Read the following essay, "Superman and Me" by Sherman Alexie.
"Superman and Me"
It is both an eye-opening account of what life was like for an intelligent child on an Indian reservation and a skillful rendering of the moments surrounding language acquisition, the spark for reading and writing, and the influence on a child of a well-loved parent. Use any or all of these avenues for discussion of the essay.
Also comment on what rhetorical devices Alexie uses in the essay. For example, by using the analogy of a paragraph to a fence, Alexie is providing a visual connection that all readers can understand in order to express his moment of epiphany that opened him to the world of reading: an understanding that words "worked together for a common purpose". The use of this visual analogy between a paragraph and a fence lends meaning to the extension of his analogy in the remainder of paragraph 3. As Alexie explains his understanding of the reservation as a paragraph within the country, his home and neighborhood as paragraphs on the reservation, and each member of his family as a separate paragraph yet part of a larger "essay of seven paragraphs," the reader grasps Alexie's inherent desire to write and his identity as a writer. This is just one example. You should find and cite at least two. Do your best not to repeat the devices used by other students.
Superman and Me is a very short but effective writing. Its use of rhetorical strategies places it in chronological order from when Alexie was a rule-defying child to when he overcame the societal restrictions and became who he wanted to become, despite his heritage.
ReplyDeleteOn page 111, Alexie uses a rhetorical shift from first to third person. This shift allows him to reflect on his childhood as if he were writing a book about himself. Because in this paragraph he becomes "incognito," he can speak of how he is discriminated against for simply being an Indian. He explains that his talents must be held onto modestly because he is already looked down on. This shift ties together the childhood portion of this article and emphasizes one last time that his intelligence does not matter because of who he is.
The use of anaphora on page 112 provides Alexie's article with another effective audience attraction. Alexie repeats the phrase "I read" at the beginning of a paragraph of consecutive sentences to make his zeal towards reading a reality. Common examples of everyday items that he reads range from junk mail to auto-repair magazines. A person must have an extreme attraction towards reading to be that dedicated. This dedication shines in the adult portion of the essay, showing that a genuine love for reading is stronger than any racial discrimination.
As a child my imagination was amazing, as can be said for almost anyone. Reading gave me more ideas and started that "spark" that got me wondering about many different things. My mom read to my brothers and I every night before bed. I always wanted to live in a magic treehouse, fly to an alien planet, or have an A to Z sleepover with my grandpa like the different book characters. I always memorized books and pretended like I could read them, while the pictures served as a friendly reminder of what part of the story came next. I think that this spark came from that reading before bed because it shaped my mind as I was growing. This excitement occurs in almost every child, and if you feed that spark at an early age, it will spread.
I believe that this enthusiasm for stories and fantasy tales is in every child, no matter what race. It is definitely easier to carry out this hobby if you have books of your own, but reading can take place everywhere. As I discussed in an essay that I wrote for Dr. Pam, I am a firm believer in "real" books verses ebooks, especially when growing up as a child. I child reading room a nook is being deprived from the colorful pictures, the shape of the book, and the color of the cover. A part of early childhood reading is having the book to hold and reading it until it is abused. Without following these standards, the spark might not be completely there.
I also believe that ebooks are not as wonderful as "real" books. Ebooks cannot be infused with smells, bent, or wore out over time. Each of these things contributes to the beauty of real books. I once read somewhere that one can accurately perceive how often a book is read and how much the owner likes it by its condition. Books with cracked spines, rumpled pages, and bent covers are the ones that are loved the most. These books have been read obsessively, and the owner just could not keep the constant use from showing. I have several books in this condition. One of my favorite books is held together by rubber bands because the pages are falling out due to constant flipping. Also, without the pictures in children's books, those books would not have the appeal that makes children love them. Real books are an essential part of developing a child's love of reading.
DeleteGrace, I could not agree more in your statement that paper books are better than eBooks. I think it is important for people to actually hold the story in their hand and to be able to wear it out. For example, I stole a copy of To Kill A Mockingbird from Ridgway when I was in sixth grade (shhh) and now it has no back cover and is highlighted the entire way through to point out important quotes and situations. You simply cannot have that value with an electronic book.
DeleteOh my God...ebooks literally make me cringe. My mother reads ebooks on her phone all the time. It astounds me to be honest. There is no doubt about it. Paper books are far superior. When Mrs. Meyer made us use the ebooks, I literally wanted to cry everyday. I just couldn't do it. But now we have paper back books so that's good. But anyway Grace, those were just my thoughts on the matter.
