Extended Metaphor In Superman And Me By Sherman Alexie

In The Crossover by Kwame Alexander, life lessons are told through the use of an extended metaphor. At first glance, The Crossover appears to be a book about basketball. However, basketball is just the vehicle to carry this story and keep it moving. Through the use of poems, this verse novel tells the story of twins, Josh and Jordan Bell, as they navigate adolescents. Throughout the novel, tremendous growth is seen in the characters, particularly Josh. The book is sectioned into “quarters” just like a basketball game. By the time the reader gets to the 4th quarter, emotions and tensions are running high. One particular poem that exhibits this tension is “Mom, since you asked, I’ll tell you why I’m so angry.” This poem shows Josh’s anger and frustration over his father being in the hospital. At this point in the novel, Josh’s dad is still alive; however, the father’s prognosis is not good.

The use of imagery allows the reader to picture the long-lasting emotions gripping the narrator. Being a concrete representation of an object or sensory experience (myLearning), imagery permits the reader to visualize what the narrator is experiencing. One example of imagery is used in line 5 “I'm stone. I'm flesh.” The narrator is using metaphoric and literal imagery describing his body. The reader can visualize the attempt to harden the body against the onslaught of emotion, and the reflection of the vulnerable flesh body in the granite wall. Another example of imagery can be found in lines 22 through 24 “Brushstrokes flash, a red bird's / wings cutting across my stare. / The sky. A plane in the sky." Here the realistic memories of war involuntarily flash through the narrator’s mind.

Throughout the novel, the author Edward Bloor uses literary devices such as similes to make the readers visualize the descriptive situations in the story. These similes describe to the reader how different occurrences relate to other actions, objects, or living things.

The poem “Discovery,” written by Michael S. Harper, takes the reader on a metaphorical rollercoaster by portraying a man and his significant other discovering their true love for one another. Michael S. Harper uses metaphors which make the reader imagine the couple laying together in the comfort of one another, however what could the author really mean by using these metaphors? In this poem, Harper illustrates that discovery is about reaching out into someplace unknown and understanding first hand what resides within through his use of metaphors. When author makes the poem sound literal, “We lay together, darkness all around” he is using metaphors to symbolize something more (Harper 1). The speaker could be meaning that when they are laying together, they are representing the scene as them being together as a couple not just literally laying together.

The muscles’ jabbering like chickens is again a beautiful example of symbolism-cum-metaphor. Ward writes, “…her skin was dark as the reaching oak trees” (22), and “…until his legs turn to noodles and he is sliding down Randall like a pole” (43), which are beautiful expressions of her crafting of symbolism, metaphors, and similes in her novel. So, we see that metaphorical language can be found more often throughout

Budge Wilson’s, The Metaphor, is a bildungsroman that blueprints Charlotte’s transition from a young, moldable girl into an independent woman through juxtaposition, allegory, and symbolism. Charlotte is an awkward seventh grader, who transforms into a well-round tenth grader before the eyes of the reader due to the influence of her teacher, Miss. Hancock. Her mother, calculated and emotionless, is the foil to Miss. Hancock’s wild, unorganized spirit. Charlotte finds herself drawn to Miss. Hancock, who her mother despises, which causes Charlotte internal strife. She pushes down her feelings, but through a traumatic experience, she discovers Miss. Hancock’s lessons are the ones her heart wants to live by, not her mother’s. Miss. Hancock and

In Annie Dillard’s “Chapter One” of The Writing Life, she uses metaphors to explain the process of writing. She links words to tools, specifically a hammer that someone uses to

Throughout the length of "For the Stranger" Carolyn Forche's use of metaphor plays an integral part by adding textual depth to the images that construct the background. In addition, how the use of metaphor directly influenced my interpretation based on these passages.

audience to tears and put the narrator it a state of emotional shock because of the wisdom

Alexie's father was the reason he began to read which later became his passion. His father loved to read, and even though they did not have a ton of money, his father went out of his way to stock up on books. One-day Alexie decided to pick up one of his father's books and taught himself how to read. Before that, he had never read a book and could not even understand the words. A paragraph intrigued him; each house on the reservation was a paragraph, and each member of his family was a paragraph. The family members were separate people; however, there were still related making all of them together an essay. Then there was the Superman comic book he picked up one day. Although he could not read the panels of words the illustrations told the story. He would make up a story to go with the pictures and pretend to read the panels. Looking back at these times Alexie realized how lucky he was growing up with all these resources to teach

In Sherman Alexie’s “Superman and Me,” he uses rhetorical strategies to achieve his purpose of reaching his audience. He uses analogies to depict something confusing with something simple to understand. Syntax gives the readers an idea of Alexie when he was first learning to read. Finally, his emphasis on anaphora allows the audience to see his relentlessness to keep reading. The use of analogy, syntax, and anaphora persuades his audience to agree with Alexie’s purpose of this essay.

Imagine yourself shipwrecked upon an uninhabited island. The experience of being stranded will cause you to pose many questions, with the possibility of only one of those questions to being answered. One answered question is: what is the purpose of literature? Northrop Frye, within “Motive for Metaphor”, uses the analogy of being within an uninhabited island to examines the purpose of literature by connecting it to the purposes of language and their use within the different worlds and levels of the mind Frye sees present.

Alexie precisely provides his reading process to the audience. On the other hand, it also proves that he breaks the block of lacking knowledge. In fact, “the Superman” refers to himself. Alexie asserts his point that he transforms his destiny from poverty to success by reading, and he retells his experience to other Indian boys to save their lives instead of enduring in a tough situation. Accordingly, he regards himself as hero, for he saves both those Indian boys’ lives and his own life. Moreover, when Alexie repeats the sentence of “breaking down the door”, it relates to he attempts to break through the obstacle of education. He does not obtain a decent education background; however, he can change this circumstance by reading.

The first archetype explains the film’s metaphor is a situation archetype. The Unhealable Wound. Situation archetype refers to a physically or psychologically wound that can not be fully healed. In the movie, the unhealable wound perfectly annotates the main character -- Lee Chandler. “One day as usual, Lee Chandler gets the message that his brother Joe Chandler is in the hospital and if he does not come immediately he will never get a chance

Growing up as a Native American boy on a reservation, Sherman Alexie was not expected to succeed outside of his reservation home. The expectations for Native American children were not very high, but Alexie burst out of the stereotype and expectations put by white men. Young Native Americans were not expected to overcome their stereotypes and were forced to succumb to low levels of reading and writing “he was expected to fail in a non-Indian world” (Alexie 3), but Alexie was born with a passion for reading and writing, so much so that he taught himself to read at age three by simply looking at images in Marvel comics and piecing the words and pictures together. No young Native American had made it out of his reservation to become a successful writer like he did. This fabricates a clear ethos for Alexie, he is a perfect underdog in an imperfect world.