...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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...“I refused to fail. I am smart. I am arrogant. I am lucky.” Sherman Alexie uses this phrase in paragraph 7 of “Superman and Me.” All throughout the book, he said that he was different than all of the other Indian children. He really did refuse to fail and be like the other Indian kids. Being smart, arrogant, and lucky were all reasons why he refused to fail and be different. Sherman Alexie was a lot more intelligent than most of the Indian children. He learned how to read at a very young age. He learned what a paragraph was, then he was able to learn how to read through a comic book, and then he even learned how to actually read real books. In paragraph 5, it states, “He reads ‘Grapes of Wrath’ in kindergarten when other children are struggling through ‘Dick and Jane.’” So he was reading more and was understanding more than all of the other Indian children. Alexie was also arrogant. Throughout his life, he would not follow the other Indian children and do what they did. He always wanted to be outstanding and different from the others. He wrote in paragraph 7, “I read books late into the night, until I could barely keep my eyes open.” That is saying that he would always read even when he was very tired and could hardly keep his eyes open. He also wanted to learn more and not be scared of non-Indians. He refused to be like...
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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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...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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...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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...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...
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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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...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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...In the article, “Superman and Me,” Sherman Alexie learns to read with a Superman comic book. His love for books began when he was thinking about his father having lots of books. Alexie’s father was one of the few Indians that actually went to a Catholic School and knew how to read. As said in the text, “My father loved books, and since I loved my father with an aching devotion, I decided to love books as well. He read with equal parts joy and desperation,” is a quote that shows he later on loved books for what they were. This also shows that Alexie went against what was expected and learned to read. At first he didn’t know anything about words or paragraphs, but he looked at the pictures in the comic book to figure out what Superman was saying....
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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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...and Books I read an essay called “The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me” which is written by Sherman Alexie several days before. I noticed this essay because of its heading which is interesting. In this article, Alexie aims to tell millennials, especially those from India that the way he acquired literacy and how he succeeded in a non-Indian World despite the negative expectations of Indian people in US society. Alexie starts this article with a short story about the book which encourages him to read. He says: “We were poor by most standard …… I still remember the exact moment when I first understood, with a sudden clarity, the purpose of a paragraph” (12). Alexie establishes pathos by describing the poverty in his childhood and the happiness when he understood the paragraph. Readers could get into his story and they doubt the relationship between those books and his brilliant literacy. He also establishes pathos with some sentences like “As Indian children, we were expected to fail in the non-Indian world. Those who failed were ceremonially accepted by other Indians and appropriately pitied by non-Indians. I refused to fail” (12). These words are easy to affect the audience’s emotional response. So it will be easier for Alexie to persuade millennials to read books and benefit from books. Then Alexie tells that he read and learned a lot from books after that. According to his own experience, Alexie says that millennials should read books as much as they can. Also,...
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...through Jeannine Capó Crucet’s essay “Taking My Parents to College”, Amy Tans “Mother Tongue”, and Sherman Alexie’s “Superman and Me.” Jeannine Capó Crucet is a first generation college student who was born in the US, to her Cuban born parents. She was born and raised in Miami, Florida in a low income family. (Crucet 1) These are all intersectionality’s that she sheds light on her essay “Taking My Parents to College”. Crucet has quite a few culture shocks when she starts her freshman year of college at Cornell University. She finds that she was raised differently than the other students. Other students were eager to say goodbye to their parents during the first week while she was hesitant to let them go. (Crucet 1) Jeannine finds herself without the...
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...He describes his childhood home on the Spokane Indian Reservation, where he was introduced to literature by his father, an avid book collector, and a Superman comic book, both of which played important parts in the development of Alexie’s obsession with reading and knowledge. Alexie explains that in his mixed-heritage school, Indian children were expected to be quiet and simple, and give no indication of their intelligence and skills in non-academic ventures; however, Alexie defied these expectations by quickly becoming a rebel among his community, known for his refusal to be a quietly mediocre student. He believes that his love of books empowered him to lead a fulfilling life as an author of poetry, short stories, and novels, and enables him to fiercely advocate for the fair education of Indian youth and encouragement of their suppressed...
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...Arman Zarbashi Professor Jeremy Harris English 1101 13 September 2017 Superman and Me Rhetorical Analysis Sherman Alexie uses many rhetorical devices such as repetition, hyperbole, alliteration and imagery. Many people around the world do not know how to read or write. It is a worldwide dilemma. Nearly every school requires some kind of reading/writing in order to advance in the education world. Sherman Alexie, taught himself to read and therefore saved many people's lives. People did not believe in him but Sherman Alexie was self-motivated. In the whole passage, Alexie talks about how he self-taught himself and wants the audience to know that. He talks about how his family was poor and how they "lived on a combination of irregular...
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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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