DeleteGrace, I did not pick up on the rhetorical shift at all. This is one rhetorical device I need to work on to familiarize myself with. I also understand whee you come from when you talk about your imagination as a child. I wish I still had more of the creativity and imagination that I had as a child. It would certainly be helpful! Reading also was very important to me when I was little and it definitely inspired my love of learning.
DeleteReading was a struggle for me. Back in like kindergarten through 2nd grade, I couldn't read to save my life. I remember taking the DIBBLES test, and I would fail every single time. In second grade, I was placed with the kids who couldn't read. This really made me sad. I also would fail every test we took in second grade. So all of these factors pretty much convinced me that I was stupid. But my parents would not give up on me that easily. They knew I liked math. I was always good with numbers. So some of the first words I learned how to spell were numbers. I would have to spell out O-N-E plus T-W-O equals T-H-R-E-E. Once I could spell numbers, I went on to non-numerical words. After school everyday, my mother and I went to the library and we'd read some nice books about Jack and Jill hiking up a hill and stuff like that. Side note here: One of my favorite books to read was about a circus. And they went through and talked about all the animals. Then they talked about how great the show is. Anyway, just a random thought. End side note. We went to the library everyday for about 5 months. After this time, I was pretty good at reading. As a result, all of my test scores went up. My confidence went up. And I just thought that I was the greatest reader of all time. The third quarter ended so my parents contacted the school to ask if I could move from the class of people who couldn't read to the class of kids that could read. I remember the teacher that we talked with was really rude. She basically said not everyone can be smart. I refused to believe that back then, and I still refuse to believe it today. Anyway, my personal beliefs have no place here. So we talked to this teacher for a long time, but eventually we bypassed her and went straight to Mrs. Schaut and Mrs. Pasquenelli (I hope I spelled this correctly) To keep this already long story a bit shorter, they eventually let me join the advanced reader class. That was basically the story of reading and I. Today, I'm not exactly the most avid of readers. I enjoy reading. But I like reading science books, or sci-fi type stuff. I actually remember I was reading my science textbook in seventh grade and Mrs Meredith told me to stop. I don't know. I probably should thank my parents, because they taught me to read and also fought to get me into the better class. I don't think I've ever thanked them. That's kind of depressing. Well anyway...that's that I guess.
ReplyDeleteSo I should probably stop talking about me because I'm just a boring person. I should probably talk about rhetorical strategies. I don't know. Maybe. I will have to start now. Ok. There is an alliteration in the second last paragraph of the essay. He starts off almost every single sentence with I (insert verb here). I got so annoyed with this, but I think it showed his passion for reading and the such. And finally, in the final few sentences, he uses an allusion to allude to the Superman comics that taught him to read. I've never read a Superman comic, so I don't really know what to think about this, but this really has nothing to do with the rhetorical strategy. Everyone learns to read differently. Some people take longer than others. But as long as everyone gets there in the end, that's all that matters.
I think your story illustrates how people learn to do a difficult task much more easily if they are interested in it. When your parents applied reading to math, you learned to read more easily because you liked how it was presented. If someone isn't interested in a subject, it is hard for them to learn about it simply because they just don't care. However, if someone loves a subject, they will try to learn everything they can about it. Their love won't let them know only the bare minimum. They have to know everything there is to know about it. People's passions really push them to learn, and once someone finds their passion, they'll never know enough about it. Students obviously aren't be passionate about everything they learn, but teachers will see that those students who are passionate about a subject do better than those who don't care.
DeleteMany times, when teenagers or adults confess their hatred of reading, it is due to a bad experience with reading when they were young. For example, due to your lack of interest in the material that you were reading, you became convinced that you were unintelligent and could not read. Now obviously you now understand that this is not the case, but it sounds like you went through a lot of your schooling career with a certain contempt for reading. Each child has a different interest, and this is an important fact to consider when teaching a child to read. If a child is completely uninterested in books about ponies, but is enchanted by books pertaining to space, reading books about ponies would only make the child shy away from reading. It is important that children are introduced to books that appeal to them so that their initial experience may impact their future feelings towards reading in a positive way.
DeleteI just realized that my comment is ridiculously similar to Ashley's. Sorry...
