The Joy Of Reading And Writing Superman And Me By Sherman Alexie

Breaking Through in a White Man’s World
Sherman Alexie writes two essays, “The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me” and “Indian Education”, which both discuss the issue of education and racism. In “The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me”, Alexie writes about how he learned how to read and write. In “Indian Education”, he writes about his experience in each grade and life lessons he learned in each grade. Alexie discusses in the traditionally written essay, “The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me” how he taught himself how to read in a society where this was not the norm for Indians; whereas, in the experimental essay, “Indian Education”, he takes us through a twelve year journey in the white man’s world. In the …show more content…
White people had little regard for Native Americans and they were not expected to go anywhere in life. This can be seen on many occasions in the two essays. In “Indian Education”, Alexie writes, “In third grade, though, I stood alone in the corner, faced to the wall, and waited for the punishment to end. I’m still waiting” (106). Native Americans have always been in a never ending cycle of failure and oppression. Alexie was waiting for this “punishment” to be over, but could never see the day it would be. In “The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me”, Alexie writes, “As Indian children we were expected to fail in the non- Indian world. Those who failed were ceremonially accepted by other Indians and appropriately pitied by non-Indians” (17). Even Indians did not want to see each other doing well. If an Indian was doing something to better themselves, they were looked down upon by their people. If Indians were not doing anything to better themselves, they were accepted by their people and by non- Indians. The oppression ran deep. In both these essays, Alexie expresses the struggle of trying to be an educated Native American in a world that was dominated by white people who did not want to see them doing …show more content…
In “Indian Education”, Alexie wrote, “But it felt good, that ball in my hands, all those possibilities and angles. It was mathematics, geometry. It was beautiful...But it felt good, that buzz in his head, all those colors and noises. It was chemistry, biology. It was beautiful” (107). Alexie speaks about basketball, colors, and noises and relating it back to education. He describes at basketball as being geometry and colors and noises as being chemistry and biology. In “The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me”, Alexie wrote, “I learned to read with a superman comic book” (15). In the more experimentally written essay, “Indian Education” he speaks about education in the non- “traditional” way. He finds a more creative way to express the same concept that he is expressing in his other essay. Most people do not think of education in this way. In the more traditionally written essay, “The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me”, he goes about education in the more traditional way. He learned to read from a book. When most people think about education and learning they think of it in this way. Throughout the essay he writes about books, and talks about how most people view education. He read anything he could find and his house was filled with