In “A Homemade Education,” Malcolm X uses different elements of rhetoric to reinforce his argument and influence the reader to support his claim. The article argues that education is very important, and everyone should strive to become educated in order to learn about and understand what goes on around the world. I have analyzed the use of structure, language, ethos, logos, and pathos utilized and found that the article does a good job at persuading the reader that education is important. The structure used in “A Homemade Education” is chronological and develops his argument, but it is hard to pinpoint the main claim of the article until you have read all of it. He starts off by talking about how he struggled to educate himself in prison and how his fascination for literature came to be. Then he talks about all the things he learned in his studies of history and how he began to understand issues occurring all around the world at the time. Then finally, he addresses the fact that the oppressed African Americans cannot become mentally active due to the lack of education and therefore, they become ignorant, worthless individuals…show more content… He mostly talks about his personal thoughts and experiences so we get a sense of trust between the author and the reader, and we feel a level of empathy for him. Malcolm X also does a good job of using tone and diction to better demonstrate his feelings, especially those towards the inequality that African Americans face. For example, instead of saying that his education made him realize a lot he didn’t know, he writes that “with every additional book that [he] read, [his education gave him] a little bit more sensitivity to the deafness, dumbness, and blindness that was afflicting the black race in America.” The extensive language he utilizes makes his article more compelling and makes his argument more
