Does The joy of reading and writing, superman and Me by Sherman Alexie had some hidden steps for people how starts to read or want to read more? Sherman wrote about his story with reading, how did he starts reading, his idol that influence him to read, the first thing he read, his classmate reading level, and his struggle as young Indian in reservation schools. The focusing of Sherman essay was on the young native American and how they should read more and to give them the support they need, so they can save their own lives, the same thing that happen with him, but if non-Indians read this essay they can also see Sherman as example and they could link Sherman life sorry and struggles in their personal life, no matter what ethnicity they are …show more content…
Sherman’s father was an avid reader of westerns, spy thrillers, murder mysteries, gangster epics, and basketball player biographies, most of what his father liked was popular novel and short story genres that had a lot of actions and mysteries. These types of books can be found everywhere, Sherman picked out these books that his father owned and he started to read them. He is giving an example for the reader to that they don’t need to buy books to read, just look of books that family member or roommate had, and if you finish reading these books or didn’t found one them you can buy new or used books. Sherman’s father buy a lot of books and he build bookshelves for it, and he starts adding more books to his collection like the Kennedy assassination, Watergate, the Vietnam War, and the entire 23-book series of the Apache westerns, these books are so long and complicated and sometime had hidden meaning, and that is the third step that Sherman give to the reader. He also talked about the school, the place that people expect to learn reading from, as an Indian people were expiating him to failed and he would get bullied by his classmates how want him to stop learning from non-Indian teachers, but he kept
Sherman Alexie was a Indian boy with a passion to learn how to read. Despite the fact that Indians were known to not be educated, he was one of the few that learned. He started learning to read at a very young age. He would read his dad’s books and everything else he could get his hands on. The first book he read was a Superman comic book. That comic book left a big impact on the rest of Alexie’s life.
Throughout Malcolm X's "Learning to Read" his tone and attitude frequently changes. Although the emotions are faintly projected, his tone and attitude are caused by a change in his own emotions, which correspond with the beginning, middle, and end of the passage. The essay not only expounds his lack of reading skills while young, it expounds upon the importance of reading to him today. If a thorough assessment is made, he exclaims that reading is important to readers' lives as it was to his, aiding to shape ones morals and principles. Without the ability to read, a basis for intellect and perception, it becomes increasingly difficult to build your own ethical views.
This articles is about his friend that had received a letter from his daughter. Watkins didn’t know that his friend was one of millions that can’t read. Not only that but he doesn’t want to learn or feel it’s necessary. It made him want to help his friend learn to read, because at one point in time Watkins was the same as his friend. He was out in the streets, until he found a books worth reading. He said, “I went from a guy who solved problems by breaking a bottle over someone’s forehead to using solution-based thinking when resolving issues ⎯ reading instantly civilized me. And if it can work for me, I believe it can work for anybody”
Reading was his outlet from the negative environment he grew up in, but also the way out. Sherman Alexie also uses selective diction to shape the struggles of young Native Americans in the broken school system. Words like sullen, defeated, resist, refuse and arrogant create the negative atmosphere of the Native American students are face with everyday. Discouraged and already defeated students are the kind Sherman Alexie tries to save because nobody bothers with them, a lost
He gains the trust of the audience by admitting, “These days, I write novels, short stories, and poems, I visit schools and teach creative writing to Indian kids….. In all my years in the reservation school system, I was never taught how to write...” (paragraph 8). This lets the audience know that even though Sherman Alexie grew up in the same environment as them he become successful in the future because of his desire and motivation to read and acquire knowledge. He demonstrates to his readers that reading had opened up many opportunities in his life and allowed him to accomplish many things. Ethos helped Alexie achieve his purpose of inspiring his audience to follow his footsteps of reading more in order to save their life . Additionally, the use of ethos was effective in proving that hard work and reading pays off to the Native American kids who trusted Alexie because of his
What would you do if you could not read? What problems do you think you would come across? After reading Malcolm X’s “Learning to Read” and Sherman Alexie’s piece, “Superman and Me”, these are a few questions that a reader might ask themselves. Sherman Alexie and Malcolm X are both great writers. This was not always the case though. Malcolm X and Sherman Alexie taught themselves how to read. Alexie at a young age Malcolm X, as a young adult. After they learned to read and write they wrote for many reasons and about many topics. When reading these two essays, you can see that there are many things that are significantly the same as well as having some differences all throughout the text. These similarities and differences include the pathos in both essays, and the ethos that Alexie has that Malcolm does not have pertaining to the subject of their papers. In Malcolm X’s “Learning to Read” and Sherman Alexie’s “Superman and Me” they are both trying to persuade the reader that something needs to be done and why.
Education is something that is often taken for granted in this day and age. Kids these days rebel against going to school all together. In the essays “The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me” by Sherman Alexie and “Learning to Read and Write” by Frederick Douglass, we learn of two young men eager for knowledge. Both men being minors and growing up in a time many years apart, felt like taking how to read and write into their own hands, and did so with passion. On the road to a education, both Alexie and Douglass discover that education is not only pleasurable, but also painful. Alexie and Douglass both grew up in different times, in different environments, and in different worlds. They both faced different struggles and had different achievements, but they were not all that different. Even though they grew up in different times they both had the same views on how important of education was. They both saw education as freedom and as a way of self-worth even though they achieved their education in different ways. They both had a strong mind and a strong of sense of self-motivation.
