The Joy Of Reading And Writing : Superman And Me, By Sherman Alexie

In the essay “The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me,” Sherman Alexie tells us how an Indian boy sees himself differently from the other Indians because he grew to be successful not a failure. Alexie describes that he lives on the Spokane Indian Reservation and his family was very poor. He illustrates his love of books was his father who made him see the world in paragraphs. Although Alexie can't read words, he explains how reading a Superman comic help him from pretending to read aloud, teaching himself to read, and imagining what the word meant. Alexie explains how Indian children's expectation was failure such as being stupid and struggle to read were accepted by other Indians. He argues that failure was not an option because he

Many children will be born in poor regions and low income areas around the world and may not ever be presented with the opportunity for a decent education. Sherman Alexie brings this fact to the reader’s attention on a personal level in his short story “Superman and Me”. This story follows a young Indian boy into his struggle of illiteracy and acceptance from his peers and friends. Alexie was able to focus the reader’s attention and convey much of his feelings into his written words because the story was about him and his own personal experiences. “Superman and Me” projects a message to the reader, that when faced with adversity, and when all odds are against you, willpower and determination can overcome even the toughest of obstacles.

The short piece of writing “Superman and Me” by Sherman Alexie is about his own childhood growing up as an Indian on an Indian reservation in Spokane Washington. He talks about how unfortunate his family was, how they survived as Indians during rough times, and most importantly describes his struggle to achieve his passion, which was being able to read and write in English. He mentions this to let us realize that he did not grow up with many opportunities, he was not raised in a wealthy family, he did not have the best teachers who could give him the proper education, nor was the society he lived in, kind to him. Sherman Alexie tries to engrave into his audience's minds one message which is clearly demonstrated throughout his entire story which is, education can make a great difference in a person's life. He uses three main rhetorical choices in order to craft his message through, they are ethos, pathos, and hyperbole.

In Cofer’s essay, she explains her personal experience with being stereotyped just because she was Latina. To many people, she

Cofer seems to most often use similes and metaphors to express her point of view. She writes of how she was compared to ripening fruit in terms of “maturity” and how being Latina made her an “island”- isolating her and singling her out for discrimination. But even with all these opposing issues, Cofer works to make the theme of this essay be known: the ongoing and suggestive stereotyping of Latinas; and her main purpose: to do in these provocative assumptions and bring forth a better, more positive insight on Latin

Is success earned through hard work or is it pure luck? For Pele, "Success is no accident. It is hard work, perseverance, learning, studying, and most of all, love of what you are doing or learning to do" (Arrantes 1). In “The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me” by Sherman Alexie, he illustrates his perseverance and hard work towards his love for reading and learning to read in order to be successful in his career as a writer. Through his use of his past experience of learning to read, Alexie demonstrates his intelligence and use of determination in order to create an ethos of a writer to evoke motivation towards his audience.

Just as in Betty Parker’s story in Pleasantville, about how she overcomes gender role, social identity, non conformity issues, author, Judith Ortiz Cofer relates her own social conflict in her story “The Story Of My Body.” Mrs. Ortiz Cofer’s adaptation begins as a little girl who moves from a happy life in Puerto Rico to the United States. While in Patterson, New Jersey, full of joy and wonder, she has a bad encounter and her first experience with prejudice. Mrs. Ortiz Cofer is called “dirty” and “dirty brown Puerto Rican,” which alters her pretty image of herself. Thus begins her struggle with her bi-cultural bind. (Gunn Allen) She has only

Finally Cofer’s story sees her wrestling against the white stereotype of a Latin woman because of her appearance. As a girl she was seen as indecent when she attended parties because was

Anna Lisa Raya is both Mexican and Puerto Rican.Her father is a second ganeration Mexican-American She lives in El Soreno, a Mexican neighborhood,in Los Angeles. When she first attended college in New York she discovered that she was defined as a Latina.Upon arriving in New York as a first year student , she not only experienced culture, but for the first time she had to define herself according to the broad term “latina”.she felt like she was a minority mainly because Latinos always encounter discrimination. But as a young girl she was never the perfect image of a Latina. For example, she was always mistaken for Asian or white. Mainly because of her appearance was very different. Since she wasn’t raised in Mexico she didn’t learn how to

The Myth of the Latin Woman: I Just Met a Girl Named Maria is an essay by Judith Ortiz Cofer. In this essay she writes about her experiences to demonstrate the stereotypes of Latin woman and the struggles they face in America. In Puerto Rican culture it is normal for a girl’s mother to encourage her to look and act like a woman and dress in clothes too “mature” for her age. This is a conflicting message for these young women because they are also kept under scrupulous surveillance, since virtue and modesty are equivalent to their family’s honor. Two Ways to Belong in America tells about how there are two ways to belong in America; legally and to feel you belong. It exhibits this by telling of two sisters who used to think alike, but now share opposing views on their lifestyles. The author, Bharati Mukherjee, is an American citizen who married outside of her Indian culture and has lived all over the United States. Her sister Mira has a green card and does not wish to become an American citizen, even though she has become successful in her contributions in the fields of pre-school education and parent teacher relationships. Mira married an Indian student and they have plans to move back to India when she retires. Out of these two essays, The Myth of the Latin Woman: I Just Met a Girl Named Maria is more effective.

