Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
The psychological effects of bullying in the classroom
Bullying as an education problem today
Bullying at school and its effects
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Knowledge can take many forms. Knowledge can range from being an expert mathematician to learning to count to ten. In all forms, it has significance. Yet, with knowledge comes some consequence. Many have said that knowledge is both a curse and a blessing--a true statement as there are consequences for the pursuit of knowledge.
There are limits about how far one should pursue knowledge. Although some may have more serious consequences than others, it is always ill-advised to cross those boundaries in the first place. In Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein, Victor Frankenstein seeks to create a species superior to humans. But, when he finishes he realizes how terrifying his creation is and flees (Shelly 49). His mistake leads to the deaths of himself as well as his entire family. Upon deciding to create his monster Frankenstein has no thought about the consequences of his actions. He rushes into
…show more content…
In Sherman Alexie’s “Superman and Me,” Alexie tells the story for how he “learned to read with a Superman comic book” and how the knowledge he gains impacts his life (Alexie 110). The knowledge he gains from the comic book leads him to become an adept reader. He is an underappreciated prodigy child who because he lives on a reservation. He was provided a gateway which leads him to a successful career as an author and as a teacher of creative writing to children on reservations. Some may call his knowledge a blessing, but it is not without consequence. Alexie “fought with [his] classmates on a daily basis,” because they wanted him to “stay quiet when the non-Indian teacher asked for answers” (Alexie 111). Indian children are expected to be stupid, and to grow up working minimum wage jobs. Alexie has to survive constant bullying, harassment, and ridicule from his peers throughout his childhood. Despite the fact that Alexie is blessed with knowledge, it results in his being tormented--undoubtedly a
Knowledge can be the key to success and can lead people to happier life. However, there are some instances that you can not gain any more knowledge because of how it would change your whole life. The drive of wanting more and more knowledge is best portrayed through two well -known books. In Mary Shelley’s, Frankenstein, and in Daniel Keyes, Flowers for Algernon, both the creature and Charlie are ostracized by society because they are different from everyone else but this distinction gave way for distinct fallouts because of their quest for knowledge beyond their reach to achieve happiness.
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.
The quote “i read with equal parts joy and desperation “, from the passage superman and me by sherman alexie, helps to refine and develop his claims and further the story . this quote he talks about reading out of desperation ,what he means by this is that reading is the only this quote furthers the claim by emphasizing the fact that he has to learn to read to save his life.
In the essay, “The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me,” Sherman Alexie discusses about how a Superman comic book was the reason he learned to read. He believes that anyone can gain education and achieve their goals if they are willing to put effort, even if the world wants to see you fail. To begin with, Alexie opened up by saying that he learned how to read by reading a “Superman” comic book. Alexie grew up in a Spokane Indian Reservation in eastern Washington. Even though his family was poor, alexie’s father would find his way to collect as many books as he could. His father influenced his love for books and reading. Furthermore, the first word he learned was “paragraphs” and he described it as a “fence that held words,” and began
Sherman Alexie in the article, "Superman and Me", explains that reading had a major impact on his life starting from when he was young. Alexie supports his explanation by first, describing where he came from then, illustrating how he learned to read and finally, explaining how teaching reading is a profession to him. The author's purpose is to inform the readers that anything is possible to learn in order to prove to them anything can be achieved. The author writes in a formal tone for Los Angeles Times
“What I can remember is this: I was three years old, a Spokane Indian boy living with his family on the Spokane Indian reservation in eastern Washington State.” (Alexie, 2017). This is a direct quote taken from the Core Reading I chose, “Superman and Me”. This article is written by a well known au-thor, Sherman Alexie. Alexie chose to write a informative essay. However, his audience varies from the kids he speaks to and the readers of his novels, short stories, as well as his poems that he writes. There could be many different purposes and reasoning for Alexie to write this article but the main one found was to share how he learned to read as well as inform the readers of his upbringing. The tone is many things
In the story of Sherman Alexie, his hobby of reading books empowered his future. Just like Sherman Alexie did, anyone can have their life changed from a hobby. A hobby of my own could possibly take me places that I never could imagine. In “ Superman and Me ” Sherman Alexie said, “ I write novels, short stories, and poems. I visit schools and teach creative writing to Indian kids.” Sherman Alexie uses his profession to teach kids about what he does for a living. He also creates books for kids and adults. Another quote Sherman Alexie wrote is “ The books he (Sherman Alexie) read saved his life so he didn’t become dumb like the other kids.” Books helped him along to where he is today. They are what separated him from the “dumb” people.
