The quote, “I throw my weight against their locked doors. The door holds. I am smart. I am arrogant. I am lucky. I am trying to save their lives,” is a very important aspect in the story-line. It helps close out the story and tie everything together. It ties in all back to the beginning. That very first Superman comic book that taught Sherman Alexie how to read. As well as showing just how hard he worked to teach the children as much as possible.
Growing up on an Indian reservation, Alexie knows how it feels to be expected to be undereducated and arrogant. Therefore, when he has the opportunity to help change that for the children currently living on the reservation, it is important to him that he succeeds. This quote shows just how hard he is trying even though they don’t want to lear. Alexie tells us about the children who just don’t care about education, “Then there are the sullen and already defeated Indian kids who sit in the back rows
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and ignore me with theatrical precision. The pages of their notebooks are empty. They carry neither pencil nor pen. They stare out the window. They refuse and resist.” He goes on to state, “‘Books,’ I say to them. ‘Books,’ I say. I throw my weight against their locked doors. The door holds. I am smart I am arrogant. I am lucky. I am trying to save our lives.” Even though the children couldn’t care less about what Alexie was teaching them, he continued to teach, eager to get through to these children. The quote refers back to paragraph seven where Alexie states about his own education, “I refuse to fail.
I was smart. I was arrogant. I was lucky.” He goes on to state and the end of this paragraph, “I was trying to save my life.” During Alexie’s childhood, children on the reservation weren’t expected to be smart. Actually, the smart children were put down and even considered odd Alexie tells us in reference to his intelligence, “If he’d been anything but an Indian boy living on the reservation, he might have been considered a prodigy. But he is an Indian boy living on the reservation and is simply an oddity.” Intelligent Indians were so out of the ordinary that they were even feared. Alexie tells us, “A smart Indian is a dangerous person, widely feared and ridiculed by Indians and non-Indians alike.” Knowledge is power and Indians were looked upon as if they shouldn’t have any. Many lived up to these standards. They just didn’t care about academic intelligence. Their primary focus was on their tribe and the contents
within. The quote can also be seen in reference to the time he learned to read. He used context clues in a Superman comic book to infer that the book was telling you that Superman was breaking down the door. Later that scene became a metaphor for something greater. Through the strength Alexie got from knowledge, he was breaking down doors and barriers to education. He was not only reading and writing, he was teaching. Despite all the odds all the doors he had to break down, he was able to learn to the extent of being able to teach. He know was breaking down the doors preventing other Indian children from learning, and he would stop at nothing until the door was broken between arrogance and intelligence. This quote was powerful and important. It can be seen in multiple ways. It shows determination and power. But most importantly, it shows intelligence and the pursuit of teaching. It shows how badly he wants these children to learn, and that he will stop down nothing to break down the doors of learning.
A Ticket out of the Past By (Teresa) Yung-Ching Chuang. Life is like an ascent, the more you climb, the higher you will get. J. C. Burke skilfully undertakes this philosophy as a source of inspiration for ‘The Story of Tom Brennan’. It is not another crazy adventurous tale with a heroic storyline that seems unrealistic; the novel is about individual representation as Burke insightfully illustrates the long and slow journey of Tom Brennan, navigating through his road of self-discovery that eventually leads to his destination and achieves his “ticket out of the past” (Burke, pg 182). The catalyst of the novel is a traumatic car accident causing two instant deaths and one paralysis.
The novel ‘Jasper Jones’ and the film ‘Jindabyne’ both use the representation of characters and their relationships to challenge the treatment of individuals with regards to race, class and gender. The historical contexts surrounding these two texts sets the basis for the stratification and racial discrimination present. The lack of dignity that is depicted between the relationships formed between characters displays the regard in which communities treat each other. ‘Jasper Jones’ and ‘Jindabyne’ are comparable texts as it is clear that the gap between these communities has reduced since the time period of ‘Jasper Jones’ when compared to ‘Jindabyne’, however, it is identified that this gap still exists.
