Sherman Alexie Character Traits

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

Sherman Alexie the author of the essay "The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me" was born and raised on a Spokane Indian Reservation. Growing up, his family did not have a lot of money, yet today Alexie is known as one of the most prominent Native American writers. Alexie reminisces on his childhood when he first taught himself how to read. In the essay "The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me" Sherman Alexie suggests, that for Native Americans reading is the key to education and education is the key to prosperity in life.

In the short story “Superman and Me” which was written by Sherman Alexie, details the autobiography of Alexie’s life when he grew up on the Spokane Indian Reservation. In the beginning, Alexie introduces his audience with a bundle of information and vigorous conflicts that he had learned to overcome. Alexie’s first confrontation came the very day he was born, when someone discovered “he was born with water in his brain and not expected to survive.” Once Alexie conquered this deadly situation, he discovered this unique passion towards reading. At the age of 3, he became very peculiar about a certain comic book called Superman, and that’s when he opened it up, analyzed it and became deeply affectionate about the power knowledge. Alexie also seemed to pick up this intelligence through his father, as he was one of the only Indians to attend a catholic school, and obtain an education. Alexie’s next additional challenge began the day he started school. He was teased by his classmates, degraded by his teachers and abandoned by his fellow community members all because he’s smart Indian. Also, the author begins to explain how the Indians on the reservation saw failure as this normal thing, they accepted the fact that they weren’t supposed to get a decent education. Alexie seemed to always find a way around diversity even when it looked like the whole world was against him because he didn’t follow the stereotypical “dumb” Indian boy. Peoples arrogance and crude remarks towards him is

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.

Superman and Sherman Alexie both have unique qualities about them. The passage states that Sherman Alexie could read complicated books at a young age while other kids had a hard time. Superman

Growing up as a Native American boy on a reservation, Sherman Alexie was not expected to succeed outside of his reservation home. The expectations for Native American children were not very high, but Alexie burst out of the stereotype and expectations put by white men. Young Native Americans were not expected to overcome their stereotypes and were forced to succumb to low levels of reading and writing “he was expected to fail in a non-Indian world” (Alexie 3), but Alexie was born with a passion for reading and writing, so much so that he taught himself to read at age three by simply looking at images in Marvel comics and piecing the words and pictures together. No young Native American had made it out of his reservation to become a successful writer like he did. This fabricates a clear ethos for Alexie, he is a perfect underdog in an imperfect world.

Alexie’s narrator describes a story of assumption and discrimination through not only the thoughts of the narrator and his life, but also how the narrator explains his thoughts and the diction he uses as he recalls certain moments. Throughout the passage, the narrator demonstrates how isolated he is, not only in the country where hia people are shunned, but also with others that are in a situation similar to his. Not only is there a feeling of loneliness and isolation, but also guilt of relation to how Indians are being treated today. Through stories of realistic fiction, Alexie addresses serious issues that others fail to.

Have you ever been in a situation where you felt like you were the odd one out? In Sherman Alexie’s novel Indian Killer there are many references to the cultures and traditions of Indians and how they are different to others. Alexie also brings up some of the major points of being a true native American and how some are just “wannabes” as he calls them in the novel. He also goes in depth with some struggles of being an Indian and how life is different between Indians and whites. The culture of the Indians in this novel play a major role in the novel as it is how the Indian killer starts killing because of all the racism. Alexie uses many references to

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.

Sherman Alexie’s “Flight” is a book about a time traveling orphan named Zits, guilty about shooting a busy bank. His whole life was built on wanting to escape his foster homes and witnessing acts of violence done to others and himself. He confesses that the only person that ever truly loved him died when he was 7. His alcoholic father chose drinks rather than his own family. Because of the evil in his life, he becomes that evil himself. He becomes somebody easy for himself to hate and thinks any ounce of compassion towards him is fake. His form of revenge on the universe is shooting mass amounts of people. Not even a few minutes into his shooting spree, he is shot and gone before he hits the ground. He then experiences the lives of an FBI agent, a young Indian, an old French soldier, a pilot that trained a terrorist, and his own cowardly father. Sherman Alexie’s telling of Zits emotional experiences makes you weep and you are forced to learn along with Zits. Through his time traveling journey and experiences through others’ lives, he learns lessons about life and the importance of finding the good rather than the bad.

Sherman Alexie speaks about how native americans relate to their history by shifting from the present to the past, using the same speaker for both settings. The short story is told by victor, who remembers a time he and two other boys on his reservation got high. Throughout the story the boys have visions that entail the three of them playing roles of indians throughout history. First victor is seen stealing a horse, Alexie writes: “ crawling more quickly now, i make my way to the corral, right between the legs of a young boy asleep on his feet, he was supposed to keep watch for men like me” (15) this shift from the present to the past introduces both the concept of time, and specifically history, to the story. After the vision about victor, junior sees thomas dancing. “I dance one step and my sister rises from the ash. I dance another and a buffalo crashes down from the sky onto a log cabin in nebraska. With

When it comes to the topic of Native Americans and tradition most will agree that Sherman Alexie is not the typical Indian writer and that he has in effect isolated himself. Jess Row in his article “Without Reservation”, depicts Sherman Alexie as a storyteller that uses non developing dark humor which in turn portrays his theme among each short story in Blasphemy. I agree with Row’s argument that Alexie maintains a sense of humor throughout his writings but that it develops prematurely. I also believe that he does this purposefully, in doing this, his message is clearly defined to the reader and is always a shock at the end. After reading this article I have come to the conclusion that Sherman Alexie entails his dark humor and storytelling style to purposefully misinterpret Indians to demonstrate his cruel and genuine message.

Seeing and hearing the writer behind Smoke Signal influneces my answer in numerous ways. To begin, it helps me understand the view Sherman Alexie has towards Indians. Throughout Sherman Alexie's life he hasn't been able to fully belong to either group of people. Sherman Alexie is essential stuck between being Indian and American. Because of this split between Sherman Alexie, he was able to connect to people on many different levels. As Sherman Alexie quotes, "I can go to New York and people think I am half of whatever they are". It is this connection that has led Sherman Alexie to not only express his views on Indians, but to help the world see the Indian World through his point of views. Being able to hear Sherman Alexie contributes to the

    In The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian, Sherman Alexie shows us that the worst pain isn’t physical, it’s mental, as shown in the scene when Eugene’s best friend Bobby hangs himself to mourn his death (171), when Penelope reveals her bulimia/anorexia (107), when Arnold and Rowdy achieve their revenge on the three brothers by shearing and shaving their hair (22), when he reveals his seizures and his feelings about them (3), when he mourns Oscar’s death (11), and when his grandmother is killed (158).

Everybody has some sort of purpose for reading a book, or many books. Some people may read books because it is for a project for school. Others may do it for entertainment purposes. Sherman Alexie from ¨Superman and Me¨ and Charles Blow from ¨Reading Books is Fundamental¨ both have their own reasons for reading and have some sort of a view on books. How Alexie and Blow view reading and writing may resemble each other in some ways but may also have some differences.