DeleteI agree, Nick, that anyone can learn. It is kind of sad a teacher could say that not everyone could be smart. It kind of correlates into Alexie's story where he was told he could not be smart due to his race. It is kind of amazing to imagine you feeling stupid even if it was years ago, because I consider you a very intelligent human being.
DeleteSuperman and Me is an essay that illustrates one child's love of reading, and explains how he developed his love. This essay is enhanced by many rhetorical devices, with which Sherman Alexie creates a vivid picture of his life.
ReplyDeleteAlexie uses several rhetorical devices to enhance his writing. One that stood out to me was his use of zeugma at the end of the first paragraph. Alexie states that "We lived on a combination of irregular paychecks, hope, fear, and government surplus food." This sentence describes both the physical and emotional aspects of his life as a young child. The zeugma is fitting because it simply illustrates their fragile lifestyle. In addition to the zeugma, Alexie uses parallelism in his essay. The last two paragraphs are constructed using parallelism. Alexie reuses the segment "I was smart. I was arrogant. I was lucky." This phrase is located at the beginning of the second to last paragraph as a way to lead in to the main body of the paragraph describing how often Alexie read material. He concludes the paragraph with the sentence "I was trying to save my life." This sentence gives meaning to Alexie's need to read. At the very end of the essay, these four sentences appear with one slight variation. Alexie states that he "is trying to save our lives." This shift helps the reader realize that Alexie is one of the few lucky ones, and that his is trying to give back so that others can escape their situation.
I cannot remember a time when I couldn't read. I know that at some point I learned how to, but I just cannot remember when that actually happened. When I was little, I would read all the time. I read during school, and I would get in trouble for reading too much. After school, I would read in the car on the way home, and when we arrived at our house again, I'd just sit in the car and finish my book. One of my parents would eventually come to tell me to come inside, and I'd realize it's been an hour since we got home. Both of my parents nurtured my love of reading. In elementary school, my dad would read to me on the couch. My mom would read to me before bed. Each of them helped me develop my love of words and text.
Many parents take it upon themselves to introduce their children to reading in ways such as reading them bedtime stories or giving them special books to read on their own. I think that this is so important. Our parents are undoubtedly some of the most influential people in our lives. Who we are today has a great deal to do with the things introduced to us by our parents when we were young. I think that every parent should recognize this role and use it to better the future lives of their children, especially in regards to reading. By taking five minutes each night to read a short story, parents are positively influencing their child by introducing them to the magical worlds within the pages of a book, and by prompting them to discover these magical worlds on their own as they grow older.
DeleteAshley, like you, my parents were also strong supporters of my reading habits from a very young age. I feel like without that form of encouragement, we would never be able to develop as much as we have, not just in English, but in every subject in school and in life. We need words to communicate. We need communication to share math problems and scientific discoveries, as well as we need it to just be human and have social interactions.
DeleteAshley,the ability to read is an amazing gift and being able to read without being forced is even more amazing. I personally never loved to read all of the time, I was more of the one who read occasionally and/ or when asked to. Personally I regret this because I didn't have that experience of reading on my own and loving it. Now as I have gotten older I appreciate books and am starting to really love reading and enjoying it.
DeleteAshley, I am so happy you used zeugma! It's one of my favorite rhetorical devices! Also, I thought the use of the "I was smart...." statement made a profound impact on the piece. It drew the different aspects of the piece together into a well organized read. Like you, I was always reading when I was younger. Everywhere I went I had a book in my hands. I still try to do that today, and I wish I wasn't so busy so I could read more.
DeleteSuperman and Me is an essay which not only shows how stereotyping can create a conflict between acceptance and doing what is beneficial for oneself, but it also shows anyone can push past what is expected of their intelligence to achieve their goals. Everyine can learn from this story whether their struggle was education or they suffered from a difference vice. I personally never had any struggles learning to read. My mom used to motivate me to keep reading by giving me a penny for every page I read of a book when I was in elementary school, which is ironic compared to people encouraging Alexie to keep quiet and act uneducated. Alexie uses anecdotes throughout his whole essay. The whole essay is really a composistion of thee ante dotes which he effectively combined to form a story. The different anecdotes are chosen with a purpose to portray the conflict he faced. His anecdotes are effective because he kept his essay short and sweet. He did not prolong his point to a ridiculous amount of time which would make anyone go crazy.
