Education, Education And Literacy - 1421 Words

Education and literacy are very important and play many roles in everyday lives. Over many years, education and literacy have been viewed as something to be proud of and something to strive towards, this can be seen back in the mid-20th century, while in more recent times, the views have changed to almost the polar opposite of the original views. Today, they aren’t as cherished or valued as they were back in the day. In the time of Malcolm X, the mid-20th century, education and literacy were valued much more because of the perceived difficulty of gaining them. The ease of access now a days, due to technology, to education, such as books, makes the value of education and literacy go down much more than how it was valued back in the times†¦show more content†¦Both of the main characters in the stories want to further their knowledge in literacy, simply because they â€Å"crave† knowledge and want to become intelligent just to become intelligent. They didn’ t want knowledge to get a degree or a job, they wanted knowledge just to better themselves, unlike current views in America. Despite the difficulties that they faced in order to get better educated and overcome their illiteracy, they still tried because they knew knowledge is very valuable. These things can be seen in the Library Card, where Richard Wright stumbles upon an author, Mencken, and his novels while reading an article. His want to read can be seen when he says â€Å"I want to read. I can’t get books from the library. I wonder if you’d let me use your card† (347) He asks to borrow his card, even knowing how dangerous it is, just so he could get a chance to read. In Malcolm X, Malcolm also wants to read to satisfy his thirst for knowledge. He reads the dictionary, writes down every word, and is excited to do more. On the other hand, with the technology today, people don’t have to struggle like them nearly as much. We haven’t been deprived of education, like they were, so we don’t cherish it as nearly as much as they did. In the article Negative