Superman Reader Analysis

Sherman Alexie recounted in his essay “The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me” how his first ever read as a child was an unspecified Superman comic, and how he learned to read from this comic. At first, this seems just a minor detail he put at the beginning of his essay, but with further analysis, I will explain why this is one of the most impactful and important details in his message.

“Superman and Me” by Sherman Alexie first appeared in “The Most Wonderful Books: Writers on Discovering the pleasures of Reading.” Sherman Alexie is a well-known Native American writer that publishes short stories, novels, and poetry. Out of the three narratives, I found myself connect with this story more than the others. Alexie tells us about his childhood as an Indian boy that grew up on the Reservation. His father was a big reader so as a kid he’s always had an interest in books and eventually it became a passion. As he advanced in reading at an early age, peers would have difficulty with the content that he’s already achieved. Other kids would frown upon him because it was out of the ordinary for an Indian to be smart. Children on the Reservation were expected to be unsuccessful, but Alexie refused to let himself fail. Throughout his obstacles in life, he ended up becoming a writer and now, visits the Reservation to make sure children get as much education as possible. Reading saved his life and he believed it could save theirs as well. Sherman Alexie uses multiple techniques throughout his narrative to inform the audience about how he saved his life through literacy by tieing in his personal perspectives.

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

He said “The words inside a paragraph worked together for a common purpose.” With this knowledge, he was able to think his existence is important as much as non-Indians. Learning what the paragraph is through reading made Indian kid stronger, smart and arrogant. He said, “I loved those books, but I also knew that love had only one purpose. I was trying to save my life.” It means he educated himself to protect himself from discrimination. At this point, he already knew the power of reading. By gaining knowledge, he thought he would become smarter and get more confidence. That is, I think he believed reading more and more book help to become a superman. As a result he became a superman and saved his

Alexie’s childhood was full of books, he recalls watching his father bring home countless books and reading through the night. Alexie was overwhelmed by the desire of being able to read. It was a Superman comic book that Alexie utilized to teach himself progressively how to read.

In the first short story I read “Superman and Me”, the young boy Alexie, had a passion for reading, consequential from his love and admiration of his father.

“Superman and Me” by Sherman Alexie is a brief passage describing a personal experience of the author’s childhood – specifically, how he learned to read and the impact it has had on his life. He discloses that he is of Indian descent from his father. Sherman speaks of his father in admiring tones, of how he devoured books and was an educated Indian, of how his house was always full of literature and how he chose himself to attend catholic schools (he was one of the very few Indians who purposely did). According to Sherman, he learned to read through the use of a Superman graphic novel by imagining his own meaning to the different panels and deducing what the words meant by doing this throughout the story. Eventually, he ends up reading more and more, and he is signaled out in his

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.

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

“ The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me”, is a short story written by Native American author Alexie Sherman. The reading focuses on what education is like for young Indian children living on the Spokane Indian Reservation in eastern Washington state.. As a child, Alexie was determined not to be like the kids of his community. Children were praised for their failure in school and Alexie did not want to be a part of that. Growing up, Alexie was basically born into a literature family. His father was an avid reader and filled the house with books.Throughout the passage Alexie uses rhetorical strategies to help the reader understand that he is trying to break free of the cultures belief of failure for children on the Reservation.

The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me, written by Sherman Alexie, tells a story of an Indian boy. Alexie, the Indian boy, has a pair of parents who loves him very much. Although the main stream of the society recognizes the Indians as stupid a clumsy ones, Alexie still proved to his classmates and teachers that Indians can behave smart and clever. In the essay, Alexie described his experience of reading and writing. Like the blacks, Indians own a base position, but Alexie’s parents and Alexie did not give up. Although no rich, his parents still bought as much as they can for Alexie, and Alexie treasures every chance he has and stood out from his colleague. How Alexie’s parents paid out all their efforts to cultivate Alexie touched

In Waiting for Superman we are introduced to the several different ways students and American school systems are failing. We see the “system”, through five different children and view their personal experiences while we follow them through their public schools. Its an intense an emotional documentary with the five kids competing for a better education through the lottery system. The documentary goes in great detail about the different education systems and how it will change our future education. Like the Charter schools that are with out teacher’s unions and Magnet schools that are secondary public schools of choice that offer a specialized curriculum. In transition by the documentary implying good teachers make good schools we see that failing

A school’s main mission is to set up its students to succeed in the future. Almost everyone goes through the experience of school, but everyone experiences it differently. For me, I was fortunate enough to not worry about my education while growing up. For some, a good education is never a concern and these students do not have to worry about being prepared for the future. For others, such as the ones in Waiting for Superman, a good education does not come as easily. These students and families must struggle to obtain an education that sets students up for success. These families often end up in poorly managed public schools where their child receives a poor education due to their socioeconomic status. These

After watching both “Waiting for Superman” at home and “Race to Nowhere” in class, a lot of conclusions can be made from both incredibly made documentaries. Both films offered their audience the opportunity to be informed about the problems and issues in contemporary American education, both clearly with two completely different points of view. “Waiting for Superman” and “Race to Nowhere” were both created in 2010, and here and now in 2015, major issues in the United States surrounding education include curriculum, funding, and control. In regards to both films, “Waiting for Superman” includes the issue of how much the education in America has declined in regards to public schools and “Race to Nowhere” is about the everyday stress factor of students that are in school. Both documentaries were completely different with the issues they chose to address in the films, but both also brought about the right message when it comes to an end.

The most striking aspects in these Superman comics for me was the fact that all the people looked really similar. All of their faces were very simple and very alike. On page 60, the newspaper editor, George Taylor, would have fooled me in thinking he was Clark Kent if not for what he was saying. This makes me question whether the creators wanted all the characters to look simple and similar so they could be more relatable or so that they could be drawn faster and easier; and since I didn’t find the characters related I assume that it is the latter.