What Being Educated Means to Me In “Awareness of Language” by Malcolm X and in Sherman Alexie’s essay, “Superman and Me”, the authors demonstrates how education, which is achieved through experience as well as literacy and dedication, provide an escape from the cycle of lower-class society. The authors also argue that appearance has nothing to do with education level. Malcolm X in his essay goes in depth about the struggles he faced before his time as a civil rights leader and before coming one of the most influential men of the century. He also explains how his time in prison truly set him free. Sherman Alexie divulges the inequalities within the education system on reservations. Alexie also addresses the trials and tribulations he endured as a Native …show more content…
Both essays drive through the point that being educated will set people free from both personal and outside barriers.
Malcolm X starts this conversation by stating, “I have known many slick, sharp-looking hustlers, who would have you think they had an interest in Wall Street…” (Malcolm X). Alexie points out the same argument in his essay, “If he’d been anything but an Indian boy living on a reservation, he might have been called a prodigy” (Alexie). I keyed in on the fact that both authors pointed out the fact that because of one’s looks, they are judged, for better or worse. During Malcom X’s time on the streets and on the reservation Alexie grew up on, racial profiling would have most likely been a daily experience for the two. Education too, was a victim of profiling. The ghettos and smaller, lower income areas would have a suffered, especially in their educational funds. This creates a stigma that non-educated are ignorant and destined for a life of pushing drugs and other contraband. Malcolm X, as a man who grew up in the ghetto, knows firsthand of this, stating “I had been the most articulate hustler out there…” (Malcolm X). Just
In the book, “Rereading America” by, Gary Colombo, Robert Cullen, and Bonnie Lisle, it starts off on page 210 describing a well educated Black Man of the times in 1960s. “Born Malcolm Little; Malcolm X was one of the most articulate and powerful leaders of Black America during the 1960s. A street hustler convicted of robbery in 1946, he spent seven years in prison, where he educated himself and became a disciple of Elijah Muhammad, founder of the Nation of Islam” (p.210). Here I want to focus on the strength of a single black man in the 60’s and what it was like to be uneducated as an African American. The many struggles of a black person in general were enough, but a black man had it hard.
As I grew up learning to read was something I learned in school, yet for Sherman Alexie and Malcolm X can’t say the same. These two amazing authors taught themselves, at different stages of their lives, to read. In Sherman Alexie’s essay “The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me” and Malcolm X’s essay “Learning to Read” they both explain the trials and experiences they went through that encouraged them to work to achieve literacy.
Imagine growing up in a society where a person is restricted to learn because of his or her ethnicity? This experience would be awful and very emotional for one to go through. Sherman Alexie and Fredrick Douglas are examples of prodigies who grew up in a less fortunate community. Both men experienced complications in similar and different ways; these experiences shaped them into men who wanted equal education for all. To begin, one should understand the writers background. Sherman Alexie wrote about his life as a young Spokane Indian boy and the life he experienced (page 15). He wrote to encourage people to step outside their comfort zone and be herd throughout education. Similar to Alexie’s life experience, Fredrick
Alexie shows a strong difference between the treatment of Indian people versus the treatment of white people, and of Indian behavior in the non-Indian world versus in their own. A white kid reading classic English literature at the age of five was undeniably a "prodigy," whereas a change in skin tone would instead make that same kid an "oddity." Non-white excellence was taught to be viewed as volatile, as something incorrect. The use of this juxtaposition exemplifies and reveals the bias and racism faced by Alexie and Indian people everywhere by creating a stark and cruel contrast between perceptions of race. Indian kids were expected to stick to the background and only speak when spoken to. Those with some of the brightest, most curious minds answered in a single word at school but multiple paragraphs behind the comfort of closed doors, trained to save their energy and ideas for the privacy of home. The feistiest of the lot saw their sparks dulled when faced with a white adversary and those with the greatest potential were told that they had none. Their potential was confined to that six letter word, "Indian." This word had somehow become synonymous with failure, something which they had been taught was the only form of achievement they could ever reach. Acceptable and pitiable rejection from the
In Sherman Alexie's “The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me” the focus is on his struggle growing up poor on the reservation. Many people would have assumed that he was a child prodigy because he taught himself to read at an early age through his hero Superman’s comic book. Reading was the escape from his life of fences on the reservation. Despite the expectations for the children by their tribal elders, he demonstrated his love of the learning process and used the opportunities of the schools to free himself from the reservation; this made him a dangerous Indian. He dealt with the bullies of the school who made sure every Indian child followed the creed o...
