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Use Of Literary Devices In Superman And Me

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In Sherman Alexie’s, Superman and Me, Alexie uses multiple literary devices such as conflict and metaphor to help encompass the idea that education/society changes over time and opens doors of opportunities for people. Within Alexie’s story, he described the hard life of growing up as an Indian. Growing up as an Indian was a big challenge due to the fact that the world already had a set perspective on their lifestyle (which was that Indians were born illiterate and were made for one purpose and one purpose only, which was to hunt). The first literary device mentioned was conflict, where Sherman was in a pool of doubt and said “as Indian children, we were expected to fail.” This piece of evidence relates to conflict (person v.s. society) because the children were consistently looked down upon with their education and always told that “they couldn’t do it.” Society had placed them with a self conflict that makes them constantly doubt themselves when in reality the majority of them are educated and have a bigger picture in life. Furthermore the education changed overtime because society allowed to view these Indians as people rather than just …show more content…

As Sherman, once again was doubting himself with his education, Alexie wrote “I throw my weight against their doors. The door holds. I am smart.” Sherman Alexie was referring to society as the weights holding him against the door of opportunity so they cannot open. He actually educated, he read his father's books and they gave him a bigger perspective on the world. By reading his father's books on his own, despite what others would say, show that the more children put effort into their education, the more they'll gain self confidence in themselves which will help open more doors in their lives (opportunities) for the future. Reading helped Alexie, not only with his education but to prove society wrong and to display that he has more potential than the given

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