In Sherman Alexie’s essay “The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me,” Alexie describes how the negative expectations affected him and how he overcame them. Alexie says, “They wanted me to stay quiet, when the non- Indian teacher asked for answers, for volunteers, for help. We were Indian children who were expected to be stupid” (Alexie, 17). The negative expectations for Alexie and all other Indians were, to act unintelligent around people who weren’t Indian. Most of the Indians lived up to those expectations.
Around this mistake and misinterpretation he creates a fantasy in which he imagines himself saving the children of the world by catching them before they fall off the cliff that is the transition from childhood to adulthood. His misunderstanding of language, and one word, allows him to create a heroic IMAGE of himself based on his antiheroism. Ironically it is this very misinterpretation and misuse of language that allows him to create a hero fantasy for himself which highlights his flaws and antiheroic qualities. It is his flaws and obstinance which increasing the reader’s sympathies towards Holden. -When catcher in the rye was first published a few years after the end of the Second World War, critics considered it an authentic piece of literature representing the way in which a
Stereotyping in “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” In Sherman Alexie’s “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian”. Junior is negatively affected by stereotypes about American Indians. He stereotypes all American Indians as poor, stupid and dirty. When he tries to escape all of these stereotypes he transfer to Reardan , a white school , and finds out that other people stereotypes American Indians in the same way. The main theme of this book, “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” (by Sherman Alexie), is about Junior trying to find strength and hope to accept himself.
Collins uses his poem “The History Teacher” to show us a world where we lie to our children to protect their childlike nature. In this poem a history teacher lies to his students about historical events and trivializes these events so as not to expose the children to anything that may be bad or could corrupt there innocence. By teaching the children a fairy-tale version of history rather than the reality of it, the children fail to learn about the consequences of their actions. In doing this the teacher is promoting his students ignorance and not allowing them to learn from past mistakes; mistakes that changed the face of our history and how we view the world forever. Collins is giving us a firsthand look at how our morals can affect us, but not always in a good way.
Sometimes this misunderstanding leads to the conclusion that he has low IQ and the counselors and the other campers there feel that Zero is stupid and worthless and treat him cruelly.They believe that Zero is good only at digging and nothing else. In reality, Zero is extremely smart and quick with numbers but he is uneducated. When Stanley comes to the camp, Zero realizes that Stanley is not like the other boys and also that he is not the one who stole the shoes and feels sorry for him. They finally become friends when Zero asked Stanley to teach him how to read and write. As Zero describes the hard life he has had to his new friend, his amazing willpower and strength of character are revealed.
This just shows us how young Native American Indians have to deal with the drugs in order to escape their misery life because nobody can help, so the drug does their jobs. “Oh, do you remember those sweet, almost innocent choices that the Indian boys were forced to make?” (page #). He kisses the white girl then he feels as if he was leaving his culture, his tribe, but soon he will realizes and regrets it for his action. The transition from Indian reservation to a white farm town changed his life in the 7th grade, he can get a better education and better life, however; in the end of the passage “ A beautiful girl asked my name” “Junior Polatkin” I said and she laughed “ After that, no one spoke to me for another five hundred years” indicates once again how hard it is to live, it feels like no hope for neither Indians nor
229) I believe this quote reveals the moral because as he reads this book he find out Crusoe is all alone and isolated and even though Charlie doesn’t realize it yet he himself is isolated and lonely as well. Next the writer demonstrates the lesson by including the character’s dialogue. While Charlie is reading his progress reports with Miss Kinnian he says, “All my frends are smart people but there good.” (Pg. 229) I feel this quote expresses the theme because Charlie doesn’t realize how his friends actually treat him. He thinks they’re all nice to him, but instead they just laugh at him and make fun of him which signalizes that he’s lonely.
Our narrator’s youth is confirmed again when he claims that he “always felt like crying [because] It wasn't fair” (line 22) the berries where rotting. Social standards suggest that a mature person has accepted that life is unfair and would just ignore something as trivial as this, while an immature child on the other hand might cry over it. That said, it is the very word “always” in line 22 that implies how the narrator is beginning to mature. Because the narrator knows that the berries will ‘always’ rot every year we can assume he has a basic idea of the cycle
He taught himself to read the text by looking at the pictures, dialogue and narrative, and than pretending to say aloud what he thinks the story might be saying. Alexie was the only Indian that learned quickly while many of his classmates struggled to read even the basic words and vocabulary. The short essay is very interesting and inspiring all by itself. Because it was about a little Indian boy teaching himself to read at an early age and advances quickly in his life growing up in the man he is today. An important quotes that Alexie mentioned in his story as he had said it himself, “I refused to fail.
Essay 2 – Sticks and Stones Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me. This sentence is from an old children’s poem about not letting bullies taunt you. Bullying is the main theme in the short story Sticks and Stones by Trezza Azzopardi, which is about a young man, who has been bullied as a child. This has made him traumatized and made him live his entire life running away from his problems and hiding instead of dealing with his difficulties. The young man’s name is Lewis and he is a teacher.