“The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me” by Sherman Alexie In “The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me,” by Sherman Alexie, Alexie explains his path in life with education, and his reflection on the difficulty of being an Indian in today’s America. He explains how he learned to read, his intelligence as a young Indian boy, and life as an adult: teaching Indian kids. Growing up, Alexie had loving family who all lived on an Indian reserve. Both of his parents had minimum wage jobs, which made them middle class in the reserve. Alexie was a smart child and his inspiration to read was his father.
After Alexie became a writer, he often visited schools and teach creative writing to Indian kids and let them read books. Indian children were expected to be stupid but after they read books they are refreshed. He wrote about those kids in the article [run on sentence. End the last sentence with a period and then integrate the quote] “they have read my books. They have read many books.
The ability to read and write awoke something inside of him that gave him homemade education. Malcolm X was sensitive to the deafness, dumbness and blindness that were afflicting the black face in America. Books was Malcolm X life he said you never catch him without a book. Malcolm X was always studying something so he can help the next black man. Malcolm X spent the rest of his life reading books.
Anthony Pines Kirsten Higgins English 101 1/23/13 Alexie’s Journey In His excerpt, “Superman and Me” Sherman Alexie tells the story of his childhood as a Native American living on a reservation. Alexie was one of the few Indians during that time that learned to read at a young age. Motivated by his father, who loved to read anything he could find, Alexie set out to do the same. His struggles during the time he was growing up are comparable to that of myself, not because I learned to read at an early age, because I went through similar struggles when I was young. “Superman and Me” offers a great perspective of what it is like to grow up in a place where everybody around expects very low intellectual intelligence.
Another dissimilarity is the narrative voice both of these poems are written in, ‘Half-past Two’ is written third person while Roger McGough chose to write his poem in first person. Both narrative voices are quite effective in different ways, in ‘Half-past Two’ the story told through another persons perspective, this makes you think about how others would have felt towards this boy in trouble. In ‘First Day at School’ It is written in first person which shows exactly how the child is feeling while all this is happening to him, you visualise the child’s
In Sherman Alexie's, "Superman and Me," Alexie describes growing up as an abnormally intelligent Indian boy with a love of reading, who, despite being suppressed by modern society, is trying to save lives with the power of knowledge. Sherman Alexie began his attempts of reading at the age of three, inspired by his father's love of literature. Surrounded in a house piled with a wide variety of novels from the Salvation Army or Goodwill, all the struggling family could afford, Alexie picked up a Superman comic and pieced together what he assumed the words said. He began to pick up on what a paragraph's purpose was, which sparked an epiphany in the young reservation boy's mind. By the time Alexie was in kindergarten, he was excelling with readings,
Instead he used literature as his way of inspiring others to fight against stereotypes as is evident in his article “Indian Education.” The article is a narration of brief encounters or memories of an Indian boy, from first to twelfth grade, depicting how he struggled to succeed despite stereotypes. I had a typical educational experience in contrast to Alexie’s article. Sherman Alexie, born in 1966, was of Coeur d’Alene/Spokane Indian descent. He was raised on the Spokane
Experiences as a Writer Christina Jacks October 10, 2012 Professor Stone My Experience as a Writer: Writing is one of the ways that we interpret our thoughts to other people. Writing isn’t something one is born with; it’s something that actually has to be skilled. I started writing at the age of four; my teachers educated me how to write my name over and over again until I could write it with no blunders. All through elementary school, I was taught to put together words to form sentences and also how to create paragraphs using those sentences. Therefore, during middle school and High school I was able to use what I learned in my previous years to write paragraphs, essays and research papers.
January 29, 2012 ENC1101 Literacy In Prison: Malcolm X Few people have heard the name Malcolm Little, but know the name Malcolm X. Malcolm X was born Malcolm Little in Omaha, Nebraska in 1925. Malcolm X was never able to finish the eighth grade, but was able to become a very intelligent individual. Malcolm was imprisoned and that is where he found interest in learning and wanting to expand his knowledge. When Malcolm was in prison he met a man who went by the name Bimbi. Bimbi was who Malcolm got the inspiration from to learn to read and write.
Overcoming The essay “Superman and Me” by Sherman Alexie is about how he taught himself how to read at a very young age. Being an Indian he was expected to fail. However, he was lucky. He overcame the obstacles and barriers that society put on him. To me his essay is about more than just learning how to read; it is about refusing to fail and overcoming the obstacles in life, no matter how old you are.