What does Literacy mean to Alexie?
It all started out with a comic book; a superman comic book that opened up three year old Alexie’s eyes to success. Along with learning to read by himself by looking at comic books and trying to associate words with pictures came different struggles, his parent’s not being able to afford great books, spending his whole day trying to learn how to make the words become real to him, and of course the biggest struggle; his peers making fun of him for being smart. For Alexie to go through all of these struggles alone; learning to read and write must mean something more than just scanning through words on a page or writing the alphabet mixed up in different combinations, it must mean something much greater. The first thing that shows that Literacy means something more to Alexie is that it means being sufficiently educated with his writing and reading skills. Alexie’s wild adventure began with opening a comic book back when he was three years old. He had tried to associate the words and the pictures to try to teach him-self how to read. To this day, he cannot recall exactly what the comic book was, but he was indeed successful. After trying to read that comic book, Alexie wanted more, he didn’t want to learn how to read; in his mind, he had to. Alexie’s Father was an avid reader and I believe that Alexie got the idea to teach him-self to read because he wanted to be just like his father. The family was not rich; very far from it, but Alexie’s Father still tried his best to supply books, whether it be from thrift stores, the salvation army stores, or on occasion when they had money, they went to convenience stores to buy the ‘good’ books. Alexie, after studying page after page of words finally began to realize what a paragraph was. Although he couldn’t say that yet, he referred to a paragraph as “A fence that held words” (35). Alexie became a very intelligent person and because of that, he was above most of his peers at the Indian reservation; and sometimes, that wasn’t always a good thing. Alexie didn’t care what the others said, though; the only thing on Alexie’s mind was furthering his reading and writing skills. The next thing that literacy means to Alexie is becoming well-educated in school. Being an Indian back in the day, the standards were extremely low for educated expected of them. Alexie was always made fun of in school for being ‘smarter’ than the rest. Back in the day, Indian children that went to school were expected to fail to be accepted into his community. Alexie thought better of himself, and he wanted to prove that Indian children can be smart and can succeed. Once Alexie started to learn how to read, he began to read everything that had words on it. This included billboards, store signs, newspapers, everything. He continued to read books throughout his school years, and ignored all of the bullies and the criticism. Alexie says, “I loved these books, but I also knew that love had only one purpose. I was trying to save my life.” (36). Alexie knew he had a purpose in life, that that was to show everyone that he was smart, arrogant, and lucky. Alexie was the person to go for his goals in life, and he was not going to stop because of a few bumps in the road. The last thing that literacy means to Alexie is to educate others. Whether it had been earlier in his life, or later, Alexie has always had a passion to try to get others to learn how to read and write just like he did. Alexie’s number one goal in life when he was a child was to become a pediatrician. After teaching himself how to not only read, but write too, Alexie decided to take that one step further in his adulthood. He himself became a writer, writing mostly novels, short stories, and poems. This was different than what he was taught before in his life, it was strange to see an Indian man writing stories, never mind novels and poems, too. Alexie has gone to see many other young Indian kids and he has shared everything he knows about writing to these kids; hoping that they too someday want to better themselves and show the word that just because they’re Indian, doesn’t mean that they can’t be smart. They’re now writing their own stories and poems, thanks to Alexie. They have all read his books and look up to him as a role model; as a hero. Still, in the classroom, there was still some kids who already gave up and weren’t paying attention to Alexie; he tried to push it to them, repeating the word “Books” to them over and over. The short story ended with a quote that he used throughout the story many times; and to me, I believe that this quote is very deep and relevant to Alexie, “I am smart. I am arrogant. I am lucky. I am trying to save our lives” (37). This quote proves that Alexie wanted to do more than read and write, he wanted to change the world, to save all the Indian children’s lives. He wanted to make the word a better place. This is what I believe literacy meant to Alexie, being well educated with his reading and writing skills, being educated in school, and last but not least, educating others to try to pursue the same path that he did. I believe that Alexie wasn’t going to give up, because learning how to read and write was the key to success in his life, it could be the key to success in someone else’s. I believe that Alexie knew that everyone had a purpose, whether that purpose is someone being a groundbreaking pediatrician, or an amazing writer. Sherman Alexie strived to save lives, and I believe that his goal has been accomplished.