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“Superman and Me”, is a profound essay written by Sherman Alexie in 1998 discussing the impact reading had on his life. He became motivated to save lives through knowledge, demolish stereotypes surrounding Native Americans, and avoid possible permanent disenfranchisement of his culture. In chronological order he explains from his perspective how difficult and complicated it is to be a Spokane Indian living in America, and how powerful reading can alter your life and create a better future.
Alexie’s seek for knowledge began when he was only three years old, and living on the Spokane reservation. His father was one of the few Indians who attended Catholic school on purpose, and carried very a strong passion for books (390). His father enjoyed
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reading all types of books, from westerns, to topics on the Vietnam War, and constantly bring home books he purchased at the supermarket or the pawn shop (390). Alexie father truly loved books, and since he loved his father, he decided to love books too. (390) Just by looking at the pages of one of his father books, Alexie concluded that paragraphs were similar to fences, and that each word served a purpose within each paragraph, that gave it a reason to be in the fence (390).
Alexie uses this logic and optimistically defined the whole world to be separated into paragraphs. Alexie taught himself how to read, shortly after he discovered the world to be in paragraphs, with a Superman comic book, when he three years old. He vaguely remember the plot of the story, but he do recall using the illustrations to figure out what Superman uttered from his mouth. Since the comic showed Superman hitting a door until it shattered, he assumes it say “he’s breaking down the door” and while pretending to read he say aloud “ I am breaking down the door”, which is a comparison to him …show more content…
metaphorically. The knowledge he received from books is what makes gives him the strength to create a doorway, and the creativity come from reading books. However, for an Indian, such knowledge is forbidden and of frowned up by both Indians and non-Indians. Indian’s are perceived as savages, scavengers, illiterate, and incapable of functioning properly without the help of Americans, even though history contradicts their bias of Indians. Note Alexie’s mockery of their rash stereotypes by titling his essay “Superman and Me” and not “Superman and I”. Alexie’s father distilled in him a thirst for knowledge through books, which opened his mind to possibilities beyond the bias expectations of Indians.
This characteristic made Alexie different from every other student on the reservation, because his hope was no longer dependent on the government and irregular checks, it was placed onto his books. He refused to be one of the Indian children who exemplify themselves as the stereotypic Indian when amongst non-Indian, because they were expected to be stupid, and fail in the non-Indian world (391). Sherman Alexie refused to accept failure as an option. Intensifying his passion to read more because he was now trying to save his life
(391). As an adult, Sherman Alexie is a writer who teaches creative writing on the reservation. The Indian child crowd the classrooms and participating more effective than the students he attended school. They write short stories and poems, and when he’s in front of the classroom they look up at him with bright eyes and arrogant wonders because they don’t want to give in (392). Then there are the students who sit in the back of the classrooms, starring out windows and not even acknowledging that he’s there. Alexie says ““Books,” I say to them”, but they continue to look out the window. He refuse to give up on them, and put his weight on their locked doors, but it holds. When Sherman Alexie say he leans on his students locked doors and it hold is because their focus on looking out the window, the window symbolizes their narrow view of the outside world. They prefer to watch the world go because instead of taking action because they are afraid of what might happen to them. Similar to Alexie Indian classmate’s behavior towards non-Indians to prevent getting ridiculed or hurt. The door represents their opportunity to become part of the world and make a difference and the key to their freedom will come from the knowledge they’ll obtain from books. I agree with Sherman Alexie that knowledge grants you freedom and gives you an advantage avoid or getting out of poverty. Knowledge gives you allows you to achieve your dreams. For example, Sherman Alexie said “ I was going to be a pediatrician”, but instead he became a writer, but he had the option to do either or career freely.
Sherman Alexis a Spokane/Coeur d’Alene Indian who wrote “The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and me”. In the short story explains how he learned to read and write even with limited resources on the reservation where he grew up. He starts his story by using popular culture describing how he learned how to read using a comic book about “Superman”. He also explained why Indian children were never supposed to amount to anything in life and that they were supposed to be dumb among Non-Indians. He wanted to let other Indian students that reading is what saved his life. It opened up his mind and made him a better person today.
The purpose of this story was to help other Indian children that are in the same position he is at to save their lives with reading. Why with reading though? Because reading is a basic skill of knowledge that will lead your to more and more intelligence. He shares in the last paragraph of his short story that there are two different students. The ones that are already saving their lives by reading his stories and fleeing to him when he comes to the reservations and those that have already given up and are defeated in the last row in the back of the class room. Sherman Alexie effectively states clearly “I am trying to save our lives.” He uses pathos, logos, and ethos effectively to describe his difficult life in the Indian reservations and how he persevered and strikes the world as an intelligent boy. Alexie says. “A smart Indian is a dangerous person, widely feared and ridiculed by Indians and non-Indians alike. We were indian children who were expected to be stupid.” Even though Alexie became and incredibly smart, he never became an of those things. He was known as an idol, trying to save the lives of young Indian children in the
In this essay, McFarland discusses Native American poetry and Sherman Alexie’s works. He provides an overview of Alexie’s writing in both his poems and short stories. A brief analysis of Alexie’s use of humor is also included.
