read from a comic, and went through school being discriminated against but he turned out to be educated and now helps kids where he grew up learn to read as he once wished he could.