Friday, June 5, 2015

In his essay "Superman and Me," how does Sherman Alexie connect his experiences to Superman's values and heroic abilities?

In the conclusion to his essay "Superman and Me," Sherman Alexie states that through teaching reading and writing he hopes to save Native American lives.


Throughout the essay, Alexie discusses the idea that learning to read saved his life. He recounts how he learned to read through a Superman comic book and focused on an image of Superman breaking down a door, which led him to understand the words above the image to read "Superman...

In the conclusion to his essay "Superman and Me," Sherman Alexie states that through teaching reading and writing he hopes to save Native American lives.


Throughout the essay, Alexie discusses the idea that learning to read saved his life. He recounts how he learned to read through a Superman comic book and focused on an image of Superman breaking down a door, which led him to understand the words above the image to read "Superman is breaking down the door." After learning to read at a very young age, Alexie says he was able to read novels like The Grapes of Wrath in kindergarten and later became interested in "saving" his life by becoming as smart as possible.


This idea of breaking down doors is mentioned again in the final paragraph, but this time in relation to young Native American lives. He makes the metaphor that when he teaches these young people who have been taught to fail or "were expected to be stupid," he, like Superman, throws his "weight against their locked doors." Unfortunately, "[t]he door holds." 


Alexie clearly sees reading as a superheroic trait and believes that intelligence has the ability to save lives.

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