...kids’ lives. While he teaches many Indian kids everything about reading and writing, Superman saves people's lives from evil villains. Alexie informs his readers how he is saving lives by teaching Indian boys and girls how to read and write. “I visit the schools as often as possible. The Indian kids crowd the classroom.” The kids are eager to learn when Alexie arrives. The author is explaining how he and Superman are saving lives. Alexie is saving their lives through reading. “I visit schools and teach creative writing to Indian kids. In all my years in the reservation school system, I was never taught how to write poetry, short stories, or novels.” Since Alexie was never taught english and grammar, he wants to help other kids know. He wants to break down their doors since his were not broken down....
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...English 111 CA 06/08/2014 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...
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...Printess Wardlaw Instructor Sherry Beasley English 100 September 30, 2015 Short Writing Assignment 1 In Sherman Alexie’s “Superman and Me”, he’s a Spokane Indian boy that found a love in reading books. Alexie was one of the Indian that didn’t live to the expectation of being an uneducated Indian. He later realized that his father was the reason for his success because he inspired him to do as him when he picked up his first book. Alexie was one of six children his mom and dad had to rise on a minimum wage job in an Indian reservation. They were poor but in the reservation they were middle class because they’re father was educated and most Indians didn’t even have that. He said he had “an older brother, a sister who was deceased, two younger twin sisters and an adopted younger brother” (89). Alexie’s father was the inspiration to his life because of this, being that he was an avid reader. Books were the only thing that Alexie’s family really had an abundance of so he wanting to follow his father he felt it was perfect to read. Before Alexie found his love for reading; he discovered what a paragraph was. And this is all he needed to split the world he knew up into an exquisite story. Initially, Alexie seen things around him in paragraphs like the Indian reservation, his family his school. Purpose being he had no idea what a paragraph meant but he knew it “was a fence that held words” (89) extracting from his passage. Then he picked up his first book he could remotely...
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...In the video “Eric Foner on the Pueblo Revolt” Eric Foner talks about Pope´ being the main religious leader to Indians in the Pueblo Revolt. This Revolt took place in the 1680’s in New Mexico. In 1598, Juan de Onate occupied the territories of northern New Mexico. The Spanish colonists arrived in New Mexico without sufficient supplies and turned to local Indian natives to obtain by threat food and essentials. The Pueblo Indians refused to give the Spanish colonists their food so they were an instant enemy to the Spanish colonists. The Spanish responded in many aggressive ways including burning down Pueblos. The rise of Christianity among the Spanish drove traditional pueblo Indian religion to a stand still. Spanish missionaries had been working towards exterminating the traditional Indian religion; the Spanish colonists wanted all of the Indians to convert to Roman Catholicism. The Spanish colonists did many things to try and reach this goal, such as breaking up places of worship and religious sights. The Spanish colonists even went as far as killing around 800 Indians and enslaving just as many, if not more. There were also differences in the economic practices of the Spanish colonists. During these years before the revolt, Pueblo Indians suffered lack of water, starvation, and death, all of these factors contributing to a far-reaching decrease in the Pueblo Indian population. Open resistance to the Spanish colonists demands resulted in ruthless consequences such as amputation...
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...Tessa Garcia English 90 Romer Kaplan 02/08/15 Freedom through education Education is a potent tool that can change the very essence of a person. It provides a way for a person to break whatever bonds are holding them 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...
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...answer is yes. He is a Spokane Indian and also a prominent writer. He is the author of “Superman and Me” a short essay first published in Los Angeles Times, April 19 1998, as part of the series “The Joy of Reading and Writing”. In this piece Alexie describes how he taught himself how to read at the age of three and how he manage to literally read his way out of the reservation in which he grew up. By narrating his own story, he illustrates how few were the chances for him as well as for all young Indians in a reservation to succeed in life, not only because of poverty or because of the limited school system, but more precisely because of the mental barriers Indians have imposed themselves when exposed to the challenges of the Non-Indian society. In contrast to this panorama, and against all statistics and predictions, Alexie succeeded...
