Analysis on Sherman Alexie’s “Superman and Me” Essay Example
One of the sample essays in the text is “Superman and Me.” This essay does not correspond with the title of the book. In this article, the author tries to deliver a strong message to the Indian children. He wants them to understand the importance of education. Education can make a huge difference in life. In the essay, “I am smart. I am arrogant. I am lucky. I am trying to save our lives” (Alexie, 582). Alexie incorporates indirect thesis that is the importance of education in life.
From the essay, it is clear that the target audience is the non-Indian society and the Native American children. In paragraph six Alexie writes, “We were Indian children expected to be stupid.” Non-Indian people did not pay any attention to the Indian students. They expected them to fail in their exams. The
...writer of this essay sympathizes with the Indian children by encouraging the society to change their attitude towards these children. He claims that the attitude is unfair and needs to change. The last paragraph of this essay explains the importance of education to the Native American children. Alexie says, “I am trying to save our lives.” (Alexie, 582). He wants them to realize that education is the key to respect in the society. For example, in the article “Superman and Me,” Alexie tells his readers “I fought with my classmates on a daily basis” (Alexie, 582). The reason why he had endless fights with fellow students is that they prevented him from answering questions asked by non-Indian teachers. They were against him because he was an Indian. Alexie did not give up in his studies and
he was always busy reading books during his free time.
In the essay “Superman and Me,” Alexie depicts himself as a forceful individual. From my view, I believe he is forceful because he is courageous in his actions. He does not care the reaction of the other people as long as he gets and does according to his will. For example, Alexie tells his readers “I refused to fail. I was smart. I was arrogant. I was lucky” (Alexie, 582). Through the essay “Superman and Me” we can clearly see that his boyhood was truly bad because of discrimination. However, as he was growing he had to become forceful in order to get what he needed. His aim was to help the young generation of Indians in their life through education.
Generally, I believe the essay “Superman and Me” is truly well written and structured. I did not face any challenge in understanding the message conveyed. I read the essay with ease. The message from the author was clear. Alexie demonstrated to his readers that everybody has the potential to achieve what he/she wants in life despite discouragement from other people. You can become what you want in life as long as you remain focused. The writer is a life example because he faced a lot of discrimination but he succeeded. In addition, he discourages any kind of discrimination on individuals.
Work Cited
- Alexie, Sherman. "Superman And Me". latimes. N.p., 2011. Web. 22 Jan. 2016. http://articles.latimes.com/1998/apr/19/books/bk-42979
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