Alexie Sherman's Superman And Me

539 Words3 Pages
Many people around the world struggle with becoming literate and in some communities such struggles are more prevalent; in Alexie Sherman’s short story, Superman and Me, he details his journey to learning how to read within the poverty-struck Native American community. Alexie’s journey begins with a Superman comic that he used to learn how to read, at first he is unable to comprehend the words and creates his own dialogue “I cannot read the words, but I assume it tells me that ‘Superman is breaking down the door’”(1998, p89). His desire for reading is further encouraged by his father’s passion for reading, who spends any extra money on a diverse arrangement of books from discount stores. Alexie has an eye opening moment when he understands “that a paragraph was a fence that held words” and “the words inside a paragraph worked together for a common purpose”…show more content…
Instead of becoming a prodigy, he was made into an oddity due to his culture viewing education as something unimportant. Alexie goes on to discuss how he the Native American children submit to expected lack of intelligence and how “those who failed were ceremonially accepted by other Indians and appropriately pitied by non-Indians” (1998, p90). Despite others in his culture failing Alexie “refused to fail” and read everything he could as he saw reading as the key to his future; literally stating that he “was trying to save my life” (1998, p91). He later visits Native American schools and is surprised by how the children are writing their own poems, short stories, and novels and how he was never taught such things during his time in school. There are also other children who are like those from his time in school that refuse to learn and Alexie claims he is “trying to save our lives” by inspiring the children to
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