...Learning to read is one of those childhood moments that one doesn't forget. Books and readingimpact our lives in so many ways. Mark Twain said that “Books are for people who wish they were somewhere else.” This is very true for Sherman Alexie who is an American Indian and was living on a reservation during the time that he learned to read. In 'Superman and Me' by Sherman Alexie, he uses appeals to ethos, metaphors, and parallelism to reveal his love for books and how that love can save lives. Alexie begins his essay by appealing to the audience by explaining a little bit about his childhood and that his family was “living.. on the Spokane Indian Reservation... We were poor by most standards” but that “one of my parents usually managed to find some minimum-wage job or another.” That appeal to ethos gains the trust of the audience by letting them know that he did have a hard life. The same paragraph ends with a zeugma telling the audience that his family “lived on a combination of irregular paychecks, hope, fear, and government surplus food.” in an attempt to create an emotional connection to the audience. In the second paragraph, he also appeals to ethos by explaining that his father went to school and was an “avid reader.” His father loved books and “because he [I] loved his father with an aching devotion, he [I] decided to love books as well.” This begins his love for books that will impact the rest of his life. Alexie continues in the third paragraph with an extended metaphor...
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...Reading Sherman Alexie’s “Superman and Me” not only opened me as the reader up to a new and unfamiliar culture but gave me insight to another’s way of self-teaching and embracing the arts of reading and writing. Throughout his narrative, Alexie details his living style and standards, a brief insight into his family, the historical and modern looks at his heritage, an astounding viewpoint on how he found his passion for reading and how his future in writing came into play. The piece is beautifully molded together, utilizing emotion to help the reader understand the effects reading had on him as a boy and man and what it later instilled in him on his path to becoming a writer. This narrative shows that even with the most unorthodox means, literacy can empower and change lives. Alexie begins his story with a brief history and description of life growing up on the Spokane Indian reservation in Washington in a middle-class reservation standard, though most would view it as poor. He describes it as “a combination of fear, hope, irregular paychecks and government surplus food.” I find this to be significant because even with the drawbacks handed to the family in their life, Alexie details their strong points, their will as a whole to push forward and his drive to follow in the footsteps of his father and read, even without institutionally learning how to do so and being described as an “oddity” on the reservation. The most intriguing part of his story, in my opinion, is where he states...
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...Alexie RR#1 Superman and Me written by Sherman Alexie. This is a short story explaining on how he grew up teaching himself how to read at three years old with his family on an Indian reservation in Washington State. It was hard for him and his family both of his parents working minimum wage jobs and receiving government assistance. He still managed to fight through all this and make it in life as an author. This is intended to reach to the other young Indians still living on Indian reservations to take advantage of their lives. Alexie father played a huge role in his life. Sherman admired his father with a passion. His father loved books reading them anytime he could. He had books stacks everywhere in the house living room, kitchen, and bathroom. Sherman got his admiration for reading books from his father. He loved his father with all his heart he wanted to be just like him as he stated in this quote “My father loved books, and since I loved my father with ab aching devotion, I decided to love books as well.” (89) Alexie read so much until he couldn’t read no more. Alexie uses the metaphor for the role of a paragraph saying that they are words they are held in a fence for a common purpose. He means that everyone is different in the world and has different qualities but everyone on earth is put on here together for a common purpose. Everyone in your family is different in their own way but are connected by blood. Every living person is different from one another each has...
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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 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 Alexie’s essay “Superman and Me” Alexie uses a variety of rhetorical strategies to portray books as important and impactful so that he can influence and promote individuals to read books amongst the people in his Native American community. Right from the start of the essay, Alexie begins by appealing to the audience by providing a blurb about his childhood and that his family was “living... on the Spokane Indian Reservation... [who] were poor by most standards” and that “one of my parents usually managed to find some minimum-wage job or another” (Alexie 110). This appeal to ethos gains the trust of the readers by letting them know that Alexie indeed did have an unprivileged upbringing. He extends his appeal by establishing amongst the readers that his family “lived on a combination of irregular paychecks, hope, fear, and government surplus food” (110). He did this in order to forge an emotional connection to the readers. In the second paragraph, he once again appeals to ethos by revealing that his father went to school and was an “avid reader” (110). Alexie’s father has a passion towards reading stories and “because he [Alexie] loved his father with an aching devotion, he...
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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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...In Sherman Alexie’s essay, “Superman and Me”, Alexie explains how his life is as an American Indian. He explains all of the consequences of being an American Indian and how most people considered them to be lower class and not as smart as others. During this time, American Indians were not taught how to read and write or really learn anything at all considering that they were identified as being “dumber” than the other kids by society. Sherman Alexie did not agree with being treated like this, he wanted to be smart, and he also wanted to learn. He taught himself how to read and write and when he got older he taught other kids how to read and write as well. In the essay titled “Superman and Me” it states, “I throw my weight against their locked...
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...The essay, “Superman and Me,”by Sherman Alexie, is a story explaining how a young Indian child teaches himself how to read refusing to follow customary Indian traditions. The purpose of this essay was to make an example for people back home, mainly Indian kids living on resverations. Alexie was motivated, loved to read books because of his father, if it wasn’t for his father, Alexie would have not be successful. Alexie’s family was poor, he had 4 siblings.his father worked on and off, eventhough he began to buy books and bring them home to read everyday.it was untradtional for his dad to want to read and go to catholic school”My father loved books, and since I loved my father with an aching devotion, I decided to love books as well”(89)....
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...Numerous kids around the world have heroes such as batman and wonderwoman. In Sherman Alexie’s “Superman and Me,” the author compares himself to Superman through an extended metaphor by explaining how both are saving 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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...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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...“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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...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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...Reading and Writing: Superman and Me" I feel very shocked. I really can't remember what I was doing when I was young. Maybe I was watching TV, playing with my friends, having a afternoon nap and so on. At the same age, he started to reading foreign language books and comic books , this phenomenon will never happen in my life. Maybe he was smart and arrogant, but without the atmoshere of his family and his pervenance spirit ,he won't became such a successful people. His father like reading books and brought them from the pawnshops and secondhand and the books were so many that were stacked in crazy piles in the bathroom, bedroom and living room. He use every moments to read books such as lunch time, in the car when his family traveled, in shopping malls and so on. He also have a goodness heart and must be very patriotic. Because he always worried about the future of the Indian children and visit schools and teach creative writing to them. what;s more, although the children refuse and resist him, he never give up to save their lives. I don' t really like the Indian thinking. They hate the smart Indian people and expected to be stupid. Like what he said in the book the Indian children were monosyllabic in front of the non-Indian teachers, but after come home they were talking about complicated stories and jokes at the dinner table. How could they do this ? To be smart is everyone want and they just want to be stupid. In comic book panel Alexie remembers Superman breaks through a door...
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...Devotion takes time and commitment, but it comes easy when needed. Sherman Alexie, in the story Superman and Me, discusses his life experience on the Spokane Reservation and defeating the Native American stereotype. He was looked down upon by fellow Native Americans because of his reading talents. “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,” (Alexie). Being intelligent in this example was wrong, wasn’t the normal standard for an Indian boy. Their reservations view was that they couldn’t do better, couldn’t exceed higher expectations. American students should be devoted to succeeding better than the typical stereotype society has on individuals. They need to strive to succeed past “normal” excellence. Devotion takes time and patience...
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