12/15/2014 Jupiter Ed https://login.jupitered.com/app/0.php?user=1014501 1/2 Sally Garcia Rhetoric and Literature essay Sally Garcia English 12 Honors Period 6 Rhetoric and Literature Essay “Superman and Me,” by Sherman Alexie is an article adressing importance of reading and education. The main subject, beyond the surface is the stereotypes ethnicities go through due to race or by physical identification. The author states the importance of reading and with it, it gets you an education. As it seems the author, Sherman Alexie, got to be who he is now with an education. “I loved books, but I also knew that love only one purpose. I was trying to save my life.” Due to the authors’ ethnicity, Indian, there were already certain low expectations …show more content…
Los Angeles Times asked author Sherman Alexie to write the impact reading had done in his life. He as well got inspired on the expectations Indians are awfully low and wanted to prove those standards wrong to every different ethnicity. “Superman and Me” audience is addressed to higher leverl education people and different ethnicities. Sherman Alexie came from a “middle class by reservation” who struggle with stereotypes by his ethnicity. For example,by using the analogy of a paragraph to a fence, Alexie is providing a visual connection that all readers can understand in order to express his moment of epiphany that opened him to the world of reading: an understanding that words "worked together for a common purpose". The use of this visual analogy between a paragraph and a fence lends meaning to the extension of his analogy in the remainder of paragraph 3.Ethnicities can either see or relate how stereotypes fit into themselves when they are not considered to “fit in”. The author wants the audience to think as a result of reading his text to overcome expectations, stereotypes, by different ethnicities throughout the power of reading. The author was expected to fail in the …show more content…
He continues to speak of how once the boy grew into a man he would speak of his past in third person "as if it will somehow dull the pain and make him sound more modest of his talents". He thus explains in a nutshell why he wrote in third person and makes the12/15/2014 Jupiter Ed https://login.jupitered.com/app/0.php?user=1014501 2/2 audience wonder about the trials he has gone through and the pain he has suffered.The voice the author created was alike a comic book in certain areas of his text. He transitions back to the title “Superman and Me” by short and choppy sentences to imitate children’s reading from comic books. Sherman Alexie was an activist for Native American rights and cultures and a member of a Spokane. As well, an educated Indian man. The authors tone is identified as mocking. The way he views society into shaping and manipulating a person into the way society decides to. In conclusion, the rhetoric literary created in “Superman and Me,” by Sherman Alexie has a strong effect towards the reader as a very inspiring story. He was a young Indian child living on a reservation; however, he recognized that he was an intelligent person. Others around him tried to
- His attitude towards the indians is very respectful and he admires how different they do things. He also feels sorry for the indians could not understand him. In my opinion I think he both respected their customs and repelled them. I think he likes some things they do and is really against some things they don’t. If he didn’t like their customs he wouldn’t have joined them. If he repelled them then he would have killed them or not have killed them from the start
He states that “A smart Indian is a dangerous person, widely feared and ridiculed by Indians and non-Indians alike...” (Alexie, 13). He presents evidence on the stereotype laid upon Indians aimed at keeping them uneducated such as the expectation to be stupid and not answer any questions in class. From White‐Kaulaity’s perspective, the culture of reading was taken as less important and it was rare to find Indians reading at home (White‐Kaulaity, 3). As such, it seems that the stereotype barred the progress of literacy among Indians.
A large similarity between the two works of literature consist of the journey of breaking certain standards of education particularly in people of color. In the essay “Superman and Me,” Alexie grew up on the Spokane Indian Reservation where to a non-Indian adult the expectation of the Indian students were very low. With these exceptions set at such a low standard the desire to give students a proper education were extremely limited. The students, as Alexie says, “struggled with basic reading,” and overall, “were expected
natural instincts and the teaching of his own heritage. That was not the case the second
other piece of information could provide insight into his mind. The book is divided into
When first read by the reader many different things could be going through their minds, one assumptions could be that the “Indians” that the author is
Many children will be born in poor regions and low income areas around the world and may not ever be presented with the opportunity for a decent education. Sherman Alexie brings this fact to the reader’s attention on a personal level in his short story “Superman and Me”. This story follows a young Indian boy into his struggle of illiteracy and acceptance from his peers and friends. Alexie was able to focus the reader’s attention and convey much of his feelings into his written words because the story was about him and his own personal experiences. “Superman and Me” projects a message to the reader, that when faced with adversity, and when all odds are against you, willpower and determination can overcome even the toughest of obstacles.
