Summary Of The Joy Of Reading And Writing: Superman And Me
When reading Sherman Alexie’s essay, “The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me”, his words, “a paragraph is a fence that holds words” (1), caught my attention. I thought that the analogy is strange, especially coming from someone so young. My first thought was that the phrase implied the connection to how words and ideas function to support the main point of a paragraph. However, after reading the essay, I understood that the fence could represent the societal divisions that make up his world. Much like the fence that surrounds his reservation, these divisions keep his people in place and separate them from the larger world. They act as barriers to achieving educational and economic advancements. The physical barrier also prevents
his tribe from living next to non-natives, minimizing the interaction between them. When people do not have the opportunity to know each other, they cannot learn about each other and stereotypes perpetuate.
Reference
Alexie, Sherman. “The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me”. Ohio University, https://blackboard.ohio.edu/webapps/blackboard/content/listContent.jsp?course_id=_454254_1&content_id=_7218275_1&mode=reset