ReplyDeleteAlexie also used alliteration when he called himself an "oddity" instead of a "prodigy." The use of a pair of words which have the same syllable count and have the same ending sound really is ironic because the two words are completely opposites.
I was encouraged to read as well Lauren. I can't believe that people around Alexie thought it was wrong for him to read. I suppose his dad was probably the only source of encouragement around the house, because he filled the house books. This made it seem like his dad was the only one who thought reading was ok. I think that if Alexie didn't have his dad to motivate him, maybe he wouldn't have gotten as far as he did. It shows that parents are so important to a child's success.
DeleteLauren, I also find it kind of disturbing that the people around Alexie encouraged him to stop reading. Reading is very important to our society. It provides a link to the past or a fantasy world. In Alexie's case, it provided him a link to Superman. Reading Superma appeared to motivate him to want to try to save people. But anyway. I'm glad you had motivation to read. A penny a page...must've read a lot of pages.
DeleteLauren, like Gizzy here, I really hated the fact that they told Alexie to not speak up. This is so disrespectful not only to him, but to the teachers who are teaching him. If no one in the class answered the questions or gave opinions or even asked questions of their own, I feel as if the teacher would think that she wasn't doing their job right.
DeleteIn his essay, Superman and Me, Alexie uses a variety of rhetorical devices to relate with his audience. Firstly, Alexie's use of repetition in his essay is evident. For example, Alexie repeats the phrase "I read," and proceeds to provide of various forms of reading such as the backs of cereal boxes as well as newspapers. This repetition is purposeful, and is used by Alexie to stress the extent of his affinity for reading. If Alexie were to simply utilize the phrase "I read" only once, and then proceed with a list of reading forms, the effect would be lost, as the audience would not sense as easily the points that Alexie is attempting to get across. A second rhetorical device utilized by Alexie is an analogy. When describing his initial encounter with reading by using the example of the Superman book, Alexie states that he would make up words to fit the pictures. He would read aloud "Superman is breaking down the door." However, Alexie claims that he would imagine Superman saying "I am breaking down the door," so he would read that aloud instead. I think that while it is subtle, Alexie is attempting to make a connection here. I think that he is comparing this simple experience of Superman breaking down a door with his own metaphorical breaking down of the door that encloses Indian stereotypes. Alexie claims that at school, it was expected for Indian children to be stupid, and because of this they were somewhat disregarded. However, by learning to read at a young age, and prospering in his abilities to read and write, Alexie "breaks down" the door that separates him from success. While this rhetorical device is not necessarily evident, I think that it is very symbolic in an abstract way.
ReplyDeleteAlexie speaks of his initial encounters with books, and the fact that it was his father who sparked this affinity for reading. I think that with all children, it is this initial experience that forms their opinion in regards to literature. For some children, being forced to read undesirable books at a young age may cause them to grow up with a certain contempt for reading. But for others, a magical experience may spark this love for books, much like it did for Alexie. Bedtime stories, gentle teachers, and creative authors may all contribute to this special childhood experience. For me, it was my elementary teachers who instilled in me a love for literature. When I was in first grade, my homeroom teacher, Mrs. Brem, would read to the class everyday. She would have us close our eyes as she read us tales such as The Boxcar Children and my personal favorite, The Mouse on the Motorcycle. Another teacher who impacted me greatly was Mrs. Ross, a substitute teacher in my elementary days. Every time she subbed, whether it be for first graders or for fifth graders, she would end the class five minutes early and read us a book. I remember becoming enthralled in each tale that she brought into the classroom, and I firmly believe that it was times such as this that instilled in me the affinity for reading that I possess today.
Mary, I love the connection you made between Superman and Alexie both breaking down the door. It is hard to go against the norm, but without breaking the rules Alexie's love for reading would not have grown nearly as strong. Also, my first grade teacher read to us everyday from a chapter book. I remember loving every book she chose, and I believe that each individual child must be introduced to books that they like in order to create a happy memory. This happy memory can then be associated with the love for reading later on.