Occasion: Indian misconceptions, mistreatments, stereotypes, and discriminations all affected Alexie on his educational highway and served as a basis for the writing of “Indian Education”.
When most of us think of the great Indians of the last century, we think of a thin, well-defined figure standing stern and serious. When we think of a modern Indian, we
“A widely held fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing,” is the definition of a stereotype. More than often people use stereotypes to describe or make fun of other cultures without fully knowing the effects they may have on the other. Jaswinder Bolina an American poet from Chicago,Illinois, whom received many degrees in creative writing had the liberty of not living the difficult life that his parents, who are from Bolina Doaba, Punjab, went through. Expressing what it was like to be an outcast when they came to America to start a new life together, Bolina’s father tries to give him the American dream by putting him in many white schools helping him further his education so he can fit in where they were seen as outcast. Throughout Bolinas article, “Writing Like a White Guy” he expresses his experiences and educates his readers of his many struggles in what is considered a white-based society that is filled with stereotypes telling you what you should look and talk like in order to be a successful American. This often leaves people to reject their native culture, constantly having to prove themselves and give white people an upper hand in many situations.
Prejudice, bigotry, and stereotypes are all learned behaviors. Children, especially in America, absorb these stereotypes from what they see and hear from the adults in their lives. In Mukherjee’s essay, American Dreamer, she discusses the negative stereotypes of Indians saying, “Indians idealize the cultural continuum, the inherent value system of India, and are properly incensed when foreigners see nothing but poverty, intolerance, strife, and injustice” (358). The stereotype that Indians are nothing but poverty stricken living in subpar conditions is nothing but
He even explains this when he says, “My father loved books, and since I loved my father with an aching devotion, I decided to love books as well” (Alexie 279). Alexie’s upbringing shows the reader that he was not wealthy, but he was still able to be exposed to massive amounts of literature and therefore could contribute to his education. His family’s wealth could be attributed to less opportunity in life, but in this case, it was not.
As for Sherman Alexie, a Native American who grew up on the reservation, found an early interest in reading when he stumbled upon a Superman comic book. He had begun to associate the pictures to words that were on a page. “I look at the narrative above the picture. I cannot read the words, but I assume it tells me that ‘Superman is breaking down the door.’ Aloud, I pretend to read the words and say, ‘Superman is breaking down the door.’ Words, dialogue, also float out of Superman 's mouth. Because he is breaking down the door, I assume he says, ‘I am breaking down the door.’” Despite not having a traditional education, Alexie was able to assemble a meaning of a paragraph which opened up a new world to him in multiple ways
Throughout this essay, Alexie uses an extended analogy. Alexie’s analogies help the reader understand the purpose of a paragraph. He realized that “a paragraph was a fence that held words. The words inside a paragraph worked together for a common purpose.” He compares a paragraph with a fence which brings clarity to his understanding of a paragraph. From this understanding, he began to think of everything in terms of paragraphs. For example, “Our reservation was a small paragraph within the United States. My family’s house was a paragraph, distinct from the other paragraphs of Labrets to the north, the Fords to our south and the Tribal School to the west.” He uses this idea that each paragraph is an identity and inside those identities are smaller ones. Alexie even says that his family is like a seven-paragraph essay, each different but linked by genetics and common experiences. This allusion allows the audience to see Alexie’s point of view on the world.
Sherman Alexie recalls his childhood memory of learning to read, and his teaching experience in “The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me”. He devotes his interest to reading. By this way, he breaks the stereotype that Indian boys are expected to be stupid and dumb, and later on he becomes a successful writer because of his endeavor to read. Alexie vividly narrates his younger life by using metaphor and repetition with a confident tone, in order to strengthen his description of his reading talent, his influence to the other Indian boys and how he struggles in poverty to change his life.