The desire of extensive knowledge is first seen through Victor Frankenstein. At the beginning of the novel, a young boy named Victor grows up in Geneva “deeply smitten with the thirst for knowledge” (20). The way Victor sees it, the world is a secret which he yearns to discover. His fascination in the secrets of the world drive him to study natural philosophy and chemistry at the University of Ingolstadt. Victor begins to further study discoveries of ancient scientists and is not satisfied with their knowledge. He says, “..I at once gave up my former occupations, set down natural history and all its progeny as a deformed and abortive creation, and entertained the greatest disdain for a would-be science which could never even step within the threshold of real knowledge” (24). Victor seeks to build upon previous discoveries and form new ones that go beyond the perimeter of mankind. Shelley shows how Victor’s obsession with knowledge of the unknown takes over his life and does not let anything or anyone stop him. Victor’s quest to overlook the natural limits of human knowledge brings about the creation of a monster that destroys his life and kills him. The monster he constructs does not reflect his o...
In conclusion, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein shows readers how irresponsibility and the excessive need for knowledge can cause suffering among others as well as oneself. Victor never intends to cause such harm; however, he is not cautious and observant with his actions, which ultimately leads to his classification as a tragic hero. The desire to learn is most definitely a wonderful trait to have, as long as one’s knowledge doesn’t reach the extent that Victor Frankenstein’s unfortunately does.
In several occassions knowledge can access plenty of successful opportunities to improve someone's life, such as careers, education, jobs...etc. However, the absorbtion of an imense amount of knowledge can be ruinous for any human being. It can negatively transform someone's life to a horrid, endless pain of misery. An excess amount of knowledge can cause chaos to the person and the people surrounding the person. Surely, knowledge is beneficial but too much of it can cause an imbalance of human
Sherman Alexie illustrates through the short story, “The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me,” how he developed the same reading and writing skills taught in a classroom solely from a Superman comic book. Alexie’s situation was unique from not only non-Indians but Indians as well. Alexie’s family was not privileged, which was the case for most of the people who lived on the Indian reservation. They, Indians, had access to very limited resources which ceased any aspirations they had at being successful. Alexie, as a young Indian boy, was not supposed to be educated by the societal norms expressed of his era. However, Alexie refused to fall victim to a stereotypical uneducated Indian boy. As a product of an Indian reservation, Sherman Alexie informs his audience, mostly dedicated to Indian children that he did not fail simply because of the joy he had for reading and writing.
Alexie learned quickly compared to his Indian classmates struggled to read basic words and vocabulary. The words he used in his story where: "I refused to fail. I was smart. I was arrogant. I was lucky." Indian children were often stereotypically supposed to fail in the classroom, most did. Alexie was smart, and the Indians who weren't, scorned him. He goes on to say “Those who failed were ceremonially accepted by other Indians”, therefore those who excelled weren’t. Alexie loved to read so much that he would read everything he possibly could, even if some weren't books. He now visits schools to teach creative writing to Indian kids. Many of the children read his books and write their own, they want to learn and succeed. Unfortunately, there some of the children have already given up and sit in the back row and ignore him while he speaks. He is trying to open the minds and encourage the children who have given up to write. This short but powerful story explains the struggles Alexie and his Indian peers have encountered on the way to success in a non-Indian environment. Alexie surpasses all the
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.
In the text Sherman Alexie states,“I refused to fail. I was smart. I was arrogant. I was lucky.” You are probably wondering what this quote means and where it came from. If you really want to know that bad, then I guess I can tell you. The quote comes from a text called “Superman and Me”. This text is about a indian boy that lived on a reservation in Eastern Washington State. His name was Sherman Alexie. He was a prodigy to all standards outside the reservation, but on the inside people just thought that he was an outcast. Now that you know about his life before he learned to read and write let’s learn about this given quote. This quote refers to the central idea, that our class came up with, in many ways; this means many different things in our lives and in his life. A central idea is what the entire text means summed up into a sentence and that is what we will relate this quote to.
Victor Frankenstein suffered from a lack of foresight. He only planned to reanimate a human being; he did not consider the consequences of such an action, and he did not build protections for unexpected, detrimental effects. Real-life scientists suffer from the same problem. Today we are reminded with every issue of "Time" that scientists in one modern field, nuclear technology, and emerging field genome mapping/genetic engineering wield considerable power. Shelley raises the question whether the quest for scientific knowledge should be bound. The quest for knowledge should never be bound because injunctions against originality would lead to the oppression of mankind's most important resource, our thinkers. But scientists themselves should be bound by foresight. At the inception of a new idea or process, bodies of scientists should review the question before the new methods have been applied. They should try to foresee possible ill effects and seek to minimize these beforehand, and contain them afterwards. This would have come in handy for Victor Frankenstein.