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...In the essay “Superman and Me”, an extended metaphor is used to explain the connection between the author and Superman. Superman and the author have had a strong connection for a long time. When Sherman Alexie was three years old, he picked up a Superman comic while lying in the floor. Alexie’s dad always brought home books all the time, so Alexie read all the time. Superman and the author have always been together through Alexie’s childhood, school days, and adulthood. In Alexie’s childhood he was teased for being an indian child so he decided to stand out from the rest. “ I learned to read with a Superman comic.” This explains that Alexie was a young prodigy in school while others struggled. “I was three years old…” This shows that Alexie...
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...destruction of the Plains Indians’ way of life. To come to a conclusion on this, the factor of land beliefs will have to be analysed and considered. But to compare and make a fair judgement, I will also be examining other factors also. These will include the railroads, US government and the US army. I shall then come to conclusion based on the analysis in my assessment. As it is the subject of the hypothesis for this question, I shall start with analysing the impact of beliefs of land. The primary Belief on land of the Plains Indians was that no body owned it, and that everything belonged to the Great Spirit. The white Americans however believed that land was owned by whoever took it first, or who bought it off the owner. This led to conflicts and therefore partially led to the destruction of the Native American way of life. The white Americans quickly claimed land and would move the Plains Indians around as they saw fit, usually affected by where gold had recently been discovered. This culminated in putting the Native Americans on reservations. In many of the agreements and treaties signed over land the settlers would claim never to go back on their promises “as long as grass grew” and “the mountains stood”. Breaking the promises would have shown the Native Americans that the settlers thought little of their intelligence, and also would instil a lack of trust in the settlers, as now every apparently solemn vow to not attack certain areas or to treat the Plains Indians better etc. could...
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...In Deborah Miranda’s Bad Indians, she invokes many instances of violence, historical erasure, and a sense of questioning identity both in personal situations, and in simply talking about the brutality of colonialism, and its effects in the scheme of historical consciousness. In reading it, it causes the reader to think about why she does this, and what end goal it may achieve. Michael Dorris’ piece Indians on the Shelf puts the erasure of Native American culture into a context in which erasure is portrayed as a rewriting of a history. Miranda’s tribal memoir constantly critiques, and reconstructs the history of a people systematically erased by the American government, using many different types of documents. This helps further illustrate how the winners really do write the history when it comes to the American education system, but also shows how much of an impact the breaking of silence has. Miranda shows the instances of abuse in her own family, as well as including a “genealogy of violence” to start and finish the first section in her book. Reflecting on why she chose to do this, I felt as though she included this to show not only how violence can be passed down from generation to generation (ie the fact that in the missions, Native people were subjected to unspeakable violence, and the direct desecendant now abuses his own family), but speaks to a sense of identity and the question of it. She does not include her own family tree, because she wants to take a stand against...
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...about how he is a great basketball player. They also spoke about how every past “reservation hero” ended up becoming an alcoholic. At the end of the chapter julius’s future is foreshadowed when Adrian throws the cup. In the book it states, “while the sun rose straight up above us and settled down behind the house, watched that cup revolve, revolve, until it came down whole to the ground.” (Alexie 53) This quote foreshadows victor’s life as a basketball star, when the cup is revolving and begins to slow down it symbolizes his career being sidetracked by alcohol. Another example of foreshadowing with symbolism in the book is when the author writes about Arnold’s drinking. In the book it says “ Victor watched his father take a drink of vodka on a completely empty stomach...Maybe it was like Hiroshima or Nagasaki...During those long drinks, Victor's father wasn’t shaped like a question mark. He looked more like an exclamation point.” (Alexie 6) When the author uses an event like Hiroshima, which was had devastating effects and killed many people, to describe Victor's father’s behavior when he was drunk it shows how crazy his father was which foreshadows that alcohol will play a role in the breaking up of Victor’s family. Alexie employs...
