Summary Of Superman And Me By Sherman Alexie

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.

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.

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.

Sometimes we tend to forget what a privilege it is to live and be raised in America where as some people would kill to be where most of us are today but American dream can be different depending on how you interpret it. However the definition tends to be around the same the American dream is that every US citizen should have the equal opportunities to achieve success and have prosperity through the hard work that they put in most people that try to have the American dream have determination and initiative examples of roadblocks that some people would have in trying to pursue their American dream is income mobility, unequal opportunity, and their zip code.

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.

What would you do if you could not read? What problems do you think you would come across? After reading Malcolm X’s “Learning to Read” and Sherman Alexie’s piece, “Superman and Me”, these are a few questions that a reader might ask themselves. Sherman Alexie and Malcolm X are both great writers. This was not always the case though. Malcolm X and Sherman Alexie taught themselves how to read. Alexie at a young age Malcolm X, as a young adult. After they learned to read and write they wrote for many reasons and about many topics. When reading these two essays, you can see that there are many things that are significantly the same as well as having some differences all throughout the text. These similarities and differences include the pathos in both essays, and the ethos that Alexie has that Malcolm does not have pertaining to the subject of their papers. In Malcolm X’s “Learning to Read” and Sherman Alexie’s “Superman and Me” they are both trying to persuade the reader that something needs to be done and why.

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.

In the beginning of the essay, Alexie talks about how knowledge is a power that opens a window to success by using an anecdote about his personal experience with knowledge. As Alexie talks about his childhood in the beginning, he says, “We lived on a combination of irregular paychecks, hope, fear and government surplus food...” (Alexie). When Alexie discusses the conditions his family lived in, he is setting this frame of pity that makes the reader understand that education wasn’t the first thing on their mind, but what they we’re going to eat next. Later on in the beginning, Alexie explains how his father surrounded him with books and how his love for books started. His love for books was sparked from the love his father had for books. Alexie states this when he says, “...My father loved books...I loved my father...I decided to love books as well...” (Alexie). Alexie also explains how he didn’t understand at first when he first picked up a book but soon learned that “The words inside a paragraph worked together for a common purpose...this knowledge delighted me. I began to think of everything in terms of paragraphs...”(Alexie). This could be seen as a power because although he doesn’t understand, he’s learning how to understand what he’s reading and this could count as one of his first steps to success. As Alexie explains his personal experience with knowledge, he proves how he is an example of

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.

Throughout literature many pieces of work can be compared and contrasted to each other. In “Superman and Me,” Sherman Alexie discusses the challenges he faced as a young Indian adult, who found his passion of reading at an early age, living on the Spokane Indian Reservation. He challenged the stereotype of the young Indian students who were thought to be uneducated while living on a reservation. Likewise, in the excerpt from The Hunger of Memory, Richard Rodriguez shares his similar experience of being a minority and trying to break stereotypes of appearing uneducated. He shares the details of his life growing up learning a different culture and the struggles he faced becoming assimilated into American culture. In these two specific pieces of literature discuss the importance of breaking stereotypes of social and educational American standards and have similar occupational goals; on the other hand the two authors share their different family relationships.

Have you ever felt like you can’t be yourself because you don’t want to be different? Have you ever wanted to prove someone wrong about something they thought about you? In Sherman Alexie’s The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me he was stereotyped to be just any old Indian American that wont be anything in life but it turned out that he did what he wanted to and became a successful poet and writer.

Have you ever considered if a literary education is a necessity or a privilege? After reading Sherman Alexie’s article “The Joy of Reading and Writing : Superman and Me” I definitely began thinking on this question. Alexie argues that low socioeconomic groups specifically Spokane Indians need a better literary education to help counter the cultural expectation. I feel Alexie effectively persuades the reader through his personal experiences and by using pathos and ethos.

One of the assumptions discussed in the Nodelman and Reimer reading is that "the best children's stories have simple texts" In "The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian", Sherman Alexie broaches some controversial topics, he openly discusses poverty, alcoholism and death. In the section at the end of the novel 'Interview with Sherman Alexie' he states that "all this stuff that is controversial is stuff that kids are dealing with on a daily basis." Alexie points out that children are dealing with serious and complicated issues on their own accord. He has intentionally created a complex, honest novel about life for the disabled and impoverished protagonist, Junior to highlight this.

Sherman Alexie had a different mindset than the other Indian kids on the reservation. He was smart and arrogant with the mindset and discipline to the refusal to fail. His will not be put into the stereotype set by the non-Indian world around him. He would not be denied the opportunity to better his future despite the hatred that he experienced on a daily basis. To guarantee that he would not fail he began reading at any given point in time he had. He would read before and after class, before and after bed, etc. etc. At any given time Sherman Alexie would read anything

    In the story “ Superman and Me”, Sherman Alexie defies the odds by learning how to read on his own from the books that his father would bring home. His father was a man that loved to read and so Sherman, like his father, started to love to read once he saw how passionate his dad was about it. In the story Alexie says, “ My father loved books, and since I loved my father with an aching devotion, I decided to love books as well”, this is a great sentence to show just how dedicated Sherman was to learning to read and not be like any other typical Indian boy. He did not want to be like