Superman Dialectical Journal

Finally. Years of ceaseless efforts. Countless trials and complications. The completion of the cure for humanity. Out of fear of revolt and turmoil, the necessity for a drug that could subdue the subliminal and divert attention to servitude was created. Although the tests on genetically similar animals had been proven positive, it was instrumental to be tested on humans. The apprehension in the lab was omniscient. The next few moments would define the inconceivable effort invested in the project. Would it work? Would we finally overcome the insurmountable odds? I breathed in anticipation. “Bring in the test subject!” I hollered.

December 14, 1924 was a bright, beautiful winter morning, the sky a vibrant blue without a cloud roaming around. The previous night, a heavy snowfall had powdered and blanketed the ground. Children all around town were enjoying playing, skipping, and laughing in the city of Paris, France.

1. In your own words, what was the author’s main idea in this chapter? In chapter 1, the main idea in this chapter was intriguing perspective and ways to counter our innate faults.

Chapter 1 A young woman appears out of nowhere and quickly catches up to another who's dashing along a moonlit lane. "Are we late?" She asks as she falls into step besides the older woman. "No not yet, but we need to hurry, we don't have much time." "Follow me," the older woman replies, and her dark cloak billows about casting shadows on the high stone walls that border the lane. They walked side by side in silence for a long ways and then through a set of huge iron gates swung opened before them and onto a narrow driveway. A manor house grew out of the darkness at the end of the straight drive, lights glinting in the windows. Gravel crackled beneath their feet as speeding toward the front door, which swung inward at their approach, though

1. "You tell him I'll take over from here and try to undo the damage – " "Ma'am?" "Your father does not know how to teach. You have a seat now"(17) This is an important passage because Scout feels badly about knowing how to read.

I exhale a long, frustrated sigh as I look around the old, battered up, brown and decaying café. It was amidst the start of the French Revolution, and circumstances were heating up. Everyone were in a small groups chattering away at nothing in particular as I stand at the slightly raised platform, waiting for the last few representatives to come. I, Pascal Beaumont, was the organizer of the raid that will be held at the Bastille, in Paris, on July 14, 1789. Tomorrow was July 14, 1789, the big day. Such an evil thing to do, some might think, but not in my situation. I was thirsty for revenge, for the blood that belonged to the royalty, for death. That rascal, King Louis XVI would pay for the lives he took from the peasants. They would never

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.

Education is something that is often taken for granted in this day and age. Kids these days rebel against going to school all together. In the essays “The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me” by Sherman Alexie and “Learning to Read and Write” by Frederick Douglass, we learn of two young men eager for knowledge. Both men being minors and growing up in a time many years apart, felt like taking how to read and write into their own hands, and did so with passion. On the road to a education, both Alexie and Douglass discover that education is not only pleasurable, but also painful. Alexie and Douglass both grew up in different times, in different environments, and in different worlds. They both faced different struggles and had different achievements, but they were not all that different. Even though they grew up in different times they both had the same views on how important of education was. They both saw education as freedom and as a way of self-worth even though they achieved their education in different ways. They both had a strong mind and a strong of sense of self-motivation.

Alexie comes across as intelligent when he discusses that he taught himself to read high-level books at a young age. He states, "A little Indian boy teaches himself to read at an early age and advances quickly. He reads "Grapes of Wrath" in kindergarten when other children are struggling through "Dick and Jane" (Alexie 17). People who are intelligent advance and learn quicker than most. Alexie illustrates how he learned quickly by referring to reading "Grapes of Wrath" while other students struggle with a way simpler book. Additionally, intelligent people can comprehend things quickly. Alexie builds off the idea that his intelligence to comprehend reading is what helped him advance in life at a young age. He was so bright that he read books that were above his grade levels like a reading prodigy, without any help from teachers or parents just with the intelligence and

In my eyes, I see this as the turning point in Alexie’s life. Alexie was a child who was not expected to live, grew up poor (“living on a combination of irregular paychecks, hope fear, and government surplus food”) and began to experience his first literacy experience at the age of three. Although some would not see this as a turning point in their lives, this signified that he was on the path of discovering his inner-self and beginning to add layers to his life to become a successful

Alexie goes on to demonstrate how his passion for reading influenced his childhood. He describes that, before he could even read, he would recognize what a paragraph was. Alexie explains, “I realized that a paragraph was a fence that held words” (Alexie 279). Then, Alexie further explains how he correlated other things in his life as paragraphs, such as the reservation in respect to the United States or the individual members of his family. He goes on to clarify how he found the Superman comic and viewed each panel, with text and illustrations, separately as its own paragraph. Alexie states that while reading the comic he says, “Aloud, I pretend to read the words” (Alexie 280). He knew these paragraphs together told a story and even though he could not read, he used the pictures to assume what the narrative was saying. With these details of his early beginnings of learning to read, the reader can further establish that his family’s economic status had no

As for Sherman Alexie, a Native American who grew up on the reservation, found an early interest in reading when he stumbled upon a Superman comic book. He had begun to associate the pictures to words that were on a page. “I look at the narrative above the picture. I cannot read the words, but I assume it tells me that ‘Superman is breaking down the door.’ Aloud, I pretend to read the words and say, ‘Superman is breaking down the door.’ Words, dialogue, also float out of Superman 's mouth. Because he is breaking down the door, I assume he says, ‘I am breaking down the door.’” Despite not having a traditional education, Alexie was able to assemble a meaning of a paragraph which opened up a new world to him in multiple ways

Syntax gives the readers an idea of Alexie when he was first learning to read. In the fourth paragraph, he explains on how he started reading. As he was analogizing the world in paragraphs he began reading that Superman comic. For him to understand the text he began piecing the pictures together into words. His use of simple sentences gives the reader a feel to be in his place. “Superman is breaking down the door,” he states that was what he was interpreting from the pictures and then pretended to say those words,” Superman is breaking down the door.” With this picture and these words he concludes that Superman is saying words and those words, “I am breaking down the door.” Alexie’s way of learning to read relates to other people. These readers could have used elements like

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

As the text progresses into the middle of the story, Alexie talks about how he finds knowledge as a step toward success rather than a burden by using a didactic tone. Alexie talks about how he was advanced in reading at a young age while his other classmates were struggling. You learn this when he said “...little Indian boy teaches himself how to read at an early age... when other children are struggling through...”(Alexie). This shows that he was steps closer to success than them. Later on, Alexie says, “We were Indian children who were expected to be stupid. Most lived up to those expectations...”(Alexie). Alexie starts to explain as to what path was provided for these Indian children. Although there was this certain path for these Indian children, Alexie refuses to set himself up for failure. This can be seen when he says, “...we were expected to fail...I refused to fail. I was smart...I was lucky...I loved...books...I also knew love had only one purpose. I was trying to save my life...”(Alexie). He knew he could exceed their expectations and create his own path. Alexie refused to follow the crowd and waste his gift of knowledge.