After reading "The Joy of Rading and Writing:Superman and Me", I beleive that the way of experssing how much is it mportant to read and write is really intresting. First of all, I feel that the aouther was trying to tell us some essinsial things about rading and writing, spacially, how much are these too skills have really helped him to be diffrnet than the kind of his people, and how much did that put him in a rally haigh level of edecation comparing to his people. The way that he tryed to tell the reader that by only these two skills he could acheive what other people couldn't achieve is a really atractive and geinuse. By puting what the facts say about the indian and that they can not b
To begin, I agree with Alexie that Native American children need role models. He states that “My father loved books, and since I loved my father with an aching devotion, I decided to love books as well” (495). When he talks about his love for reading he states that his father loved books. He says that his father was one of the few Indians who went to school on purpose and he was an avid reader. I was also inspired by my parents in third grade I was not interested in reading. Then at the end of the quarter there was a party that for the people who met their reading goals. I was not in that group my parents told me to find books that I like to read. I did after that I found my love for reading. My parents love to read because they said that it took them to a different place. That showed me that education can be an escape for the world. I have two amazing role models who support my education and my love for literature. In his essay Alexie says that children need someone to look up to, to help them reach their full potential in their education. He uses doors as a metaphor for the stereotypes. Alexie also makes the statement “In one panel, Superman breaks through a door.” (495) to show how he was amazed by the fact that Superman could break down doors. Alexie talks about how Superman is a hero and that he is breaking down doors to save people.
Sherman Alexie read anything and everything he could , the only reasons he could is because he read superman comic books . Even though he went through the worst he somehow remained positive and still learned to develop skills of learning to write and read. He never gave up on himself. He didn’t stereotype others. He learned how to read and write from Superman comic
People are invariably more proactive toward something they desire for because of the raising motivation. In some communities of Indians, children are expected to be stupid, whose failure are accepted by other Indians and sympathized by non-Indians. According to the article Superman and Me, the author Sherman Alexie said “I loved those books, but I also knew that love had only one purpose. I was trying to save my life.” Sherman doesn’t satisfy with his community which is being sympathized and discriminated; therefore, he is ambitious to change his life and even his community throughout knowledge. Sherman performs differently than other kids in his community, who are willing to accept those discriminations and hide their intelligence. Sherman’s opposite attitude toward his life is due to the own voice from his heart, which motivates him to insist on his ambitions. According to a book named The Myth of Latin Woman, the author had a remarkable experience that she was mistakenly recognized as a waitress in a coffee shop due to her skin color. The woman who is similar to the author at that time are always regarded as a low-educated and low-paid group in the society. The embarrassed scene of the mistaking motivates the author to change her current statues through education. The author’s mind is to demonstrate that the women similar to her should not be considered only as “waitresses”, while her experience in the coffee shop precisely gives her more motivation to prove her
In the passage, “Superman and Me” Sherman Alexie explains to the readers the life of an Indian and how he defeats and tries to help others defeat the stereotype of an Indian. As a kid, Sherman Alexie dealt with stereotypes about reading and writing based upon the values of his tribe; however, he taught himself how to read from Superman comic books. Throughout the text, he uses figurative language, and quotes that mean way more that what they look like when you read them. One quote that really stood out was, “ I throw my weight against their locked doors. The door holds.
Generally, every individual’s learning experience has its own inspiring and meaningful stories; a learning experience that has its own unique distinctions, interpretations, complications, sacrifices, has its endless possibilities, and most importantly, a learning experience that has its own effective action and optimistic option for execution. For example: In “The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me,” Sherman Alexie highlights his enjoyment of reading and writing. He claims that as a kid, he reminds himself that he is a “smart Indian boy” even though it is not recognized on a reservation or even when non-Indian teachers believe that Indian children are stupid. Similarly, in “Learning to Read and Write,” Frederick Douglass demonstrates that slaves are entitled to have the same rights to learn about reading and writing as any other Americans. He testifies that his masters, including his fellow slaves believe that slavery and education were not compatible. Moreover, in “On Keeping a Notebook,” Joan Didion stereotypes herself by constantly questioning her own writing due to her lack of confidence as a writer. She conveys that eventually, she masters writing through examining her own writing on a piece of a notebook about herself and other people. Likewise, in “Learning to Read,” Malcolm X expresses that books are his “Alma Mater” because he becomes proficient in writing in a course of copying every single word in a dictionary. He clarifies that he develops his skills in
Sherman Alexie recalls his childhood memory of learning to read, and his teaching experience in “The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me”. He devotes his interest to reading. By this way, he breaks the stereotype that Indian boys are expected to be stupid and dumb, and later on he becomes a successful writer because of his endeavor to read. Alexie vividly narrates his younger life by using metaphor and repetition with a confident tone, in order to strengthen his description of his reading talent, his influence to the other Indian boys and how he struggles in poverty to change his life.
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.