Education is equally important for everyone and it does not matter where you come from, what ethnicity you have, what language you speak, what gender or sexual preferences you have. Everybody are entitled to equal treatment and the right to an education. For Malcolm X, Sherman Alexie, and Mike Rose things were different. They all fought various inequalities and obstacles with one goal in common: education. In Malcolm X's "Learning to Read," he tells the story of how he taught himself to read from the inside of a prison and how that nurtured his future career as a political activist. In Sherman Alexie's "The joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me," he talks about how Indians are expected to fail in non-Indian society and he claims that
Throughout each stage of his existence there are a multitude of symbols that are made evident. Haley shows how status played a major role in developing Malcolm’s self-worth. The author explains how a “conk” hairstyle tied him to the white world and showed him his own internalized racism. The writer also demonstrates how eyeglasses, a watch, and suitcases played a major role in his final transformation to the great leader that he made himself into. All of these symbols work together through the captivating tale of his life, and illustrates the many things that helped to shape him as a man. All things considered, Haley reveals just how critical symbols are in not only Malcolm X’s lives, but in everyone’s lives. Ultimately challenging his readers to look at their own lives in an attempt to discover what their personal symbols are. Malcolm X’s life had many challenges and setbacks, nevertheless, he discovered who he wanted to be and rose to the challenge, proving himself an important and influential
...s existed in the society demonstrate a social trend where wealthy people and Caucasians move more freely in public space than minorities. According to this article, youth of color are facing exclusion and barriers to participate in workplace, school, and society, and they are at risk of being marginalized. This may potentially lead up to an avoidable serious racial issue in the future. Those in authority should take further action to ensure that children are protected from racial profiling.
American Indian students make up less than one percent of college or higher education students, and less than one third of American Indian students are continuing education after high school. In his memoir essay The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me, Sherman Alexie recalls learning to read, growing up on a reservation where he was expected to fail, and working tirelessly to read more and become a writer. Sherman Alexie had to overcome stereotypes in order to be accepted as smart and become a writer, which shows that it is harder for people who are stereotyped to be successful because they have less opportunities.
In his essay “Superman and Me”, Sherman Alexie details how he rose above the limits placed upon him because of his ethnicity. Alexie begins the essay by opening up to his audience and recounting how he taught himself to read by using a Superman comic book. Alexie’s family was living paycheck to paycheck, so he began reading anything and everything that he could get his hands on. The purpose of Alexie’s “Superman and Me” is to inform the audience of how one does not need to be affluent to learn. With pathos, repetition, and elaborate metaphors, Sherman Alexie evokes a change of mind from his audience.
Malcolm's first encounter with academic education leaves him with a negative opinion of schooling. He is looked down upon by his teacher, merely because of the color of the skin, no matter that Malcolm was the brightest kid in the class. After he decides to leave school, his main source of education is through experience. What Malcolm learns in Boston is that the influence of white people is so intense that it affects the way that African Americans view themselves and their fellow counterparts. Interestingly, we see Malcolm describe the well-off Negroes as “Hill Negroes” and the others as “ghetto Negroes”, which seems to show that the self-image of Africans Americans are defined by the guidelines of the whites. Malcolm states “Under the pitiful
Two particular authors wrote their essays on education, and although they focus on two unlike subjects entirely, the authors describe specific goals that they wish to have achieved based on their observations and experiences; therefore, there is at least some form of similarity.
This short story is about Sherman Alexie’s life as an Indian boy living on the Spokane Indian Reserve in eastern Wellpinit, Washington, this short story is about how reading and writing affected his life. The joy of reading and writing: superman and me displays his characterize mix of popular culture reference and reflection. The story opens up by Sherman Alexie saying “I learn to read with a Superman comic book”. What he remembered at the age of 3, he was a poor broken Indian boy living with his family on the Indian reservation in eastern Washington State. We we’re poor by most living standards, but one of his parents managed to find some minimum wage job or another which made the middle class by reservation standards. He lived on a combination of irregular paychecks, hope, fear and government surplus food.
“Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today.” -Malcolm X. Ever wondered how difficult it might be to achieve greatness while others around you are constantly attempting to bring you down? In Sherman Alexie’s essay “Superman and Me”, the author informs the reader of the struggles he has experienced as a young American Indian boy striving for success. Alexie faces poverty and stereotypes while growing up, yet despite these challenges, he wants to learn, which shows the reader how education can be a gateway for success.
Adjusting to another culture is a difficult concept, especially for children in their school classrooms. In Sherman Alexie’s, “Indian Education,” he discusses the different stages of a Native Americans childhood compared to his white counterparts. He is describing the schooling of a child, Victor, in an American Indian reservation, grade by grade. He uses a few different examples of satire and irony, in which could be viewed in completely different ways, expressing different feelings to the reader. Racism and bullying are both present throughout this essay between Indians and Americans. The Indian Americans have the stereotype of being unsuccessful and always being those that are left behind. Through Alexie’s negativity and humor in his essay, it is evident that he faces many issues and is very frustrated growing up as an American Indian. Growing up, Alexie faces discrimination from white people, who he portrays as evil in every way, to show that his childhood was filled with anger, fear, and sorrow.