Sherman Alexie Superman And Me

In Sherman Alexie's short story, Superman and Me, Alexie wants to create a new perspective of how people perceive Native Americans. Alexie starts his short story by explaining his love for reading. Alexie’s love for reading started because of his father’s love for books, Alexie even writes that he would buy his “books by the pound at Dutch’s Pawn Shop”. Since Alexie saw his father's love for reading, he picked up a comic book and saw that the images corresponded with the text and taught himself how to read. how he taught himself to read at a young age. Growing up, Alexie was stereotyped at school, work and in general by the dominant culture. Alexie’s central idea in Superman and Me is to redefine Native American culture and to break away from stereotypes.

Growing up, Alexie felt excluded and rejected because his classmates treated him differently because he is Native American.

He was also teased for being smart because he knew how to read before some of his classmates. By the time he was in kindergarten he was reading “Grapes of Wrath”. As Alexie gets older he still does not feel accepted; he starts to feel stereotyped in class for being smart, he even writes “if he'd be anything but an indian boy living on the reservation, he might have been called a prodigy. But he is an Indian boy living on the reservation and is simply an oddity.” Alexie does not feel accepted in school and feels different even though he isn’t. Alexie uses this experience of not fitting in, to emphasis his general idea of how people stereotype native americans and that it can really affect someone growing

up.
As Alexie gets older he faces more issue where he feels Native American culture is stereotyped and that it is harder for him to succeed. Alexie mentions in his short story how, “Indian children, we were expected to fail in the non-indian world.” Alexie again feels stereotyped and he also wants to show that everyone has self-doubting moments, but if they get past the stereotype they can succeed. He is also saying that stereotypes should not and can not define you. At the end of the essay he says, “I am trying to save our lives.” Alexie says that because reading and finding his passion in writing allowed him to find his own voice and gave him a platform to expose these unfair stereotypes. Writing saved his life and he wants people who feel stereotyped to break free from people's opinions and to create a new narrative for themselves. Alexie fueled stereotyped his entire life now he wants to change people's view of others about native american culture. Alexie wants to encourage other people who are reading to pursue their passion and to use their platform to refine stereotypes.
Overall, Alexie uses his experiences to shine light on how he has been stereotyped by the dominant culture and how it has affected the way people perceive Native American culture. Alexie provides an insightful look into his life, where he was bullied for being Native American and smart. As Alexie gets older he still feels like there is not a lot of opportunities for Native Americans to succeed. Alexie uses Superman and Me to encourage a younger generation of Native Americans to not let stereotypes define them, if they do they will not succeed and redefine Native American Culture.