DeleteEver since I was a little kid, my parents have always encouraged me to read and learn as many words as I possibly could. I loved having bookshelves and bookshelves full of Dr. Seuss, amongst other stories, lining my playroom walls, and I loved sitting in that room on the floor and reading for hours and hours at a time. My first real experience of learning to read came occurred in kindergarten when everyone in my class had to read thirty books by the end of the month and I, due to my Type-A personality and lack of friends, completed my entire reading log by the end of the first day during recess. Another condition of reading all of those books at once was that in the same night we had to bring the books home and read them to our parents. That night my book back busted at the seams and my mom almost killed me. However, until this day I use those skills that I developed at a young age to learn and read everything I could get my hands on, as well as learn to love as many words as possible because they are the basis of all forms of communication and effect life so greatly. I feel as though Alexie went through the same issues of trying to work hard in order to achieve greatness. Much like Alexie, I was considered weird and an outcast for a great deal of my life when it came to what I enjoyed doing. Many times at lunch and recess I would sit there and read books because that gave me a way to escape and further my knowledge instead of chasing after boys after we ate.
ReplyDeleteAlexie used many rhetorical devices throughout his short and powerful essay about his life growing up and how he defied the odds that were stacked up against him. One of the most powerful strategies that he used, I feel, was his use of imagery the reoccurs multiple times throughout his testament. The first instance of this device being used can be seen when he is describing the books that his father had accumulated from every thrift shop in town and how they were stacked all over the house, including the bathroom. I feel as though this device is powerful because it allows the readers some insight into what it was like growing up in that household and understanding the desire to read that was developed.
I personally am not a fan of rhetorical devices, though I know their importance, and I just cannot memorize them. So, I chose to look up a list of them and the term anecdote came up and it can be seen throughout the entire essay because an anecdote is a small story within a story. This essay is a tale of Alexie's journey as a person to defy racial stereotypes and I think that is one of the most important strategies he could have used because it presents up with some pathos for the author as well.
I think that it important to be pushed as children. If we are not encouraged to do better, I think that we can never see what we can actually accomplish. I also believe that it is okay to fail every once in a while, because if we do not fall, we can't learn to fly.
Jenna, I agree that the imagery used in this essay was great. It helped me to see the struggles he was facing as well as the attitudes of others on the reservation. This essay shows how stereotypes can be proven wrong, and Alexie wants to get this message out to others. He was Indian boy who defied all odds. Why can't other Indians do it too? It is all about how far they are willing to go and how hard they will work. They just need inspired.
DeleteI agree, Jenna, it is very important to encourage students to learn and enhance their knowledge through reading. I am not quite positive how Ridgway elementary school worked, but in the Saint Mary's Catholic Elementary School, we could take accelerated reading tests and earn points. With these points we could purchase cool prizes, which excited most people. Another way was rewarding us personal pan pizzas from Pizza Hut.. I mean who does not love Pizza Hut?
DeleteEven though it is short, "Superman and Me" brings up a lot of good points. It starts out with a boy who doesn't believe he is that smart, and is in the shadow of a father who is an intelligent and avid reader. But, Alexie is just seen as another dumb Indian boy. But that doesn't stop him. He begins to try to read little by little, starting with a Superman comic and eventually reading the Grapes of Wrath by kindergarten! This essay has a lot of metaphors. For example, Alexie says that, "A smart Indian is a dangerous person, widely feared and ridiculed by Indians and non-Indians alike." Here, he does compares the smart Indian to a dangerous person. We do not see it like that, as we think of smart people as powerful, and hard workers. Dangerous people are criminals. How can reading make Alexie dangerous? It certainly doesn't seem like a habit to get into!
ReplyDeleteAnaphora is also used in this essay when Alexie says, "I was smart. I was arrogant. I was lucky." Here he is showing how his attitude helped him to go past the idea that the smart Indian was dangerous. He refused to believe that he should conform to the standards that all Indians should be stupid in the school setting, but be smart on the reservation. Instead, he wanted to be smart and read all the time, no matter who was surrounding him.
Imagery is also used at the end of the essay when Alexie compares his knowledge to a door. He talks about throwing the weight of the knowledge he has against the other Indian children's minds, or the "closed doors." He then says that when he throws his weight against the door, it holds. As hard as he tries, the children will not open their doors to his knowledge and help. Instead they just sit there, refusing to break the stereotype. As well as image, this is also another metaphor.
As a child, I was like Alexie. I loved books. I was girl reading the Harry Potter books in second grade, even though some of them were bigger than me! I loved reading because it allowed me to be transported to another world, and I could go to that world and be involved with the characters and their lives. My parents never really pushed me to read, I just did it myself. I read some of the elementary classics too, like the Boxcar children and the Babysitters Club, and sometimes Nancy Drew. I just loved the variety that books could give. Today, I don't read as much because I don't really have time between sports and school. But, I still like a good book every now and then. I think its funny how Alexie still finds it ironic that he became a writer. I think he became a writer because he needed to get the message out to Indian children that they can do it, and success is possible. You just have to work at it to get there.