Dweck hopes that students realize that anything worth knowing and having in life takes a lot of effort and hard work, and that they will only succeed by doing those things and never giving up. Alexie hopes that the next generations of young Native Americans follow in his path and don’t fall into the stereotypes that his peers did. Whether it’s a fixed or growth mindset, or being a leader or a follower, everyone should work hard and learn as much as they can in order to achieve self-growth and
Imagine growing up in a society where a person is restricted to learn because of his or her ethnicity? This experience would be awful and very emotional for one to go through. Sherman Alexie and Fredrick Douglas are examples of prodigies who grew up in a less fortunate community. Both men experienced complications in similar and different ways; these experiences shaped them into men who wanted equal education for all. To begin, one should understand the writers background. Sherman Alexie wrote about his life as a young Spokane Indian boy and the life he experienced (page 15). He wrote to encourage people to step outside their comfort zone and be herd throughout education. Similar to Alexie’s life experience, Fredrick
The rhetor for this text is Luther Standing Bear. He was born in 1868 on the Pine Ridge Reservation. He was raised as a Native American until the age on eleven when he was taken to Carlisle Indian Industrial School: an Indian boarding school. After graduating from the boarding school, he returned to his reservation and now realized the terrible conditions under which they were living. Standing Bear was then elected as chief of his tribe and it became his responsibility to induce change (Luther Standing Bear). The boarding schools, like the one he went to, were not a fair place to be. The Native American children were forced to go there and they were not taught how to live as a European American; they were taught low level jobs like how to mop and take out trash. Also, these school were very brutal with punishment and how the kids were treated. In the passage he states, “More than one tragedy has resulted when a young boy or girl has returned home again almost an utter stranger. I have seen these happenings with my own eyes and I know they can cause naught but suffering.” (Standing Bear 276). Standing Bear is fighting for the Indians to be taught by Indians. He does not want their young to lose the culture taught to them from the elders. Standing Bear also states, “The old people do not speak English and never will be English-speaking.” (Standing Bear 276). He is reinforcing the point that he believes that they
Christopher’s father, Ed Boone and his mother, Judy Boone both have one important trait or aspect that they share together which is their way of showing their love and protection towards their child. In this case, that would be Christopher. A quote that Christopher’s father said in the book that supports this answer is “”And Father said,”Christopher, do you understand that I love you.” This shows how he desperately wants his son to love him despite all of his efforts in trying to prevent Christopher from knowing about the truth that he is hiding. A quote that Christopher’s mother saying in the book is, “Christopher, I never meant to hurt you. I thought that what I was doing was the best for all of us. I hope it is. And I want you to know that this is not your fault.” This demonstrates that she really cares about Christopher in what is right which is leaving the house just like what his father believes that it was the best decision in preventing Christopher to know the truth about his mother.
In Sherman Alexie's “The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me” the focus is on his struggle growing up poor on the reservation. Many people would have assumed that he was a child prodigy because he taught himself to read at an early age through his hero Superman’s comic book. Reading was the escape from his life of fences on the reservation. Despite the expectations for the children by their tribal elders, he demonstrated his love of the learning process and used the opportunities of the schools to free himself from the reservation; this made him a dangerous Indian. He dealt with the bullies of the school who made sure every Indian child followed the creed o...
Alexie Sherman, a boy under an Indian Reservation that suffers from bullying since the 1st grade, who would have a hard time being around white people and even Indian boys. US Government provided him glasses, accommodation, and alimentation. Alexie chose to use the title "Indian Education" in an effort to express his internalized feelings towards the Native American education system and the way he grew up. He uses short stories separated by the different grades from first grade to twelfth grade to give an idea of what his life was like. He seemed to have grown up in a world surrounded by racism, discrimination, and bullying. This leads on to why he chose not to use the term Native American. He used the term "Indian" to generate negative connotations
Overall, Alexie clearly faced much difficulty adjusting to the white culture as a Native American growing up, and expresses this through Victor in his essay, “Indian Education.” He goes through all of the stages of his childhood in comparison with his white counterparts. Racism and bullying are both evident throughout the whole essay. The frustration Alexie got from this is clear through the negativity and humor presented in the experiences he had to face, both on and off of the American Indian reservation. It is evident that Alexie faces discrimination from white people, who he portrays as evil in every way, to show that his childhood was filled with anger, fear, and sorrow.
