Kaffir Boy Literary Analysis

The Significance of Literacy

Despite the fact that these characters have different backgrounds, they still have different way of educating themselves but they all claimed that education is significantly important. They all had struggles and problems educating themselves and each one of them are a different story.

In the book titled Kaffir boy, Mark Mathabane claims that school is important. In the beginning, Mark Mathebane did not like school because in his book he says “They, like myself, had grown up in an environment where the value of an education was never emphasized…” (1). In other words, Mark Mathebane believes the same as the gang which they stated they did not like school because it was a waste of time and money. Later on, He claims that school is important when Mark Mathebane says “ With tears streaming down my cheeks and falling upon my mother’s bosom, I promised her that I would go to school forever” (10). He promised his mother to go to school forever because his mother never went to school because her father said that school was unnecessary for females. She promised him that she will do everything in her power to keep him in school and in return, the mother will someday will go to school even when she is old.

In the book

He shared with an English writer that asked him what’s his Alma Mater, he said “Books” (5). In other words; his source of education is ledger. In order to be educated, you have to read . Malcolm X demonstrated that when he was in prison. He said “I knew right there in prison that reading had changed forever the course of my life” (5). He committed himself not wasting time in prison and educate himself. Malcolm X believes that studying can change the way your life goes, no matter what you study, literature, science, history, anything that you are interested in, it will change the course of your life if you are committed to