Olivia, I understand what you mean about reading a book is like being in a new world with new friends as the characters. I love when books take me to that place. When I finish a book, I talk about the characters like they are real. Sometimes I read books like that way to fast, but then I am glad becuase I go through and read it again. A book that I did that 7 times with was The Fault in our Stars by John Green. This has to be my favorite book. I could read it like four hours if someone gave it to me now. In those four hours I would find something I didn't notice the other times I have read it and the characters would develop more in my Brain. I don't know what u would do without books. P.S if you only watched the movie and didn't read the book, your missing out.
DeleteOlivia, I can personally say that whenever I read a fiction book, I always place myself in the book. This is primarily why I love reading fiction books. I feel like I'm actually there with the characters. Oh and Maddie, I also adore this book/movie. I read the book and watched the movie. I bought the movie the first day it came out because I loved it so much, but I do think that the book is better. I will agree that if anyone didn't read the book they should seriously rethink their life.
DeleteThe essay Superman and Me displays stereotyping and the power of reading. Indians were thought and portrayed as being unintelligent and not worthy to much. Many Indians played along with this stereotyping in schools and in front of those who were not Indian. Alexie did not believe in this unintellectual spirit many were praised for because he was intelligent and he wanted to learn. His spark for learning was derived from his fathers love of books. Alexie was lucky to have a father who was educated and shared his learning experience with his family.
ReplyDeleteTo me, family is very important and I think I obtain that from my parents the way Alexie obtained his love of reading from his father. I have a very close relationship with my parents because they try to make sure our family is close. I learn so much from my parents because they teach me, help me, and care for me as much as they can. We often have family trips and days to bring us together. Just as Alexie loved to read because of his father, I will learn to love my future family as my mother and father have loved me and my siblings.
Alexie uses many rhetorical devices in his essay, Superman and Me, some which are used more than other and some which are more difficult to pick up. In the end of the third paragraph, Alexie use an analogy when he compares his family to that of a paragraph in a story. He uses this analogy to show his family because each paragraph contains its own detail of the story, but each is linked somehow to the overall essay. It shows that each person is an individual with their own story, but they all belong to one essay because they are all linked to each through family and experience. Alexie uses analogy in other areas of his essay, such as he sees the world as a book or a paragraph to a fence. The use of these analogies give the reader a comparison that makes them think and visualize what the writer is trying to get across or see why they are being compared. Alexie also uses parallelism when he repeats the phrases starting with "I" in the beginning of the fourth paragraph on page 111. The use of parallelism shows his beliefs and that he was not afraid to stand out and be intelligent because that is what he desired. The use of rhetorical devices in his essay engage the audience and highlight the points Alexie is trying to get through to his audience.
I agree that family is important and many family interests will be inherited because of the time spent participating in those activities, Sydney. A family that values education will most likely stress that importance to the children in the family, just as it is with reading. It is hard to make other people upset and to go against what they say is right, which is why Alexie had to face a hard challenge. Even though his family approved, society did not. That happens a lot with religion, but I cannot imagine not even being able to learn. You just have to be strong and love it enough to hold onto it despite the ridicule.
DeleteSyd, I too and very close to my parents. I don't know how people can't be! Our parents pass down so many characteristics to us and we do not even know it. They build our character by teaching us how to act. Our parents do so much for us and becuase of them, then we are the person they want us to be in the world. One could learn a lot about family by reading this story.
DeleteOne thing that many do not know about my family is that my Great Grandpa was Native American. This is hard to believe with my family because we have light eyes along with dark skin. Which is the complete opposite look of my Great Grandfather. My grandma always shows me pictures of him and talks about the differences in their culture verse ours. The talk of education came up awhile ago and she said something about how they did not learn much about reading and writing, just the basics. This could be seen with Alexie's story of his childhood, being told he was to smart rather than praising a child who knew so much at a young age.
ReplyDeleteIn "Superman and Me," there was two rhetorical devices that stood out the most. The one was Bildungsroman, which is a story whose theme is the moral or physiological growth of the main character. This is shown throughout the story with the way the events happened in his life. All of the events made him be the person he is today. The next one is paradox, which is also found throughout the story. This is shown by him being intelligent that he is actually put down because of it instead of being praised. This is ironic because intelligent students should be praised not ignored.
