She Had Some Horses Sherman Alexie

First, In the memoir by Alexie the overall purpose was to indicate how being able to read afforded him the ability to overcome intense social and cultural pressures that were imposed upon him merely because of his race. I believe Alexie was able capture the aforementioned purpose of his work in a clear and impactful way. For instance, early on he stated that how he had discovered what a paragraph was even before being able to read. Moreover, he stated that “[t]he words inside a paragraph worked together for a common purpose. They had some specific reason for being inside the same fence.” (Alexie 1). Thus, the statement by Alexie was designed to invoke the thought process of the reader and guide them through his experience in

There are many adjectives to describe Sherman Alexie and the journey he had becoming an educated poet. Alexie had a new interpretation of writing after finding out his idol, Joy Hario, is lesbian, “Poetry wasn’t as simple as I thought” (Alexie). This quote demonstrates that one adjective to describe Alexie is open minded. Alexie is shocked to hear that Joy Hario is lesbian especially since he previously stated he wanted to marry her. He went back and re-read many of her poems in a new sense of voice and now he views her writing with a whole new perspective. Alexie is humbled when he reflects on his writing career, “ I was one of those arrogant guys who start out as pretty good writers to begin with, but think they’re a lot better than they

Alexie's father was the reason he began to read which later became his passion. His father loved to read, and even though they did not have a ton of money, his father went out of his way to stock up on books. One-day Alexie decided to pick up one of his father's books and taught himself how to read. Before that, he had never read a book and could not even understand the words. A paragraph intrigued him; each house on the reservation was a paragraph, and each member of his family was a paragraph. The family members were separate people; however, there were still related making all of them together an essay. Then there was the Superman comic book he picked up one day. Although he could not read the panels of words the illustrations told the story. He would make up a story to go with the pictures and pretend to read the panels. Looking back at these times Alexie realized how lucky he was growing up with all these resources to teach

Alexie spoke of his path of becoming a writer from his childhood that there were blockades he had to overcome against Indians while showing how easy it is to give up as with those around him, yet he then speaks to all youths, both Indian and non-Indian about their power to become whatever they want yet how society at the same time has already crushed the spirits of some. King, on the other hand, persuades aspiring writers that a lot of reading is necessary and time must always somehow be made to do so, yet he then talks about his son Owen who aspired to become a saxophone player but even with all the time and effort, he was not joyful given that he only put necessary time towards his lessons and practice. The basic idea is that we should do things that we love as that is necessary in life and the things we love will not make us feel stressed or be

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.

While Alexie states his voice by using metaphor, he emphasizes the meaning of reading repeatedly in his essay. He stresses how he strives to read variety of books, and he records that,” I read the books my father brought home from the pawnshops and secondhand. I read the books I borrowed from the library. I read the backs of cereal boxes… I read magazines. I read anything that had words and paragraphs” (18). Alexie lists out all the material he has read with the same sentence structure, yet he does not conclude all these things in one sentence. He exemplifies his passion to reading, for he tries to save his life. Due to his parallel repetition, Alexie impresses the audience by these

Authors write for many reasons; most often because they want to tell a story. This is definitely the case with Sherman Alexie, “a poet, fiction writer, and filmmaker known for witty and frank explorations of the lives of contemporary Native Americans.” He grew up on the Spokane and Coeur D’Alene Indian Reservations, and has devoted much of his adult life to telling stories of his life there. Alexie expertly uses language and rhetorical devices to convey the intensity and value of his experiences.

As he grew up to become a writer, we see pain in the story he tells. “I loved those books, but I also knew that love had only one purpose. I was trying to save my life” (pg.18). Alexie wanted to be someone greater than what others expected him to be. People would put him down constantly, but he fought back just as much. He tried to save himself from the stereotypes of being just another dumb Indian. He had more determination to prove others wrong when it came too exceeding in reading to further excel in his daily life.

They would make him stay quiet in class because most of them did not like to speak during class with their non-Indian teacher. Even though at home they would talk nonstop about anything. These kids did not grow up to have opportunities they could have had because they were not given a proper education. The non-Indian teachers did not push the kids to learn and they did not care about their student's education. The kids knew that they were expected to fail with their education, and they grew up knowing it was okay to fail because they were Indian. However, Alexie did not accept that. He knew he could pass and that he was smart, so he challenged himself to learn out of the classroom. Reading became the center of his education; he read late into the night, at recess, during lunch, after class, and whenever he could make time to. As a boy he read everything he could find with words on it including all the books his dad had at home, newspapers, library books, cereal boxes, posters, manuals. Even though he loved books he knew reading saved his education and his entire life. His future was opened up to new opportunities because he was educated.

Alexie also illustrates throughout his stories the lack of community among his people. In This is what it means to say Phoenix, Arizona he illustrates his opinion of the tribal council. In this case he shows the robotic attributes of the council through the use of repetition when he asks the council for assistance. Though his father is dead and the urgency of the matter the council still offers minimal help. Alexie is also ardent in showing the hypocrisy that surrounds most of the situations in his stories, such as the character that looks at his white girlfriend the same way the store clerk

Alexie wants to show how he is affected by racism in his time and how even though there have been laws passed not to discriminate against people. Whenever police brutality is a main issue in today's era, then that means that racism has not been resolved. Alexie is proving the issue and proving that it has permanently scarred people to where they can’t fall asleep knowing they will be okay in the morning. Whereas the people that are causing this to people of colored decent, sleep as if nothing had happened to them and they are not even realizing how much hurt they are causing other people.

In his essay, Alexie is showing how his childhood struggles made him the man he’s today, He was told time and time again that he was going to get nowhere in life and would be another stereotypical Indian boy expected to fail. Instead of being weak and caving to peer pressure, Alexie overcame and proved that he was more than just a stereotypical indina boy, Furthermore, His message is to disslove the sterotypes that all indian children are unintelligent as well as to encourage his readers that education is reachable and you just have to apply yourselves to achieve it, regardless of the circumstances (63-66). 3) The sentence the stands out most to me in Alexie’s essay is, “I refused to fail.

The playful writing style is fantastic and creates some laugh out loud moments. The characters in Alexie’s stories are so wonderfully dynamic that they do and think things that no one i have ever met would even contemplate doing. Making themselves look ridiculous or even just thinking a sly thought to themselves. The character seem to lack a sense of shame or embarrassment as they are bold and do not question their own actions or thoughts. By creating these characters who go above and beyond the norm alexie is able to make his writing interesting.

Alexie shows a vivid picture of William, who is the main character of the story, he is a loving father, husband, and businessman who cares about his appearance; which means he cares about what people think of him, and he knows people profile him. His wife is a loving, carefree women; which is entirely opposite of William. She does not care what people think of her. In addition, William is Native Indian; he has dark skin and his long hair that he keeps in a lovely braid, which is a symbol of his

Alexie was born hydrocephalic and when he was six months old, he had a surgery to alleviate his ailment but was not expected to survive; he experienced seizures as a child and spent most of his childhood reading (“Sherman Alexie” 2010). He attended Reardan High School, twenty miles outside the reservation when he realized that going to school on the reservation would not be to his advantage. He was later accepted to attend Gonzaga University in 1985, while there he was academically successful but he began to abuse alcohol. He changed his major a couple of times while at Gonzaga; “depressed, he found some solace in literature classes and the canon of English-language poets…as he explained…in Publishers Weekly: "I didn't see myself in them," he said of writers like Walt Whitman and William Butler Yeats, "... and then I realized that the poems weren't just about white people.