Analysis Of The Bird Catcher By Malcolm X

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Going into prison Malcolm X had no ability to read and write. He grew up on the streets as a hustler before getting arrested for larceny and breaking and entering. While in prison, X taught himself to read and write by copying the dictionary front to back. X then went on to be a political rights leader who fought a corrupt government with black power. X sees the theft in the government system and how it is unfair to most minority communities. Seeing this theft in the system gives him the idea to do the same against the government. He uses the knowledge that belongs to the government and uses them to fuel his own causes. To start his battle on government corruption he writes his Autobiography and the essay “Learning to Read” is a section of it. This essay describes how he turns the white man’s oppression into life’s biggest opportunity to him. In this paper, I …show more content…

The woman is clearly in a place where she does not belong, while the birds are toying with her as she is placed in this foreign place. Clearly the cage is meant for the birds, but the woman inside this cage is trying to fight her oppressors even while they may think she is in a place where she cannot fight back. The woman is trying to trap the birds in her own net even though she herself is trapped. The birds clearly see her as a threat as they circle and attack her yet they dare not enter the cage where she resides. Instead they try to take what little she has left, the woman is trapped in this cage without even a shirt to cover herself. Much like X who was placed in a different kind of cage by his oppressors, X uses what he has in his cage to fight back even when the odds are against him. X uses the knowledge available as his own net to try and trap his white oppressors who think they are safe by imprisoning him. While they see that X is a threat they cannot do much to him directly as he has turned their oppression into his own

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