Superman & Me discusses how important making a difference in Sherman Alexie’s life was to him. He wanted nothing more than to make a mark on the world. Throughout the story, Alexie describes how books and reading majorly influenced his view point on education and learning. The children he grew up with were not like him. While outside of their learning environment, they had the ability to tell elaborate stories or memorize innumerable “powwow songs,” but in the classroom, they were submissive and struggled with reading. Alexie refused to be like these students. Later in his life, he became a writer; he visits Indian schools, like his own, and teaches them creative writing. Sherman Alexie was so passionate about breaking the stereotype in his

Sherman Alexie demonstrates the influence that negative expectations can have upon people, and the importance of growing beyond those expectations in his article, “Superman and Me”, published in the Los Angeles Times. Through personal experience, he is able to illustrate how the hopeless mentality among his people thrived and tried to deter those who thought and lived differently. He utilizes repetition to emphasize the importance of his actions when he “refused to fail”, deciding to be relentless in his pursuit of knowledge despite the criticism from others. (496) Alexie accurately portrays how there will always be a mentality that prevails in our “paragraph” or corner of society, that may hinder people from living differently and reaching

And there is no doubt that their changes also influence on the media’s myths. In accordance with “Black Men and Public Space”, Staples tells that he makes himself less threatening: he chooses to whistle melodies from Vivaldi, and spends more time dressing up in a business suit instead of his casual clothes. Therefore, particularly, everyone is no longer suspicious of his characteristics and treats him normally. As a reader, we can easily notice how quickly people change their emotions from fear to acceptance to one particular person. The transition, in Staples’ story, is not from the public’s attempt to get to know the author, but from their narrow-mindedness. Once the public spots Staples’ changes, which are ethically proper, they adjust their opinions right away without any concern. Change is also implemented by Cofer. In “The Myth of Latina Women”, Cofer states that she is so lucky to learn American culture quickly, and speak in American accent to save herself from racial prejudice. In her process of saving herself, she receives so many positive interests by people who want to know about Latin culture, and esteems from people in the community. Like “Black Men and Public Space”, “The Myth of Latina Women” also indicates the sudden difference from the media. In Cofer’s story, the myth of Latina Woman is faded away by her change,

In the article, “America the Multination Society” the author points out, “Such blurring of cultural styles occurs in everyday life in the United States to a greater extent than anyone can imagine and is probably more prevalent than the sensational conflict between people of different backgrounds that is played up and often encouraged by the media” (Reed, 287). Society relies on media to obtain wrong ideas of certain groups creating conflict that translates into a preconception simply by looks and preferences. America is a diverse nation, with many cultures, races, religions, sexual preferences etc., and it’s also a diverse nation of social media, it is within the walls of this growing form of communication that the message about our multicultural communities gets distorted. On top of that, the article “The Myth of the Latin Woman: I Just Met a Girl Named Maria.” Indicates that “Mixed cultural signals have perpetuated certain stereotypes example, that of the Hispanic woman as the “hot tamale” or sexual firebrand…It is a one-dimensional view that the media has found easy to promote.” (Cofer, 306). Stereotyping is very common due to how the media has promoted certain communities, being an outsider to such communities makes it easier to associate those with what we have been told they represent. The newer generation having more tolerance for what is different, and having been born into the world where the civil act movement had made its mark, has granted them with more acceptance and political correctness towards other. Cofers says, “My goal is to try to replace the old stereotypes with a much more interesting set of realities” (309). It is time to think of certain groups

Cofer begins her essay by reliving an interaction she had with an Irishman on a trip to London, where the man re-enacted “María” from West Side Story. It was Cofer’s Hispanic appearance which led to the incident and the extra attention caused her to feel like an “island”. She felt out of place and insists that the same situation would not have likely occurred to a white woman. Next, Cofer recounts another stereotypical encounter with an American man who serenaded her with a different degrading and humiliating song, followed by the story of the time she was mistaken for a waitress in a restaurant. “You can leave the island, master the English language, and travel as far as you can, but if you are a Latina, especially one like me who so obviously belongs to Rita Moreno’s gene pool, the Island travels with you” (Cofer 104), the easily identifiable Latina features Cofer possess have led others to stereotype her as