“Superman and Me” narrated by Sherman Alexie was published in the Los Angeles Times in 1998. Alexie narrates through two stories in his life. First he, talks about the stereotypical living on an Indian reservation and teaching himself to read. Second, he talks about when he becomes a teacher helping his students. Alexie’s purpose to his audience, the general public, but more specifically, the young Native American community,or Indians that he wants them to read and save their lives. Alexie uses a large amount of pathos from feelings, then develops credibility through a personal anecdote, and logic from personal experience that reading saves lives. First, I will break the first section into pathos and ethos because they are closely related.
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The first half of Alexie 's narrative involves his childhood on the reservation. Alexie uses an emotional appeal of his feelings and develops good credibility with a personal anecdote of his family. Throughout the whole paper, Alexie describes mostly emotional. The main stereotypes that Native AMericans are uneducated. Alexie describes, “ A little Indian boy teaches himself to read at an early age and advances quickly… If he might have been anything but an Indian boy living on the reservation, he might have been called a prodigy” (496). He explains no one would be impressed that he taught himself to read. On the reservation, it was not normal for Indians to learn at all. Beyond that, Alexie overcame the stereotypes by reading. In paragraph seven, he says, “ I refuse to fail. I was smart. I was arrogant. I was lucky… I was trying to save my life” (496). Reading saved his life in the long run. The emotional appeal pulls the general public and Indians to think twice about stereotyping, but more importantly Alexie shows anyone can read to save their lives. Aside from pathos, Alexie uses descriptions to establish his credibility. He says, “ [I was] a …show more content…
He picks up a book from his father 's book collection, then describes his understanding that “a paragraph was a fence of words”(495) Alexie compares a paragraph and a fence has the same purpose. He elaborates, “Now, using this logic…” he puts everything into paragraphs (495). All the reservation from north, south, east and west are paragraphs within the United States. In addition, compares each of his family members are separate paragraphs to make their household. Alexie uses the bits of logic to show him learning through reading. Him learning how to read saved his life from the stereotypes. In all, he uses pathos, ethos and logos to show the general public that learning can save a person’s life like him. Alexie touches more specifically to the young Native American community to agree with learning they can save their
The first half of Alexie 's narrative involves his childhood on the reservation. Alexie uses an emotional appeal of his feelings and develops good credibility with a personal anecdote of his family. Throughout the whole paper, Alexie describes mostly emotional. The main stereotypes that Native AMericans are uneducated. Alexie describes, “ A little Indian boy teaches himself to read at an early age and advances quickly… If he might have been anything but an Indian boy living on the reservation, he might have been called a prodigy” (496). He explains no one would be impressed that he taught himself to read. On the reservation, it was not normal for Indians to learn at all. Beyond that, Alexie overcame the stereotypes by reading. In paragraph seven, he says, “ I refuse to fail. I was smart. I was arrogant. I was lucky… I was trying to save my life” (496). Reading saved his life in the long run. The emotional appeal pulls the general public and Indians to think twice about stereotyping, but more importantly Alexie shows anyone can read to save their lives. Aside from pathos, Alexie uses descriptions to establish his credibility. He says, “ [I was] a …show more content…
He picks up a book from his father 's book collection, then describes his understanding that “a paragraph was a fence of words”(495) Alexie compares a paragraph and a fence has the same purpose. He elaborates, “Now, using this logic…” he puts everything into paragraphs (495). All the reservation from north, south, east and west are paragraphs within the United States. In addition, compares each of his family members are separate paragraphs to make their household. Alexie uses the bits of logic to show him learning through reading. Him learning how to read saved his life from the stereotypes. In all, he uses pathos, ethos and logos to show the general public that learning can save a person’s life like him. Alexie touches more specifically to the young Native American community to agree with learning they can save their