Sherman Alexie Journey

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

I fought the thoughts of not being able to breathe and allowing myself to have a panic attack. I have never been very religious, but it got to a point where counting didn’t help and the moment that destroyed my health replayed over and over. It was the few seconds prior to blacking out, to when I looked up at my rearview mirror and saw a truck coming right for me because he fell asleep. These thirty minutes of darkness symbolized the endless emotional and physical pain I had endured and my return to the darkness, which I cannot explain. So I prayed, hoping that even though I couldn’t remember all the verses, it would end the spinning and the torture. These moments of fear were more than claustrophobia; it was also a concoction of sadness. Sadness, that uncovered my weak and fragile human being self to the world because I had still not healed. As these thoughts deepened, the bed of the MRI machine began to move outward and I knew it was over. I hadn’t realized that my body was trembling until they took the thick white sheet off me. It revealed my shaking legs covered in Goosebumps and so, I pulled my fuzzy green socks up and with their help got off the bed. I wondered if that’s what it was like to live through a traumatic event or was it me being dramatic? Either way, I shut the door leaving the loud and terrible noises behind me. As I walked out, I could never see myself laying in that room again, unable to escape the endless

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

An ambulance came and carried out my mom. I didn’t know what was going on, so many questions running through my mind, what was wrong with her, was she going to be ok. I was scared, more scared then I had ever been. My sister Sheridan who was 8 asked me “what’s happening?” through tears. On that day a little piece of me began to change because if I let her see my fear that would not help anyone, and so even though I didn’t know what was happening I responded “everything is going to be ok” even though I did not trust my own words.

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.

Transitioning from the teen years to adulthood and two near death experiences has allowed me to establish a spiritual relationship with God. The first experience occurred when driving on a country roads with deep curbs don’t remember what happen but my car somehow flipped on one side in a ditch and

The mind is a powerful thing. This is a theme that is shared among the five short stories we have read in class (Happy Trails) (Christmas at Grammas) (The Mimis) (Crazy) (The Boy Without a Flag). This theme talks about how peoples minds are very influential on your decisions whether you realize it or not and how peoples emotions and beliefs change over time.

Sherman Alexie is a Native American writer who writes about life as an American Indian. Alexie uses his family and culture to create the setting, and he also uses it to create a three person reflection of himself through his characters Thomas Builds-The-Fire, Victor Joseph, and Victor Polatkin.

The short story of “superman and Me” by Sherman Alexie is based on the story of the author Sherman Alexie. It is the story of how he learned to love books because of his father and how his love for books helped him live. He talks about how he taught himself to write at the age of three. He started to view the world through literature, “ I began to think of terms of paragraphs.” He talks about the harshness he experienced growing up as an intelligent Indian boy with close to no opportunities. He was discriminated by the other indian boys simply for being intelligent, arrogant and lucky.

Despite of all the doubt and hopelessness, Junior had a certain characteristic that enabled him to overcome all the conflicts within his community: hope. Unlike the other Indian’s in his Reservation, Junior wasn 't going to lower himself to everyone else 's level; he was going to learn to overcome what no one else thought they could.

When Junior received the devastating news that his sister passed away, he discovers two reactions, one from his family and another from his peers at Reardan. Upon returning home after hearing the news, Junior finds his mother crying to him and begging him to never leave her. In addition, his father’s reaction, in the car, was shocked, almost to the point of being calm. However, at Reardan, he gains support from his peers who are not crying about the death of Juniors sister, but about what Junior has lost. Alexie wrote, “I walked inside, into the crowded hallways, and all sorts of boys and girls, and teachers, came up and hugged me and slapped my shoulder and gave me little punches in the belly. They were worried for me. They wanted to help

People always say, “try walking in my shoes.” Not very many people actually get that chance, though. Walking in others’ shoes teaches different values, and shows life through different perspectives. Zits, the main character in Flight, by Sherman Alexie, gets that opportunity. He learns things about himself as well as others. Readers see what he learns through moral and philosophical approaches as well as gender approaches.

Before the drafting of the United State Constitution in 1782, which was primarily before the Peace of Paris was issued that untimely ended the Revolutionary War, J. Hector St. John de Crevecoeur predicted the coming of a grand republic country emerging forward in the future. He made the statement, “What, then is the American, the new man? He is neither a European, or the descendant of a European… He is an American, who leaving behind him all his ancient prejudices and manners, receives new ones form the new mode of life he has embraced, the new government he obeys, and the new rank he holds… Here individuals of all nations are melted into a new race, whose labors and posterity will one day cause great changes in the world.” His metaphor represents

I found reading interesting for a number of reasons. What struck me the most was the way he wrote about being an Indian child who did not want to be ignorant. In this reading I really feel like he gave me a peak at his heart. When he wrote about going back to the reservation to teach the kids poetry and short stories.

In Alexie’s “Evolution”, he introduces a man named Buffalo Bill, a clear reference to the real life man who was both a pony express rider and member of the army in the Indian Wars. He opens up a “pawn shop on the reservation/right across the border from the liquor store” (Line 1-2). This line is really significant because alcohol-related deaths are pretty common within Native American communities; it appears that Buffalo Bill wanted to set up somewhere where he thought he could get a lot of foot traffic. Progressively, the Natives bring all of their belongings to sell to Buffalo Bill, he “takes everything the Indians have to offer” (Line 7). These people even go so far to “pawn their hands, saving the thumbs for last, they pawn/their skeletons”