In Sherman Alexie’s “Superman and Me”, the author discusses that with passion and motivation, one can succeed without talent. He was born an Indian with “irregular paychecks, hope, fear and government surplus food.” (Alexie 1) What allowed him to become more than an just an Indian was determined by the fervor of his “love [for] books.” (Alexie 1) He learns to read and understand “the purpose of a paragraph” (Alexie 1) and discerns everything into paragraphs. His refusal to “fail” (Alexie 2) led him to become a writer that goes to schools, teaching them something “beyond Indians.” (Alexie 3) Furthermore, he was faced with discrimination and overcomes it. The “sullen and already defeated Indian kids” (Alexie 3) is the effect of people without
Educational systems in America are impaired, and the very educators that are meant to teach are the one’s pulling it down. That is the apparent message that Davis Guggenheim attempts to convey in his documentary “Waiting for Superman”. He uses many strategies to get his message across. Some of these include cartoons, children, and those reformers that are attempting to pull the system out of the ditch that it has found its way into. He makes his point very well, and uses facts and figures correctly. He does leave out some of the opinions of the opposing views, but it does not take away from his point that the educational system in America is in need of repair.
Sherman Alexis a Spokane/Coeur d’Alene Indian who wrote “The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and me”. In the short story explains how he learned to read and write even with limited resources on the reservation where he grew up. He starts his story by using popular culture describing how he learned how to read using a comic book about “Superman”. He also explained why Indian children were never supposed to amount to anything in life and that they were supposed to be dumb among Non-Indians. He wanted to let other Indian students that reading is what saved his life. It opened up his mind and made him a better person today.
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
When people are placed under stressful, difficult, burdensome situations, they often yearn for a sense of purpose in life. In order to gain this sense of security in themselves and to relieve any stress they may obtain, the depths of their willingness to venture depends on the asperity and longevity of their situation. In Sherman Alexie 's "What You Pawn I Will Redeem," a homeless Spokane Indian, Jackson Jackson, travels to an abundance of places in attempt to collect money to purchase his deceased grandmother 's regalia, which he claims has been stolen from her a number of years ago. Readers of this short story may find themselves questioning Jackson 's purpose to embark on this journey to earn money in an effort to earn back the regalia
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
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian showed all of the problems that arose in Junior’s journey. From poverty and alcoholism to bulimic semi-girlfriends, he had so many excuses to stop, but the passion of his dreams pushed him forward. Like a hero, Junior continued, determined to do well and build a greater future for himself. An example that showed Junior’s passion for education and desire to achieve his goals was when he threw an old geometry textbook at his teacher: “My school and my tribe are so poor and sad that we have to study from the same dang books our parents studied from. That is absolutely the saddest thing in the world…My hopes and dreams floated up in a mushroom cloud” (Alexie, 31). Junior clearly understood his disadvantaged education and he was very upset about it. He longed for a better education. Junior was passionate about education, because it would allow him to achieve his goals and break the depressing pattern he was trapped in. Bravery and determination are caused by passion, and heroes are very passionate about their actions. Passion clearly drove Junior when he walked to school, since he said, “Getting to school was always an adventure…Three times I had to walk all the way home. Twenty-two miles. I got blisters each time” (Alexie, 87). Putting all of this effort into simply going to school, Junior must have had
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.
Since the late 1930s, Superman has been a pop culture icon in American history. As a comic book super hero, Superman has been a “symbol of hope to a struggling nation” (Look Up in the Sky! The Amazing Story of Superman) throughout American history. Based on the criteria identified by Jencks who states, “Not only does a rhetorical object express the values. . . ideologies, hopes, fears, religion, [and] social structure,” (qtd. in Burgchardt 608) Superman is clearly an example of a rhetorical object.
Sherman Alexie also learned the importance to read and write as Malcolm X. Alexie did not have the privilege to be taught by someone to learn and write. Alexie’s family as most of Native Indian were poor and lives in a reservations. However, his desire and effort made him capable to learn by himself when he was only 3 years old. He started his auto-education by taking superman comic books and assuming what the book said. This way helped to achieve his goal to learn how to read and write. When he was in kindergarten he was reading “ Grapes of Wrath” and the rest of the classmate were struggling to read easy books. This was very important for him that he became a writer.
In the short narrative “Superman and Me”, Sherman Alexie utilizes his own personal anecdotes to explain the importance of education. The blending of personal experiences with what Alexie sees as the truths of life fortify the story’s strong desire to drill the idea that education is one of the most important necessities to living a successful life. Delineating specifics of his own life allowed Alexie to properly convey what he was attempting to translate to the audience. Coupled with the implementation of many literary techniques, Alexie’s personal anecdotes in “Superman and Me” were astonishingly effective at emanating the importance of education.
The author for “Superman and Me” tells how the comics taught him how to read. He talks about through learning how to read he discovered the way other Indian kids acted towards being smart. The Indian kids were not supposed to be smart and he noticed that reading increased his intelligence and made him something that was unusual for his people. Reading also showed him that the other Indians around him acted to be incompetent because that’s what everybody expected. He says, “As Indian children we were expected to fail in the non-Indian world”
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.
There is another type of hero that almost no one is aware of. In the poorest areas of the country, live mostly minorities and other ethic background. All their lives they’ve been expected to work harder and expected not succeed in life. Some individuals living in poverty with a determination to succeed work hard all of their lives to become what everybody doubted they could. Escaping the crime, drugs, and prostitution is enough to escape hell, even if they don’t go to college. Despite of their financial problems, drug and crime surroundings, or difficulties in the language skills, their desire to triumph fuels their persistence. Those who make it to success are the few living examples of the purest form of hero anyone can be. They are not only their own heroes but also the heroes of the poor children who dream of becoming like them someday.
The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, written by Sherman Alexie, talked about many of the serious problems facing modern American Indians include alcoholism, poverty, racism, limited access to education, and geographical isolation. Some of those problems still exist today when I read the news.