Superman and Me by Sherman Alexie
English 100 C01 Davis
RR 1
September 5, 2013
Superman and Me Sherman Alexie, Author
Superman and Me, by Sherman Alexie, is the inspiring story of the author’s rise from a poverty stricken childhood on a Native American reservation. It began with his love of books and reading and continues through his fight to help the Native American children living on the reservation today.
Alexie grew up in a seemingly typical Native American family and lived on a reservation in Washington State. The only difference is that, by choice, his father had attended Catholic school and developed a deep love of books and of reading. Alexie’s father filled their home with books of all genres and he inspired Alexie to be a reader at an early age. Alexie writes,
“My father loved books, and since I loved my father with an aching devotion, I decided to love books as well” (89).
Before Alexie could even say the word “paragraph” or read on his own, he began to think about paragraphs as, “A fence that held words. The words inside that paragraph worked together for a common purpose. They had some specific reason for being inside the same fence” Alexie (89). He soon began to apply his thoughts on paragraphs to everything else in his life, thus understanding his place in the world a bit better. Alexie suffered through quite a painful childhood because he did not fit the mold of a typical Indian child. His intelligence set him apart from the other children on the reservation and he was taunted and bullied on a daily basis by his classmates. The author states, “If he’d been anything but an Indian boy living on the reservation, he might have been called a prodigy. But he was an Indian boy living on a reservation and is simply an oddity” (90). Alexie continues reading voraciously throughout his childhood. He saw his education as a way to save his own life, an escape plan that he is now able to go back and share with
RR 1
September 5, 2013
Superman and Me Sherman Alexie, Author
Superman and Me, by Sherman Alexie, is the inspiring story of the author’s rise from a poverty stricken childhood on a Native American reservation. It began with his love of books and reading and continues through his fight to help the Native American children living on the reservation today.
Alexie grew up in a seemingly typical Native American family and lived on a reservation in Washington State. The only difference is that, by choice, his father had attended Catholic school and developed a deep love of books and of reading. Alexie’s father filled their home with books of all genres and he inspired Alexie to be a reader at an early age. Alexie writes,
“My father loved books, and since I loved my father with an aching devotion, I decided to love books as well” (89).
Before Alexie could even say the word “paragraph” or read on his own, he began to think about paragraphs as, “A fence that held words. The words inside that paragraph worked together for a common purpose. They had some specific reason for being inside the same fence” Alexie (89). He soon began to apply his thoughts on paragraphs to everything else in his life, thus understanding his place in the world a bit better. Alexie suffered through quite a painful childhood because he did not fit the mold of a typical Indian child. His intelligence set him apart from the other children on the reservation and he was taunted and bullied on a daily basis by his classmates. The author states, “If he’d been anything but an Indian boy living on the reservation, he might have been called a prodigy. But he was an Indian boy living on a reservation and is simply an oddity” (90). Alexie continues reading voraciously throughout his childhood. He saw his education as a way to save his own life, an escape plan that he is now able to go back and share with