Sherman Alexie's Life

In the story, Sherman Alexie used lots of literary devices. Each serving its own purpose. These devices are important to know because they can help develop the story and make it more interesting and creative. They also can help you get to know more about a character's development.

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

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

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.

When I was in 7th grade, I learned to be religiously literate, through trusting God in hard times instead of being ‘medically literate’; I learned that letting go of things, and not letting my emotions take over at the wrong times, helped me to step up my faith. During 7th grade I had an experience that most people will never have or understand. I was great at hiding it externally, but internally, I was on my death bed. It all started with a physical, which, of course, was no big deal. Not until there appeared to be a big problem with my X-ray and I had to be referred to a spinal surgeon to double check my results. I ended up receiving a confirmation; I had scoliosis, and that there was nothing left to do, but wait for back surgery. Naturally,

“Alexie is a stand-up comedian, a songwriter, a screenwriter and producer (notably of the acclaimed film Smoke Signals), and has served on the Presidential Panel for the National Dialogue on Race and on the board of directors for the American Indian College Fund”(“About Alexie” 197). This fact is according to Ploughshares that is an American Literary Magazine that’s about Sherman Alexie. Sherman Alexie wrote a book named The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian and partially wrote traits of himself in one of the main characters named Junior but still didn’t include everything. One would have to think that Sherman Alexie and Junior have lots of character traits and physical traits that are in common but yet there is still lots missing.

“The term American Indian education has been used to refer to two distinctly different, segregated, and often opposing worlds: (1) the education of American Indian children by their parents, extended families, and communities, and (2) the education of American Indian children, teenagers, adults, and communities by colonial authorities, particularly European American institutions” (Lomawaima, 1999) Throughout the colonial era education for America was an immense portion of making a nation that was great. But before the Europeans came over to escape the hand of Britain, Native Americans roamed the lands.

The opening paragraph acknowledges an ethnic stereotype of Indians. Before even introducing the fact that he was an Indian, he pointed out the fact that he couldn’t read, and then added the details of the financial difficulties his family faced living on the reservation. The information also challenges the stereotype by always providing an example to how his family would make it through the tough times. He says that they were poor by most standards, but his parents would find a minimum-wage job to make them middle-class by reservation standards.

The Indian culture had many different ideas than the white culture. The whites are always working and getting stuff done. The Indians had everything they had already since they were there first. The kids kept seeing each other every day and they would get more afraid each time but they were staying longer and longer

Have you ever thought about what inspires an author to write their books and how it might connect to their own life ? Not all authors make books about their life experiences, they might just make some sections of the book about real events in their life. Sherman Alexie , the author of The Absolutely True Story of a Part Time Indian , writes about poverty , race , tradition and culture , friendship , hopes , plans , and dreams , and education in his book .In this research essay will explain and discuss more about his connections to his book and reality .

Surprisingly, we have no conscious about labeling them that the fact that we understand them mostly through the movies. Quite shocking is that they, American Indians, are view as inferior. Their ancestors lived in the continent of American far beyond us, yet American Indians belong to the minorities group. Although I have not yet had any friends that are American Indians, through this reflection paper I understand more about how we easily misjudged them, and the discrimination that they have occurred and encountered. From my perspective, it is so easy to neglect them and label them on the negative side. For instance, I thought they were lazy or belligerent due to the movies which depict who they are and because of these reasons many people could have misinterpret, like

“Indians were mean people — I'm glad I'm not an Indian, I thought." These are the thoughts of Merta Bercier, she was a young Indian at a boarding school. Native Americans were relentlessly forced to change through education, so that they may fit into the new culture, and so that they may also become citizens. Likewise, they had no choice when it came to assimilation, there was no running away. In fact, they weren’t even allowed to speak their native language. The girls at St. Lucy's and the Native Americans both experienced merciless forced assimilation evidenced by the girls and Native Americans both had to be reeducated to conform, the girls could run away if they wanted whereas the Native Americans could not, and they both had to learn a new language.

children around them look-alike. All of these negative views and actions towards the American Indian culture has pressured the children to turn away from their culture that they were growing into.

angles. It was mathematics, geometry. It was beautiful.’ (Alexie, 1993, p. 3) It was Randy, “my soon-to-be first and best friend, who taught me the most valuable lesson about living in the white world: Always throw the first punch.” (Alexie, 1993, p. 4)

Indian-Americans are people who either originated themselves or descend from an ancestor who was born in India. The dynamics in a home where parents are native Indians and the children are first generation born Indian-Americans are quite different from other hyphenated American cultures. The languages used within the homes as well as the rituals to show levels of respect are critical things implemented within a family unit of this stature. The spoken and unspoken rules of communication shape the first generation Indian-Americans and how they interact with others in their generation.