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
He says, “This might be an interesting story all by itself. A little Indian boy teaches himself to read at an early age and advances quickly.” He says this as an understatement to tell the reader the importance, but he actually is really smart. Alexie is a man who tells important events, but does not dramatise the events in his life and make people unable to focus on the true message of his essay, which is not how smart he
Sherman Alexie grew up in Wellpinit, Washington as a Spokane/Coeur d’Alene tribal member (Sherman Alexie). He began his personal battle with substance abuse in 1985 during his freshman year at Jesuit Gonzaga University. The success of his first published work in 1990 incentivized Alexie to overcome his alcohol abuse. “In his short-story and poetry collections, Alexie illuminates the despair, poverty, and alcoholism that often shape the lives of Native Americans living on reservations” (Sherman Alexie). When developing his characters, Alexie often gives them characteristics of substance abuse, poverty and criminal behaviors in an effort to evoke sadness with his readers. Alexie utilizes other art forms, such as film, music, cartoons, and the print media, to bombard mainstream distortion of Indian culture and to redefine Indianness. “Both the term Indian and the stereotypical image are created through histories of misrepresentation—one is a simulated word without a tribal real and the other an i...
After reading “Superman and Me,” by Sherman Alexie, I was shown how the author learned to read, and how he used his love for reading to impact his life and the lives of others. Alexie grew up with his family on an Indian reservation, relying on irregular paychecks and government surplus food. Alexie learned to read, on his own, at the young age of three. His love for reading originated from his father’s passion for books, and reading whatever books he could get access to. Alexie’s reading level reached such a high level to where he was reading Grapes of Wrath in kindergarten. He knew he was smart, and he didn’t want to take on the stereotype that all Indians are stupid. Unlike the other Indian children in his class on the reservation, Alexie tried to become as educated as he could, despite being teased by the other kids. Alexie came to describe himself as smart, lucky, and arrogant. This attitude of who he was and what he was capable of allowed ...
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...
How White people assumed they were better than Indians and tried to bully a young boy under the US Reservation. Alexie was bullied by his classmates, teammates, and teachers since he was young because he was an Indian. Even though Alexie didn’t come from a good background, he found the right path and didn’t let his hands down. He had two ways to go to, either become a better, educated and strong person, either be like his brother Steven that was following a bad path, where Alexie chose to become a better and educated person. I believe that Alexie learned how to get stronger, and stand up for himself in the hard moments of his life by many struggles that he passed through. He overcame all his struggles and rose above them
And that’s probably because this was something that was very emotional to talk about. He talked about the way Indian kids were treated and how they never really learned how to write. And writing was something that he loved to do. When Alexie was older he became a writer. And he talked about how he would go back and teach the kids how to write. And he said that they would pay close attention to him and they would read his books. In the text it states, “They are trying to save their lives.” And to me that means that they were just trying to basically prove that they were smarter than everyone had put them out to be. And that if they didn’t read they’d probably just be regular. But that’s not what Alexie wanted them to be, so he helped
Adjusting to another culture is a difficult concept, especially for children in their school classrooms. In Sherman Alexie’s, “Indian Education,” he discusses the different stages of a Native Americans childhood compared to his white counterparts. He is describing the schooling of a child, Victor, in an American Indian reservation, grade by grade. He uses a few different examples of satire and irony, in which could be viewed in completely different ways, expressing different feelings to the reader. Racism and bullying are both present throughout this essay between Indians and Americans. The Indian Americans have the stereotype of being unsuccessful and always being those that are left behind. Through Alexie’s negativity and humor in his essay, it is evident that he faces many issues and is very frustrated growing up as an American Indian. Growing up, 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.
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 conclusion, Sherman Alexie created a story to demonstrate the stereotypes people have created for Native Americans. The author is able to do this by creating characters that present both the negative and positive stereotypes that have been given to Native Americans. Alexie has a Native American background. By writing a short story that depicts the life of an Indian, the reader also gets a glimpse of the stereotypes encountered by Alexie. From this short story readers are able to learn the importance of having an identity while also seeing how stereotypes are used by many people. In the end of the story, both Victor and Thomas are able to have an understanding of each other as the can finally relate with each other through Victor's father.
Alexie shows a strong difference between the treatment of Indian people versus the treatment of white people, and of Indian behavior in the non-Indian world versus in their own. A white kid reading classic English literature at the age of five was undeniably a "prodigy," whereas a change in skin tone would instead make that same kid an "oddity." Non-white excellence was taught to be viewed as volatile, as something incorrect. The use of this juxtaposition exemplifies and reveals the bias and racism faced by Alexie and Indian people everywhere by creating a stark and cruel contrast between perceptions of race. Indian kids were expected to stick to the background and only speak when spoken to. Those with some of the brightest, most curious minds answered in a single word at school but multiple paragraphs behind the comfort of closed doors, trained to save their energy and ideas for the privacy of home. The feistiest of the lot saw their sparks dulled when faced with a white adversary and those with the greatest potential were told that they had none. Their potential was confined to that six letter word, "Indian." This word had somehow become synonymous with failure, something which they had been taught was the only form of achievement they could ever reach. Acceptable and pitiable rejection from the
Growing up on a reservation where failing was welcomed and even somewhat encouraged, Alexie was pressured to conform to the stereotype and be just another average Indian. Instead, he refused to listen to anyone telling him how to act, and pursued his own interests in reading and writing at a young age. He looks back on his childhood, explaining about himself, “If he'd been 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” (17). Alexie compares the life and treatment of an Indian to life as a more privileged child. This side-by-side comparison furthers his point that