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...2015 Assyrians and Indians have some very similar views on women and their marital rights, especially when discussing their duties. In “The Arthashastra” and “The Code of Assura,” women had had a strict life with only being able to do what her husband tells her. The two cultures which these documents come from, Assyria and India are comparable when discussing women’s marriage and property rights, but differ considering how women are punished for breaking marital conditions. Marriage is a sacred practice that both of these cultures take very seriously. Divorce is only granted after all else has failed. What shows commitment to marriage are the strict punishments, put in place by the Assyrians, for any violation to the spouse. “If the wife of a man go out from her house and visit a man where he lives, and he have intercourse with her, knowing that she is a man’s wife, the man and also the woman they shall be put to death.”(Assura p.1) This law gives a punishment to both guilty parties. As for the woman, she must be dedicated to her husband, or be really good at sneaking behind her husband’s back. If caught, she will be put to death. For the Indians, women have to be more faithful, because they have more to lose if divorced. “A woman who hates her husband, who has passed the period of seven turns of her menses, and who loves another, shall immediately return to her husband both the endowment and jewelry she has received from him, and allow him to lie down with another woman “(Kautilya...
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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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...India, Napoli also has the added challenges of incorporating essentially three cultures (Italian, Swiss, and Indian) (Bartlett, C., Fagan, P., Yoshino, M. 2006). It is difficult to know Napoli’s level of adaptation to Swiss culture, so I will consider him to be Italian, and thus discuss his interactions with both Swiss and Indian culture. In the below case study analysis I will analyze various cultural assumptions within Italian, Swiss, and Indian cultures and provide Napoli with a specific action plan to incorporate the cultures successfully, gain true consensus among managers, provide insight on strategy deployment and advise him on whether he should share the situation with Luc Bonnard. Cause and Problem Analysis In the below section, I will analyze key assumptions of the three national cultures and discuss strategy deployment. These assumptions include the relationship with nature, nature of truth and reality, controlling vs. adapting strategy, relationships with people, time, language and communication. Assumption 1: Relationship with Nature Italy’s relationship with nature is very different from that of Switzerland and India. Italian culture lends the idea that situations can be controlled by regulations and rules, whereas Switzerland and India have a culture that denotes fewer rules and regulations (Barsoux, JL., Schneider, S. 2003). Additionally, Indian culture encompasses fatalism, thus they relinquish the notion that they have control on outcomes (World Trade...
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...independent India and had the courage and determination to fight for it. The names of Jawaharlal Nehru, Subhash Chandra Bose, Maulana Azad and Bhagat Singh have been forever immortalized in the pages of our country’s history. They were common men but pride and respect for their nation led to them breaking the shackles which bound us. Their inspirational speeches and impassioned quotes still live on in our hearts and continue to inspire generation after generation of Indians. “Long years ago, we made a tryst with destiny”: Jawaharlal Nehru’s Independence Day speech delivered on the eve of Indian independence still roars loud within every Indian’s heart. The idealist and lover of non-violence, Gandhiji, whose policy of Satyagraha had an overwhelming number of skeptics and critics, continued to believe in goodwill and truth as two weapons with more power than the might of all the armies of the world. And due to the indomitable will of the human spirit to foster peace and harmony his apparently mundane and impractical ideas led to us being declared an independent nation. But do we use the word freedom just a bit too easily? Are we truly free? According to recent statistics 32.7% of Indians are living Below the Poverty Line. Our...
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...also has been airing many bold commercials from the beginning which tries to change the mindset of the people. Their latest commercial The Closet which shows two girls coming of the closet and this commercial coveys a message that one has to be brave and come out in the society and getting scared of the people of the society There are many other advertisements like FASTRACK, COCA-COLA, LEVI’S, etc., Such LGBT advertisements have now come into light and broadened the mind of people about LGBT which is Lesbian, Gay, Bi-sexual and Transgender. The Visit TV commercial has gone viral because the issues related to the LGBT people are considered as a taboo so people think its not according to the Indian culture. So TV commercials...
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