...within the system. As displayed in both Sherman Alexie’s “Superman & Me” and James Baldwin’s “A Talk To Teachers”, children of minority are not given the same opportunities as white children and it is almost predetermined that black or indian children cannot be successful in school. While both essays argued the same general point about education, the way each point was presented contained differed tones and styles, setting the two pieces apart. In Sherman Alexie’s “Superman & Me”, Alexie begins his story by introducing how he learned to read, by using a Superman comic. This is important because it stresses the fact that Alexie did not have the same extensive resources that privileged white children do. Alexie read whatever he could find to educate himself, because he was aware that the only key to success is through obtaining an education. Alexie’s sharing of personal experience creates a connection with the audience. When Alexie speaks about how he learned to read from a comic book, this is almost a depressing statement. However, the audience knows that Alexie was able to overcome this depressing situation to become successful, even though he was never given proper educational resources. This also draws a deep respect from the audience. The irony that Alexie is very successful and he learned to read from a comic book with very limited resources growing up is inspiring and makes the audience feel sympathy and respect for him. Sherman Alexie is critical of the education system...
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...SWA 1 Superman and Me by Sherman Alexie is a short story about a young Indian boy living on the reservation with a passion for books. His passion is learned from his father who also an avid reader. Alexie tells the story about how he used books to override the stereotypes about Indian children being stupid. Alexie’s family consisted of his mother, father, older brother, his deceased sister, younger twin sisters and his adopted little brother. Alexie mostly speaks of his father, describing him as “one of the few Indians who went to Catholic school on purpose”, presumably to indicate that his father was an educated man. It is clear from Alexie’s story that his father was a very influential figure in his life. In the beginning of the story, Alexie creates an interesting metaphor. He describes how he “began to think of everything in terms of paragraphs”. For example, Alexie says “Our reservation was a small paragraph within the United States. My family’s house was a paragraph, distinct from the other paragraphs of the LeBrets to the north, the Fords to our south and the Tribal School to the west. Inside our house, each family member existed as a separate paragraph but still had genetics and common experiences to link us.” Alexie’s difficult experience with overcoming the stereotypes about Indian children have obviously embedded in him a strong desire for success as well as to see other Indian children achieve success. Citations Alexie, Sherman. "Superman and Me." The...
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...In his short autobiographical essay “Superman and Me,” Sherman Alexie uses powerful sentences, visualization, and repetition to create a well-written vivid story. Alexie addresses his own childhood experiences with education. He was a young boy that lived in poverty on an Indian reservation where Indians were derided for being educated. He states that “Indian children were expected to fail in the non-Indian world” (Alexie 584). His parents would be considered poor in most western standards, but to reservation standards they were a middle-class family. Even with the odds of expectation and poverty against him, Alexie describes how he escaped these circumstances by teaching himself how to read. This ambition for success derived from his father who had a passion for reading. Because of his love and dedication to his father, he decided to have the same passion. Before he could read words he was able to review his father’s books and distinguish what a paragraph was. This initiated his path to success by comparing everything in his life to a paragraph “a paragraph was a fence that...
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...“The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me” How does this Sherman Alexie essay compare to the Frederick Douglass and Malcolm X essays we read earlier in the semester? What implications does Alexie invoke with his use of the Superman imagery? In comparing the three essays, “The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me” by Sherman Alexie, to “Learning to Read and Write” by Frederick Douglass and “Learning to Read” by Malcolm X, one immediately recognizes that all three authors place high importance on the value of reading and writing. When one has the ability to read and write, one has the ability to achieve many goals. One also has the ability to make a difference in the lives of others and society. In “Learning to Read” by Frederick...
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... Breaking down the doors. Can we control our own destiny? According to Sherman Alexie we can. Alexie is an American writer, he was born to a poor family on an Indian reservation. He is the author of “Superman and Me” which was published on April 19th, 1998. It is a narration of how he taught himself to read at a young age. His story explains how he refused to accept his destiny as a “dumb Indian”. Alexie’s narration is full of vivid metaphors and personal examples. He recalls the first time that he broke through a boundary. He was looking through his superman comic. He could not read the words, so he made up what he thought they were saying. “Superman is breaking down the door.” “Once again, I pretend to read the words and say aloud, “I am breaking down the door.” In this way, I learned to read.” (64) He retells this memory with pride, after all he was only three years old. Once he learned how to read he could not get enough. His father would go to pawn shops and second hand stores for books, Alexie would read them all. Even the car manuals. Alexie’s tone at the beginning was excitement. However, when he gets to the unpleasant part of his story he refers to himself in third person. “He grows into the man who often speaks of his childhood in the third person, as if it will somehow dull the pain and make him sound more modest about his talents.” (64)He is referring to the dumb Indian stereotype. Alexie gives the readers personal examples of how his fellow Indians chose...
