...When one thinks of education, it is common to view it as an opportunity to expand the mind and that education is used to facilitate learning new skills,values and thoughts.However, education in America is not as effectual as it should be for everyone, due to institutional racism deeply embedded 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...
Words: 783 - Pages: 4
...Larry Johnican Professor Carter English 100 B07 January 24, 2014 The Little Indian In the essay “Superman and Me” Sherman Alexie discusses his life as young Indian boy growing up in Eastern Washington State. Sherman Alexie describes how his father created a love for books to him; when he says “My father loved books, and since I loved my with an aching devotion, I decided to love books as well.” Alexie explains why the comic Superman has turned him into the great writer he is. Alexie’s family was of the middle-class by reservation standards. His loved his father “with an aching devotion” and he played a very important role in his life. Alexie’s father was the reasons he started reading books. “My father loved books, and since I loved my father with an aching devotion, I decided to love books as well. Alexie thinks of a paragraph as “a fence that held words.” He compares his reservation as “a small paragraph within the United States.” He is comparing his reservation to words and comparing the United States to the “fence” or a paragraph. Some ways Alexie’s education is positive to him is that it paved a way for him to escape from poverty and to branch out and have other more opportunities in life. He gains a lot of motivation to escape poverty and to become educated. Some ways Alexie’s education was negative to him is that he constantly was bullied and feared by his classmates because Indians were not expected to be smart. He lost associates because of this fear from not...
Words: 292 - Pages: 2
...Jacob Gurrola English 1301.153 Mrs. Beth Walker October 2, 2012 Comparing my Education to Sherman Alexie’s Indian Education Sherman Alexie’s Indian Education tells of the hardships, such as bullying and racial discrimination, that Alexie faced in reservation grade school; I, on the other hand, faced minimum hardships since I went to private grade school. The rules of the private school I went to are based on the Bible, and this created a friendly Christian environment among the students, so bullying of any sort was scarce. Alexie faced constant bullying in the reservation schools he attended. My elementary school life was peaceful and violence was uncommon, whereas Alexie’s elementary school life was traumatizing for him, facing problems with bullying and racism. My elementary life is eventful and enjoyable. One vivid memory I had in my elementary years, specifically first grade, is vomiting every other day during school. This was not caused by bullying; it was caused by scheduling P.E right after lunch. Every lunch I would drink chocolate milk with my meal. After enduring a vigorous exercise in P.E, the entire grade would line up so they could go back to class and continue their learning. Before we would leave to go to class, that is when I would erupt my lunch onto the green carpet we ran on. One noticeable food item in my vomit was chocolate milk. After first grade, I had the desire to switch schools, not because I was tired of the school I was going to, but because...
Words: 913 - Pages: 4
...Compare and Contrast Sherman Alexie’s Story with My Experience Every people may have their own favorite book when they were young. It could be a bedtime story, fable, or novel. This would pretty much affect their lives in a good or bad way. In Sherman Alexie’s essay, “The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me”, he simply explained about himself as an Indian kid who loved to read even he lived with low standard of living. Sherman’s dad had always spent his extra money to get new books for him. However, Sherman was different with most of Indian people in his age, because he read books that quite difficult for kids in his age at that time, such as “Grapes of Wrath”. He read everywhere and he believed that he could save his life by reading books. Based on Sherman’s childhood, I realize that reading a book could influence someone’s life, enrich someone’s knowledge and lead them to be a successful person. In his essay, Sherman tells us that non-Indian people mostly would underestimate Indian kids. Therefore, Sherman proves that they are wrong. He struggled with his lives and tried to read everywhere, because “(he) was trying to save (his) lives”. Ultimately, he becomes a successful writer instead of pediatrician. He writes books and teaches creative writing to Indian kids. According to Sherman’s experience, I feel that we have got common things. When I was a kid, I used to read a novel by Paulo Coelho, “The Alchemist”. The story tells us about a man who has to understand every...
Words: 629 - Pages: 3
...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...
