Jones’ William Clark… chapter 3 starts with George Rogers Clark (GRC) declining Jefferson’s offer to lead a military excursion westward, suggesting that a few men could sufficiently do the job. Jones then writes of the Clark family’s belated travels across the Appalachians and down the dangerous Monongahela and Ohio rivers before landing outside Louisville and building a farm. He then writes about more problems with Indians, prompting GRC to lead an unsuccessful military campaign after a forced peace treaty was disregarded by non-invested tribes. William Clark is also written about: his joining of and exploits in the Kentucky militia, his journalizing of these exploits and the areas they took him, his self-taught education and naturalistic writings, and his commissioning as a lieutenant in the newly reformed, post-St. Clair’s Defeat US Army. Clark’s early duties as a lieutenant, Jones writes, involved ferrying soldiers and supplies around western outposts and forts, and even to the Chickasaw Indian tribe once. Within a few years, Clark became quartermaster of one of the four Sub-Legions of the US Army, joining the campaign into northern Indian lands that culminated in the Battle of Fallen Timbers, the final and deciding battle in the Northwest Indian War. Jones then recounts General Anthony Wayne’s successful…
Although Alexie had the privilege of attending a school, unlike the slave up-bringing of Douglas, he was influenced by his father into the joys of books. He notes that his father was one of the few Indians who voluntarily went to the schools and became an avid reader his whole life who collected so much books that their house was literally stacked ceiling to floor with books. Alexie used comic books, notably superman, to learn how to read by matching the actions drawn to the dialogue which was written. He then later on likens Superman breaking down a door to him trying to break down the mental block of the Indian population towards education while he tours the Reservations of North America as a successful author.…
Erika Christakis, in “The War on Public Schools” (Atlantic 2017), argues that the public school system in the U.S has been denigrated. Christakis supports her arguments by telling how most of the Americans have lost faith in the public school system, demonstrating how even the secretary of education Betsy DeVos see the public school system as a dead end, explaining how articles and documentaries as “Waiting for Superman” had led to false conclusions about the teachers unions, and finally, describing how the public school achievements have been minimized. Christakis’s purpose is to inform readers about the conditions of the public education system in the U.S in order to create interest about the current system of education. Christakis uses a…
"When life gives you lemons, make lemonade." In the short story Superman and me, by Sherman Alexie it shows us how this metaphor is used without it even being said. Alexie unlike most Indian kids in 1998 had a passion to read. He got this urge to read from his father, someone that went out of his way to buy any novel, magazine, or book that he could get his grip on. Reading material was stacked throughout the house, Alexie would read every second and when he wasn't he began seeing life in paragraphs. Unfortunately he had his struggles just because he was an Indian boy. People would think less of the person he was, less of the knowledge in which he with held. Yet Alexie was not ashamed to show the others how smart he was, he would not hold back and pretend not to know anything. Proud, smart, and arrogant he proved there was a positive change in the Indian community.…
“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.…
Confucius once said, "Our greatest glory is not in never falling but in rising every time we fall. " This concept applies in my life along with Sherman Alexie's. Starting with Sherman Alexie argues Education is vital to make your lift more successful, as well as pulling yourself from the grasp of poverty stricken culture. Sherman joseph Alexie Jr was born on October 7, 1966 into a Spokane Indian tribe. Alexie wrote a short story “Superman and Me” which was published in Milkweed Edition, entitled “The Most Wonderful Books: writers on discovering the pleasures of Reading in 1997 depicting his lift as a native American child growing up on a reservation. “ Superman and me” explain Alexie’s life as an Indian boy. In the first paragraph, Alexie explains that he first learned to read with a Superman comic book. But before he could read the comic, Alexie taught himself about paragraphs and how they relate to the real world. He thought of everything as paragraphs such as his reservation he lived on was a paragraph to the United Sates, his family as an essay of paragraphs, and each family member being a paragraph. He taught himself how to read the text by looking at the pictures, dialogue and pretending to say aloud what he thinks the story might be saying. Alexie learned quickly while many of his Indian classmates struggled to read basic words and vocabulary.…
The exchanged roles that Bruce Wayne as Superman, Clark Kent as Batman play within comic #71 concede a direct correlation to the gender roles both men and women played at the time, for which consists of women in a submissive “housewife” role along with men in a control, dominant role. The comic provides many examples, both artistically and textually, of gender roles. Gender roles being defined as how the male and female interact in society and with each other. The comic prescribes to the entertainment factor with bright colors and vibrant schemes to exemplify some of the ideals displayed. It also relies heavily on textual undercurrents. There is an example of such on the second page where a summarization of the comic is present:…
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…
“Waiting for Superman” isn’t about a hero coming to the rescue and saving everybody. Throughout this documentary, made by Davis Guggenheim, there were interviews with little kids that would soon capture your own hearts. Dropout factories cover the whole entire country, but are Charter Schools the way to go? Public Education is incapable of meeting the challenge to educate everybody.…
Sherman Alexie’s essay “Superman and Me” is about how Alexie changed his life, and the lives of others, by learning to read. “Sherman Alexie, a Spokane/Coeur d'Alene Indian, grew up on a reservation surrounded by poverty, alcoholism, and disease. . .” (About Sherman Alexie), though his family was poor, his father loved to read; and Alexie adopted that love of reading at an early age. Alexie soon started to see the world around him like paragraphs. He would read anything and everything he could get his hands on. Indians like him were not supposed to be smart. Those who failed were excepted, but Alexie refused to fail and soon became a writer, “His work carries the weight of five centuries of colonization, retelling the American…
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.…
read or write. Alexie refused to be labeled as such and states “I refused to fail. I was smart. I was…
"Just simply teaching a child to read is not enough; we must provide them something that is worth reading. Material that will make their imaginations grow - materials that will help them to understand their own lives and push them towards interacting with others who 's lives are completely different than there own" (Paterson).…
Do we all learn to read and write the same exact way? The answer is simply no, learning how to read and write happens differently for every person, some rely on parents or grandparents while others rely on themselves or teachers. After reading Sherman Alexie’s: The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me I saw how just how different people have it growing up in the education system. After reading his story I began to notice just how differently I had it growing up. Alexie, for the most part was self-taught, I myself had to rely on parents and grandparents. Learning something like reading and writing has a lot to do with the situation or environment a person grows up in, if they are expected to succeed they will be pushed to learn the concept. This is where Alexie and I start to travel in different paths.…
Alexie is an Indian boy, who grew up on the Spokane Indian reservation, but he was a very smart child. Alexie admires his father, so he starts to like the books like him. At an early age, Alexie could not read, but he tries to recall the story from the pictures of the book. He starts with superman comic book. Also, Alexie is picking up hi father books. Before Alexie knows the vocabulary to say a paragraph, he understood what is mine. Also, he saw every member of his family like a paragraph, they complete each other. Alexie helped himself to can read in early age when the other boys struggling through reading simple things.…