Jainish Babaria
Professor Hamai
Humanities 101
9 October 2013
A Fight for Life
From the beginning of mankind, people in society have always had their differences. Living with these differences has always been a challenge our society has faced, part of which is to work together towards a common goal, to strive to improve the standards and well-being of others as a whole. When people forget about this common goal that we all share, and instead prioritize other things such as land, wealth, and power they forget about the people around them and treat them as if they are not of the same species. The same idea is shared by the author Sherman Alexie in his essay “The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me”. The essay reflects upon the life of an Indian boy living in a reservation in today’s America. His main argument highlights how determination is a useful weapon when it comes to facing segregation in a society, and offers insight of how he is trying to save the children currently living on these reservation by getting them to open up to literacy and adaptation.
Alexie was made a victim of racism. He was in an environment where the society’s restrictions allowed no one to go further in life. Everyone was required to follow the same old tradition and be under certain standards. Most followed these beliefs, but Alexie, he was different. He always loved reading and hoped to become a pediatrician. He was considered an oddity by his own people for being smart. He never liked the negative influences of the Indians and therefore never followed them. For this he always got in a brawl with his classmates, “They wanted me to stay quite when the non-Indian teacher asked for answers, for volunteers, for help. We were Indian children who were expected to be stupid” (Alexie 17). Alexie views this as an opportunity to show the outside world how an Indian society works. How there are predetermined outcomes set up to help ensure the tradition is being followed, and what he has to do to fight for his future.
Books were the source for Alexie to gain self-motivation. The motivation he needed to succeed and move through all the negative influence provided to him by his own people. They were the tools he used to get away from the every day’s intolerant atmosphere he faced in his life. They were the means through which he understood the purpose of a paragraph and its role in a piece of literature, “I still remember the exact moment when I first understood, with a sudden clarity, the purpose of a paragraph” (Alexie 16). Understanding the principle of the paragraph was a milestone achieved by Alexie; after that everything seemed easy to him. He was reading difficult works of literature something never imagined to be done by an Indian. Looking back at his accomplishments he was able to boost his motivation to do even more to succeed. The books had granted him the ability to rise up and shine. They made him a warrior, a warrior who was ready to take on the world. A warrior of peace, who after having won the battle of his life would come back to save the lives of others, facing the same challenges faced by him while he was a resident of the reservation.
Alexie has already set himself as an example in his society of Indians and non-Indians alike. Now if he wanted he could have gone to live off his life and forget about the reservation and its inhabitants which had always been obstructions between him and his future, but he comes back. He understands that now as he is a successful man he has a responsibility to help his community do the same. He knows how the children at the reservation are uncooperative and stubborn and wants to change this by encouraging them to explore their surroundings and look for resources, “Books, Books,” I say. I throw my weight against their locked doors. The door holds” (Alexie 18). He is devoted to improve the lives of these kids and so whenever he fails to reach them he tries again, and again, and again until he knows he has made a difference. He is very motivated to help, but fears what will happen to these kids and his society of Indians after he is gone, “I am trying to save our lives” (Alexie 18). He indicates that his people will have to be open to adapt to the conditions outside the reservation to increase their chances of survival.
Alexie’s story involves arguments which portray his society, his self-motivation, and his service to the community. He describes his people as an obstruction between him as his dreams. He shows how his books help him forget his everyday life and provide him with motivation to continue to succeed, and how he has come back to help others by pleading to them to adapt and open up to literacy to better their chances for survival. These obstacles were very hard to overcome, but Alexie without giving up followed his dream and at last won the fight of lives.

Works Cited Alexie, Sherman. “The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me.” 50 Essays. Comp. Samuel Cohen. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, n.d. 16. Print.
Alexie, Sherman. “The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me.” 50 Essays. Comp. Samuel Cohen. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, n.d. 17. Print.
Alexie, Sherman. “The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me.” 50 Essays. Comp. Samuel Cohen. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, n.d. 18. Print.
Cohen, Samuel, ed. "The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me." 1997. 50 Essays. Third ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, n.d. 15-18. Print.