When I was a child, I loved to read. I remember stories of me reading to my brother when he was little. I was always a reader and still am today. I can read a book in one night if I get super attached to it, and it has happened before, more than once actually. Learning to read is also fun to teach. I babysit a little girl named Stella, she just turned 3. She can talk like she is 6. She can also read very well. I remember one time she actually read a book to me, I think it was about Dora. Now maybe she heard the story a hundred times from her parents reading it to her, or her connecting pictures with actions, but her words coming out of her mouth were not very different than the ones written in the book. Just as Alexie was inspired by a family member to read at such a young age, I believe that Stella to is inspired by her older siblings and parents as well.
I had never particularly liked reading. Every time a teacher had given me an assignment to read some book that I had no interest in, I would procrastinate as long as I could so that I didn't have to read. No one in my family had ever really pushed me to read books. I don't have any stories of my parents reading books to me as a child, mostly because I can't remember my childhood very well. I hated having to read books in my elementary and middle school careers. Well truthfully, I still hate reading books, especially if it is an independent reading.
ReplyDeleteThere was one time, however, that I actually enjoyed reading. As most of you know, art is really the only thing really gets my attention. During classes, I'm usually doodling in my notebooks or sometimes I'm actually full out drawing something in my sketchbook. Sometime in eight grade, a friend of mine introduced me to a type of book that I could actually enjoy reading. This type of book is called a manga. An easy way to describe this book would be a Japanese graphic novel that has been translated to English. This was a pivotal point in my life. Two worlds collided: one that I loved, and one that I didn't. Art and reading had been brought together in a way that I could actually enjoy. I owe everything to this friend, and she knows who she is. After I had been introduced to this form of reading, I decided to give other books a chance. I actually started taking enjoy reading. Most of my time had been consumed by reading fiction books and manga. During the AP courses that I have been taking this year, reading became a lot easier because of manga.
The author of "Superman and Me" uses many rhetorical devices to get the attention of his readers. In the last paragraph, uses anaphora to get the attention of the readers: "I am smart. I am arrogant. I am lucky. I am trying to save our lives." By repeating "I am," he is making a connection with himself and the audience. Another rhetorical strategy that the author uses is when he changes his point of view in the fifth paragraph. Instead of talking in the first person such as "I taught myself how to read," he says "A little Indian boy teaches himself how to read." He talks about himself in the third person. The rhetorical devices used in this article really improve upon this article. The article itself was fabulous, but the rhetorical devices really made it stand out.
Rae Ann, like you I was never one to sit down and read a book. My parents read to me as a child but I personally never picked up on it. I occasional would start a book but would lose interest and stop. I would read if I was told to or was required but I would rarely sit down on my own and read. Now that I have gotten older I apreciate reading because I understand why they are written and the meanings they hold.
DeleteOne rhetorical device that Alexie uses repeatedly throughout the document is short sentences. While many times short sentences may make a writing sound choppy or awkward, Alexie is able to use them to his advantage and effectively show the readers the magnitude of the point he is trying to make. Also, the short sentences add character to the reading and establish the writer's tone and voice. Take the first sentence, for example. It seems relatively simple but it is obvious that the reading of this comic book had a profound impact on him. It also draws in the reader and makes them want to know more. Alexie's short sentences break up the monotony of the writing while making his points stand out. Another rhetorical decide that Alexie uses repeatedly is parallelism within his sentences. By using parallelism he allows the reader to see the relationship between the objects in the sentences. Parallelism also puts emphasis on the ideas within the sentence. One example where Alexie does this is when he states all the places he reads. He makes the statements parallel which shows their importance.
ReplyDeleteI really liked this article because it adresses the importance of education in a relatable way. I began read Gifted Hands this weekend and I think that the stories share a common message in a similar way. Both authors did not have an ideal upbringing into the world but they also did not let their education fall by the way side. Alexie is able to show the importance of reading and how it affected his life in this reading. I enjoyed the way it was written and how the main points of the writing were not brought forward immediately, rather they were shown through his experiences. I think a story in this form speaks volumes more about the importance of education than a formal essay. Just like Gifted Hands, the author's story is able to show reader the main points in a well-crafted inspirational way.