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The Illusion Of Knowledge

Decent Essays

The Illusion of Knowledge
Vera Nazarian once stated “Whenever you read a good book, somewhere in the world a door opens to allow in more light.” Similarly, the book X: A Novel written by Ilyasah Shabazz was a book that I wanted to read as it had characters and a plot I could relate to my own personal experiences. I thoroughly enjoyed reading the book as I was able to learn more about social issues and broaden my horizons.
X: A Novel, fits in the genre of historical fiction, providing a mix of something fictional with roots in reality. Personally, I am an avid reader of nonfiction as I actively read newspapers articles and blogs to stay in tune with global issues and developments. I tend to focus on facts and figures, hence, I wanted something …show more content…

I became so engrossed in the novel that I quickly read the book in 2 days, sometimes reading on the bus home and staying up late. As a result, I caught all of the main plot points but missed minor nuances such as character interactions and Malcolm’s inner monologues. This caused me to reread the novel in order to fill in the gaps in the plot. This kind of ruined the novel for me as I already knew the overall plot, so it felt like a chore to read the novel again. For example, I knew of the impending arrest of Malcolm, which ruined the biggest plot twist of the novel. The novel was an eye opener as I gained a new understanding of the social justice issue that prevails in society: racism. We hear about large scale acts of discrimination such as carding or police brutality on a regular basis but we never learn about small systemic barriers that restrict racial minorities everyday. We see an example of this when Malcolm’s teacher tells him that he is not capable of being a lawyer because he is “just a n*****”. Hearing this from his favourite teacher shatters hope, drive and perseverance for Malcolm to pursue his dream and also acts as a catalyst for him to drop out. Malcolm accepts society's predetermined role for him and refuses to challenge the status quo. In order to survive, he resorts to illegal activities. In conclusion, I picked X: A Novel with careful consideration and I

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