Orgelen Tafa AP Language of Composition Ms. Moses January 24, 2010 ESSAY The short story “The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and me” was written by Sherman Alexie. “The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and me” explains Sherman Alexie’s life as an Indian boy and how writing and reading shaped his life into what he is today. This short essay talks about how he first learned how to read, than to write as well. His intelligence as a young Indian boy and Alexie as an adult now teaching creative writing to Indian kids and imploring them to unlock their full potential to be something in life that they desire and make a difference out there in the world. In the first paragraph, Alexie explains that he first learned to read with a Superman comic book when he was about 3 years old.
His society in the Indian reservation he grew up in instilled this belief of being stupid. This wasn’t him, and he wouldn’t accept that notion. He continued to read no matter the place or time. This is interesting because no matter the scornful responses from Indian or Non-Indian people he continued to read. It shows how meaningful reading is.
Essay 1 “Superman and Me” English 111 4/1/2014 I had the pleasure of reading “Superman and Me” by Sherman Alexie. I went into it thinking I was going to read an essay about a boy that had a fascination with Superman. I soon realized that it was more than just Superman the author was talking about. The author started off the essay with a short but descriptive sentenced “I learned to read with a Superman comic book” (582). I began to think that the author is now telling us how he began his journey or struggles of reading.
Sherman Alexie’s essay confirms and extends tough argument in character and success, “superman and me” discuss in his essay the experience he had when he was a boy living in the Indian reservation and how reading and writing greatly affected his life. This shorts story describes the young Indian boy’s fascination with literature, his intelligence as an Indian, and how he becomes a teacher of creative writing for Indian children. I believe that Sherman Alexis had the character traits to succeed in life. Sherman Alexie was an Indian boy who didn't really have anything going on in his life. His family literally worked pay-check to pay-check just to make ends meet.
Mr. Alessandri had us read Silence of the Lambs, Dune, and numerous short stories. I had always just read all the standard books for high school, but this was a whole new twist to reading for me. For once I truly enjoyed what I was reading. Science Fiction & Horror was no easy class, but I found myself paying full attention at all times out of sheer enjoyment of what I was hearing from my teacher. Mr. Alessandri had been teaching the class for almost thirty years so he knew the material like the back of his hand.
“Life as a Series of Words” In Alberto Manguel’s essay “Reading Ourselves and the World Around Us” he describes as a boy his experience with learning to read. His first experiences were with others reading to him, or telling him what things meant, not just words but signs and symbols and pictures as well. He felt this to be very enlightening at first but soon realized that he was not experiencing the full depth of what could be felt if only he could decipher these things on his own without other people interpreting them for him. He eventually learned to read himself and it was like a whole new world opened up to him. He could now essentially feel everything that was available to him, and not filtered through the minds and words of other people.
Bigelow, takes Zinn’s idea of how important it is for students to know and learn about unsung heroes, and turns it into a creative writing assignment. He doesn’t simply talk to his class about the unrecognized people throughout history, but instead invites them to “become those individuals at the end of their lives” allowing for a much more in-depth awareness. After reading both articles, I believe that it is important for children to have an extended list
Many young people across the world are in the same struggle, trying to find their place in life, and constantly struggling upstream against society. The value of a book like this is significant because it educates the youth of the world on the struggles of finding your place in life, and greatly relates to our youth on a personal level. The second conflict in the novel is Holden’s struggle versus himself. At Pency Prep, and throughout the novel, Holden always talks about how fake everyone around him is. He hates cheap and phony people, and cannot seem to find anyone in the world that is not cheap and phony.
Having an accent bothered me especially when people looked down on me because I was from somewhere else. I hated the fact that I sounded different. I tried speech and diction classes, but my “R’s” never went away. After a while I realized that my accent is nothing to be ashamed of, but something to be proud of. I was able to communicate in a foreign language which was a big achievement for me, so why would I care about my accent.
So finally I still composed a story of my writing life. After we all finish our essays, we had a peer review, which enables me the chance to go over the literacy narratives from my classmates. Most of my classmates were talking about their experience of how environment structured their study ability. However, one of my peer’s essay focused on movies, which described his life in the US and how movies shaped his idea of this country. Also, another classmate illustrated her relationship with her parents and the way that this relationship affected her study