To begin with, Sherman Alexie is a modern day warrior because he never gave up even after enduring torment and numerous difficult situations. When referring to his childhood nicknames Sherman Alexie stated “Sometimes it was Bloody Nose or Steal-His-Lunch . Once it was Cry-Like-a-White-Boy, even though none of us had seen a white boy cry.” This statement illustrates how despite the torment he received from his peers as early as the first grade, Sherman Alexie never gave up hope and was able to graduate from high school…
“I throw my weight against their locked doors. The doors hold. I am smart. I am arrogant. I am lucky. I am trying to save our lives.” What does this quote from Sherman Alexie's “Superman and Me” mean? First, the quote should be broken down into fragments. “I throw my weight against their locked doors. The doors hold.” In this part of the quote Alexie is talking about the “...sullen and already defeated Indian kids who sit in the back rows and ignore me with theatrical precision.” He is telling about how he tries over and over to teach them, but they don’t want to learn. They have shut him out and locked their metaphorical doors.…
“Superman broke down the door,” Sherman Alexie’s metaphor just as he broke through adversity. Internal and external expectations are a basis of identity and how we each perceive ourselves. In Alexie’s writing, “The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me,” he describes finding his identity through his struggles as he excelled academically obtaining his unique view on the world and facing many stereotypes. As a young boy expected to maintain limited intelligence and accept the standard of ignorance, he was able to surpass limitations while “viewing his world in paragraphs.” While sharing a love of reading with his father he overcame his expected limitations on his reservation. The struggles he endured allowed him to give back to the community he grew with after becoming an adult.…
In the story, “Superman and Me”, one idea Alexie explores is that stereotypes should never be an excuse for accepting failure. Sherman says that he read “Grapes of Wrath in Kindergarten when other children were struggling through Dick and Jane.” Sherman hints that in kindergarten, when sherman was expected to act like he knew almost nothing about reading, Sherman had shown his intelligence by reading better than all the other kids, often there are high schooler students that act like they are not smart, when really they are, they just don’t apply themselves, and there are also the kids that actually show their intelligence. Sherman states that “those who failed…
In Sherman Alexie's "The Joy of reading & writing: Superman and Me" he uses his credibility as an author and the appeal of Superman to educate his audience…
In The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me, Sherman Alexie shares with his audience his story of when he learned to read at a young age through a Superman comic book. Through stories and memories of his childhood, he explains how Indian children on reservations were expected not to try in school and fail in the non-Indian world. In order to successfully portray his ideas, Alexie uses many rhetorical techniques and ideas. By using these techniques the audience is forced to look more into the writing instead of just being given the direct meaning of what Alexie is trying to share.…
Sherman Alexie is the author of “Superman and Me”. This is a story about Alexie teaching himself to read with a Superman comic book which also inspired him to become a writer. In this story, Alexie made a claim that “A smart Indian is a dangerous person, widely feared and ridiculed by Indians and non-Indians alike.” (Alexie 497). He found himself to be a dangerous person because of his experience of discrimination. Nonetheless, it is an unrealistic claim in that a “…smart Indian” (Alexie 497) or any literate person would be deemed a dangerous person to society.…
This essay “Superman and Me” by Sherman Alexie was about how he learned to read. For Alexie, he picked up the habit of wanting to read from his father. He explains how long before he could even read he would pick up his father’s books and just look at them. Looking at how the books were structured allowed him to grasp the concept of books and paragraphs but it also allowed him to relate it to his own life. He looked at his own life, his family and thought about how they are each like their own little paragraph. The very first time he started to read was with a superman comic when he was a younger kid. Throughout his essay he talks little about learning to read from the comic book but more of how hard it was to fit in wanting to be a smart indian. He felt it was hard growing up because indians didn’t approve of him being smart, they were supposed to be stupid to society. But it was the books, and ambition to read…
They cannot save their lives. They don’t have any control of their life. They don’t know which other way to turn, but the stereotypical way. Yet, they have complete control at the same time. These Indians have no chance for a future with their efforts inside the classroom. These kids are intelligent people. While they have forced their minds to believe the stereotypes, they are aware of their intellectual capacity. They have the willpower to sit back and let the non-Indian share the correct answer rather than them, themselves. They have no control, but complete power at the same time.“I refused to fail. I was smart I was arrogant. I was lucky.” This is a way to prove that Sherman Alexie let stereotypes steer his entire life, but in a positive way. He did not let them get in his way, and it changed his character in a way that is mind blowing. He refused to be apart of that group of Indians with no hope or real potential. He became an inspiration without even a fair warning. He let stereotypes push him in the untraveled direction, the life changing, ground-breaking direction. The direction that proved everybody else…
Most of the time; we are judged by our looks, color of skin and nationality. It does not matter how hard you try to be a better person, to be a professional, to have a decent job, to be acknowledged for what you are and not how you look, people still first see what is in the outside. In the short story “Flight Patterns” by Sherman Alexie gives a very good example of how society stereotypes a person. Alexie used stereotypes to show readers that instead of judging of appearances we should get to know a person first.…
In the reading “Superman and Me” Sherman Alexie describes his childhood and growing up as an Indian boy…
"Faster than a speeding bullet! More powerful than a locomotive! Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound! It's a bird! It's a plane! It's Superman!" (Bridwell 11) These celebrated words have echoed for over six decades in American cultural and social society. Created by Jerry Siegel and Joseph Shuster, Superman was intended to fight greed, crime, injustice and abuse. The impact created by Superman, or better known to the average man as Clark Kent, extends far beyond the comic book itself. Although many have grown to love him for the courage he represents, the personification Superman employs deviates from what is truly natural or innately human by challenging undisturbed and irrefutable conventions.…
Cited: Alexie, Sherman. "Superman and Me." Los Angeles Times [Los Angeles] 19 Apr. 1998: no page. Print.…
First, one must learn diligence, if both teacher and student put in the hard work to further develop oneself, society will find more valuable improvements in education. This building block, representing working hard, was perfectly captured in Sherman Alexie’s essay, “Superman and Me”. In his essay, Alexie reveals his remarkable experience with education as an Indian living on a reservation, where he taught himself to read and persevered through adversity even when his own teachers oppressed him in the classroom and expected him to fail. Similarly to being labeled a “below average” student at my old school, Alexie explains, “We were Indian children who were expected to be stupid” (Alexia 17). Alexie recognized this belief at an early age, but could not bring himself to accept it. He worked as hard as he possibly could to learn how to read, he read just about everything he saw with words. He realized his purpose was more than just proving himself to be better than his label, but to also help the other Indian kids who have lost all motivation to work hard to learn, “I am smart. I am arrogant, I am lucky. I am trying to save our lives” (Alexie…
Alexie, the author of “Superman and Me” distinguishes himself as feeling as if he was the superman in a unique way of describing the actions. This essay portrays Alexie talking about how important books are to him and how they have made him reach a point in his life where he feels the power to be a superhero. However this may seem arrogant, the strategies of his style are uniquely noticeable and also show examples on why he feels heroic.…