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...Breaking the Stereotype In his writing “The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me,” Sherman Alexie explains how he taught himself how to read through a Superman comic at the age of 3. He did this by imagining what the illustrations were portraying and then putting words to the pictures. He then became fascinated with reading at a young age and began reading anything and everything he could get his hands onto. He got his fascination of reading from his father who read a lot as well. Growing up Alexie was exposed to piles of books throughout his home. These included murder mysteries, gangster epics, basketball biographies and anything else he could find. In this writing about his childhood Alexie makes it very clear that as a minority he refused to fail and fall into the stereotype surrounding his Native American heritage. He knew he wanted to learn, and that he loved to read. According to the writing, most Indians in that time were expected to be short, quiet and uncommunicative in-front of their non-Indian teachers, and did not want to speak up or seem smart in the classroom, especially at the young age Alexie was. Therefore they were comfortable around other Indians but came off as completely un-intelligent around non-Indians. He always spoke out in class and asked questions, he was not afraid to stand out, because he knew it was not necessarily a bad thing. Alexie describes a smart Indian viewed as “a dangerous person, widely feared and ridiculed by Indians and non-Indians...
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...Novelist and writer, Sherman Alexie, in his narrative essay, “Superman and Me,” talks about the stereotypes of Indians and his efforts on combating those stereotypes. Throughout his essay, Alexie uses parallelism, repetition, and metaphors to emphasize important ideas, stress how hard he tried to save his life and other Indians’ lives, and make the readers feel emotion. In paragraphs seven and eight, Alexie uses parallelism and repetition to emphasize important ideas and stress how hard he tried to save his and other lives. His accounts of repetition are mostly shown throughout paragraph seven. In this paragraph, he constantly starts sentences with the words “I read.” He also writes about these instances of reading in separate sentences, instead...
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...Patrick Macready Syndee Wood English 100 November 1, 2015 Report Name In Sherman Alexie’s “Superman and Me” he talks about racial stereotypes, negative peer pressure and other obstacles he must overcome. He also wants kids growing up in a similar situation to succeed and not be another statistic. This essay really stood out to me because Alexie must conquer problems that are greater than himself. In order to not be stuck and labeled as another reservation Indian he must fight against what is expected of him. Sherman Alexie is able to overcome and persevere which speaks to me because I have had to overcome lots in my life. Through the use of analogies, anecdote and repetition Alexie is able to relay the story in a way that leaves a lasting...
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...Jeff Soto Jon Hilton ENGL 1883-678 21 August 2011 The Power Within Reading The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me illuminates the struggle Sherman Alexie and his Native American peers had in trying to succeed in a non-Indian environment. Inside the classroom, harsh ridicule and racial discrimination was awaiting for Native American children who wanted a chance to acquire a proper education. Many took the role of being the “dumb Indian” to avoid the mockery and derision of the classmates. Alexie looked past the stereotypes and refused to give up. His arrogance and determination allowed him to propel forward and prove to the world that Native Americans can be educated. Alexie’s love for books catalyzed his interest in learning. He taught himself how to read by analyzing the pictures in a Superman comic. While analyzing, he realized the purpose of a paragraph. Knowing the concept enabled him to succeed in his knowledge of reading. When Alexie entered school, he often fought with classmates because of his intelligence. He refused to succumb to the racial abuse and intimidating environment. He found that in the books he read, he was able to escape and save his own life. After reading the excerpt, I realized how deeply it hit me. The struggles Alexie went through in school for being an intelligent Native American is something I can relate to. Being a Mexican-American in elementary was difficult. Teachers seemed to not care if I needed help or had questions about something...
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...captive. Education is an empowering force that can break through stereotypes by making a person become dangerous and not allowing themselves to be defined by expectations, even if they are physically or socially imprisoned. What would it feel like to be completely stripped of all rights, like a prisoner? To live with the expectation that you were never going to be anyone special and that there was no point in even trying? Would you still have hope? Would you still want to try to better yourself, or would you let opinions of others mold you into their idea of what is expected? People deal with this in everyday life. The recidivism rate in this country is absurd due in large part to the idea that once you own the moniker “prisoner” that is all you will ever be. There are families that foster the idea of educating oneself as an unnecessary endeavor and perhaps even a lofty aspiration. There are people that fold to such expectations, and then there are those who defy them. Malcom X is an amazing example of a person who breaks the chains of expectations by transforming into a prisoner who pursues his “homemade education.” In “Learning to Read”, Malcom X advances himself in education and becomes an entirely different person. In the “Bard Prison Initiative”, on 60 seconds we find prisoners challenging preconceived notions by engaging in a rigorous academic program inside the prison. Sherman Alexie in “Superman and Me” goes against the grain of the common belief that Native Americans...
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...In the short story “This Is what It Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona” by Sherman Alexie, the reader sees protagonist Victor Joseph and an acquaintance, Thomas Builds-the-Fire take a journey to collect the body of his father. Throughout the story, the reader is able to see that Victor and Thomas were very different people yet had some similarities and while the story progressed, the reader sees Victor Joseph change into a different person. While this story is a work of fiction, we see hints of personal experiences from Sherman Alexie’s life. Victor and Thomas were both very different people. Victor is someone who is seen as selfish, self-conscious, and impatient. When Victor goes to cash the check he had received from the council, he sees Thomas. The narrator describes the scene as, “Nobody talked to Thomas...
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