Words: 962 - Pages: 4
...English 100 L51 February 4, 2015 Alexie SWA # 1 In the short story “Superman and Me” by Sherman Alexie, he talks about being a 3 year old who lived on the Spokane Indian Reservation who loved to read. Alexie talks about the struggles that his family endures with money, but he doesn’t let that stop him from reading. Alexie learned to read from comic books such as “Superman”, he used the pictures to help tell the story. As he became older and started school he was teased because he was an Indian child who could read and write. Now, Alexie is a writer who visits schools to help Indian children to understand how reading had an impact on his life and he wants to try and get more Indian children involved with reading. Alexie describes his family as being poor but they are considered second class according to Reservation standards. As told in the story Alexie’s family consist of 7 family members and at least one parent held a job so the family could make it through a time where poverty was hitting the world hard. They lived on a combination of irregular paychecks, hope, fear, and government surplus food, but managed to be doing better than a lot of others in the reservation. The role of Alexie’s father played a huge role in his life. His father loved books and since Alexie loved is father with an aching devotion, he decided that he would love books also. Alexie’s father was one of the few Indians who attended a Catholic school, so I think that had a big impact on Alexie. He saw that...
Words: 650 - Pages: 3
...of them, with bullet and fist and saber and boot” (Flight 89, 90). Sherman Alexie is an American novelist, filmmaker, short story writer, and poet. He uses his personal experiences as a Native American to write raw and unvarnished texts that bring forth complicated emotions. You can see an example of Alexie’s unique writing style in the quote above where he boldly states the way violence takes place in his story. As a writer, Alexie targets young adults and teens who may be struggling in their younger years just as he has. Throughout his life, even as a young boy, Alexie had been dealing with struggles and problems in his life. At six months old, Alexie underwent a brain surgery which had a high risk of death or mental disability if he survived (The...
Words: 547 - Pages: 3
...Is a life lost when kept within boundaries? For Sherman Alexie 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...
Words: 1458 - Pages: 6
...Great decisions come with great thought and time. In Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian, Junior had a dilemma that would ultimately affect his life. Although, the pressure was building up Junior made the right decision to leave the Rez and attend Reardan because of the environment and the opportunity to grow and prosper. There was a greater opportunity for growth in Reardan mostly because of their white middle-class population.According to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, nearly 9.2% of Native Americans ages 12 and older were current heavy alcohol users, the highest rate of any ethnic group (Hanes 1) while at Reardan a typical middle-class neighborhood almost “more than half of the graduating class...
Words: 440 - Pages: 2
...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...
Words: 630 - Pages: 3
...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...
Words: 475 - Pages: 2
...“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...
Words: 563 - Pages: 3
...Imagine having to make the biggest choice of your life, at the age of 14. Sherman Alexie’s book, The Absolutely True Diary of A Part-Time Indian, tells the story of a boy who betrays other Indians and chooses to go to an all white school, called Reardan, not knowing if his decision will kill him or make him stronger as a human being. In writing The Absolutely True Diary of A Part-Time Indian, Alexie wants to teach the readers that if you do not attempt, you will not attain. Junior deciding to fight the stereotypes and making a commitment to going to Reardan, show he is willing to succeed no matter what the consequences may be. Additionally, Junior took every small moment of his life seriously, he knew that something as small as making the school basketball team or climbing a frightening pine tree will make a huge impact on his future. Junior knew that if he stayed a coward and didn’t try to change anything for the rest of his life, the misconceptions about Native Americans would be true....
Words: 900 - Pages: 4
...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...
Words: 322 - Pages: 2
...In the essay “The Joy of Reading and Writing,”Sherman Alexie claims reading saved his life. It explains Alexie’s life as an Indian boy and how reading and writing shaped his life. He learned to read despite having limited resources. Alexie proves that you do not have to be affluent to obtain an education. Alexie and his family come from an underprivileged Indian reservation in eastern Washington state. Although his family was considered very poor in American society, on the reservation he was from a middle class family. This shows how tough life was on the reservation and how much poverty there was. His father had a passion for reading and would buy cheap books from pawnshops. It rubbed off on Alexie and he would pick up books before he could...
Words: 664 - Pages: 3
