Sherman Alexie grew up on an reservation in Spokane, Washington, where illiteracy was the norm. However, Alexie was not normal compared to most peers, growing up to be an author of 18 different novels and the essay "Superman and me" published in Los Angeles Times. Sherman Alexie writes about reading in "Superman and Me" to explain its impact on his life and encourage Native Americans to break the illiteracy stereotype. Alexie employs a combination of analogy, anaphora, and contrasts which allows readers to understand the obstacles that he had to overcome, being a well read Indian, and inspires the audience to do likewise.
When Alexie began learning how to read, he was able to make a comparison between paragraphs and fences. These fences could contain not only words but people too. Words in a paragraph are placed for a purpose which they overall work together to reach. …show more content…
The contrasting ways excellent readers were seen solely because of racial background demonstrates the harmful effects of stereotypes to readers. Since the bar was set low for Native Americans by stereotypes, not only were Native Americans discouraged from succeeding, but some from other backgrounds came to view Indians as stupid. Those who did succeed with a Native American background were only seen as an "oddity" as opposed to a "prodigy". Alexie places oddity with a negative connotation against prodigy with a very positive connotation allowing readers to understand his remorse about the way he was treated due to racial background. Instead of being applauded and looked up to for excelling as a child, Alexie was merely seen as different. The outright contrast between oddity and prodigy reflect on the internal division between Alexie's views in the past versus now. Alexie's feelings of pain that still linger can be felt by readers as the read the
When Alexie began learning how to read, he was able to make a comparison between paragraphs and fences. These fences could contain not only words but people too. Words in a paragraph are placed for a purpose which they overall work together to reach. …show more content…
The contrasting ways excellent readers were seen solely because of racial background demonstrates the harmful effects of stereotypes to readers. Since the bar was set low for Native Americans by stereotypes, not only were Native Americans discouraged from succeeding, but some from other backgrounds came to view Indians as stupid. Those who did succeed with a Native American background were only seen as an "oddity" as opposed to a "prodigy". Alexie places oddity with a negative connotation against prodigy with a very positive connotation allowing readers to understand his remorse about the way he was treated due to racial background. Instead of being applauded and looked up to for excelling as a child, Alexie was merely seen as different. The outright contrast between oddity and prodigy reflect on the internal division between Alexie's views in the past versus now. Alexie's feelings of pain that still linger can be felt by readers as the read the