“But we reservation Indians don’t get to realize our dreams. We don’t get those chances.” (p. 13) In The Absolutely True Diary of A Part Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie, Junior, the narrator, is an Indian teenage boy living on a reservation, where no one's dreams or ideas are heard. The Indians on the reservation feel hopeless because they are isolated and disenfranchised. Junior learns how to cope with his hopelessness and breaks through the hopeless reservation life to find his dreams. Examining his journey provides important examples for the reader.
He wanted a chance to have more opportunities than what was given to him on the Indian Reservation. The structure of Alexies piece was specific and purposeful due to the fact that it truncated his life into years; the years of education. The audience is aware of the thematic shift in the seventh year when he “.kissed the white girl” (Alexie). The shift between his time on the reservation and his resilience through taking matters into his own hands despite the backlash he received through growing up. Alexie knew that he didn’t want to leave his culture behind, but it was something that he had to do in order to change his life and take charge of it like an “Indian” would do.
In “Awareness of Language” by Malcolm X and in Sherman Alexie’s essay, “Superman and Me”, the authors demonstrates how education, which is achieved through experience as well as literacy and dedication, provide an escape from the cycle of lower-class society. The authors also argue that appearance has nothing to do with education level. Malcolm X in his essay goes in depth about the struggles he faced before his time as a civil rights leader and before coming one of the most influential men of the century. He also explains how his time in prison truly set him free. Sherman Alexie divulges the inequalities within the education system on reservations. Alexie also addresses the trials and tribulations he endured as a Native
Alexie begins his essay by recalling how he “learned to read with a Superman comic book, at the age of three," in spite of "living with his family on a Spokane Indian reservation in Eastern Washington state.” (Alexie 4). He closes his essay stating "I became a writer" even though “I was never taught how… Writing is something beyond Indians.” (Alexie 6). Alexie begins and ends his essay by applying the rhetorical device of ethos. He establishes both his character and authenticates his credibility as the author. He accomplishes this and earns our trust by showing that not only is he disadvantaged; “We were poor by most standards… We lived on a combination of irregular paychecks, hope, fear, and government surplus food.” (Alexie 4). But,
“We have to talk about liberating minds as well as liberating society.” (“Angela Davis Quote." BrainyQuote. Xplore, n.d. Web.”) Angela Yvonne Davis was an activist, an educator, and a politician. Aside from doing this, she was a major impact on feminist rights for the African American community. This essay will include Angela Davis’ Impact on the male but mainly female African American Community, and to the everyday society. Angela Davis’ philosophical side, and her personal and background life. Will also be included.
More people will try harder in school, even the people who are typically viewed as incapable of achievement due to stereotypes. Sherman Alexie reveals that as an Indian boy, many expected him to be stupid. Because of their indifference, Alexie pushed himself and taught himself how to read with a comic book writing, “A little Indian boy teaches himself to read at an early age and advances quickly… If he’d be anything but an Indian boy living on the reservation, he might have been called a prodigy.” People of all minorities will be inspired to reach their full potential by establishing this new honor. It is always one’s goal to prove another wrong; becoming successful while others are doubtful is a major satisfaction on their part. Author Diane Ravitch comments on how the requirements for the No Child Left Behind program are nearly impossible to meet. With the chance of becoming a valedictorian motivating more students, these difficult requirements will be easier to reach. Systems can measure growing academic achievement in graphs and charts such as the one from U.S Math Performance in Global Perspective created by Eric A. Hanushek, which compares the United State’s percentage of advanced math students with other countries around the world. This will help prove how changing the current reward contributes to the student body’s