The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me- Sherman Alexie

Day Journal #4 September 2nd 2014

Alexies life was not really what you would call a great childhood. He grew up in an
Indian Reservation where, by the sound of it, he did not have much support except from his
father. A reoccurring message from the other articles we have read also appeared in Alexies. It
is the message about reading books of every genre. He said, My father loved books, and since I
love my father with an aching devotion, I decided to love books as well. This really stood out to
me because here is an Indian boy who was influenced by his father. In most cases, the father
would have pushed him away from books, but here Alexies father wanted him to read more
and become someone. I connect this is my own parents who push me to be different.
There is a part in Alexies article where he says that Indian children were expected to
be stupid. Many people of different backgrounds have had the same problem. For example,
African Americans were also given this assumption. Alexie brings to focus that there are
expectations that impact a childs learning at school and in everyday life. So, instead of being
mocked, Indian children acted dumb in school, but then acted themselves in everyday
households. They did not want to upset a non-Indian by being smarter than them. These
expectations of someone can make someone feel useless and eventually they will then start
believing they are dumb, too. There are times where someone, in any case, can be told they
are something they are not, but then start believing it themselves after being told so many
times. They give up to the mockery and assumptions and just live how they are expected to live.
Alexie says, I am smart. I am arrogant. I am lucky. I am trying to save our lives. Here he is

stating that he will not believe what others are telling him to be. What he means by trying to
save our lives is that he is sticking up for Indian children and people and giving them an
example of someone who is not afraid to be different.
The additional quote from Alexie also has powerful meaning. His statement how
he writes books for teenagers because he vividly remembers what it felt like to be a teen facing
every day and epic dangers shows how strongly he feels about how children should be able to
do the things they want in life without having their monsters. Even though I have never read
one of his works, this quote in itself gives me a weapon. It tells me that I am never alone in the
world when I want to be different. It shows me that there are others who go through the
challenges I face every day. I too know what it is like to bleed and Alexie gives me inspiration
to keep fighting as I am sure he has done for so many others.
-

A lot of negative stereotypes of Indians

Interesting how he split up the paragraphs

Knowledge divided him to inspire to write- empowering

we lived on a combination of irregular paychecks, hope, fear, and government

surplus

Starting to read from a comic book- not the expectation; pictures as contact clues to
the meaning of the word first sentence( keep reader interested)

Parents are really big influences- literacy sponsors

Third person to sound more modest- moving on from this stereotype, strengthen his
views

Closes by describing going out to schools

-our lives still in the process of saving his life and his peoples lives
-Alexie grew up on the Spokane Indian Reservation in Wellpinit, Washington
-Born with water on his brain- so already was given doubts of being dumb
-Anything but an Indian boy living on the reservation, he might have been called a
prodigy.

Learning to Read- Malcolm X

Day Journal #5- September 2nd 2014
Malcolm X, like Alexie, was a minority in the United States as being a black man.
Reading, though, was also how he found his way out of the norms and became different from
everyone else. When first thinking of prison, people usually envision criminals, dirty
environment, and just plain mean and dumb people who are going nowhere in life. In my
opinion, I think this is an assumption once again. Malcolm X obviously did something to put
himself in prison, but that still did not mean he was not a good guy. He evens questions the
audience by saying, Where else but in prison could I have attacked my ignorance by being able
to study intensely sometimes as much as fifteen hours a day? As students in everyday life we
do have distractions which cause us not to learn to our fullest potential. So, I applaud Malcolm
X for creating his life into something.
We have pointed out certain characteristics it takes to be a successful writer and
even reader. Malcolm X does the same in his article. Repetition was a large focus in his work.
Not only to improve his vocabulary did he reread words over and over again, but he also
rewrote the words to improve his penmanship. If he could not read his writing how was he to
write anything? Repetition solved this problem. Then by simply understanding the words and
the words he wrote he could read more and more works. This is the same as it is for everything.
Practice only makes perfect, if not close to perfect. Also, language is important to being a great
leader and writer. By Malcolm X finding language he could understand the wars going on
around him about race and ethnicities, which he was a devote advocate about. Like Alexie,

Malcolm went above the norms for an African American and proved to everyone he is of worth
my starting to read and write.

He used repetition to learn. Ex: reading daily, writing out words to sharpen his
penmanship, I reviewed the words I didnt remember page 93

I think the part where he says an inmate is smiled upon if he demonstrates an

unusually intense interest in books teaches even people in prison that to be
educated and well with words is an essential of life. We should all believe that it
is important to be this way. Communication is key!

Wonders of the World- pictures of archeological finds, statues that depict

people; gave to his children to read. He wants his children to have what he
never did growing up

Sex and Race- race-mixing before Christs time, Aesop being a black man who
told fables, Egypts pharaohs, the great Coptic Christian Empires, Ethiopia,
earths oldest continuous black civilization

Uncle Toms Cabin- an anti-slavery novel by American author Harriet Beecher

Stowe. Published in 1852, the novel "helped lay the groundwork for the Civil
War"

Book after book showed me how the white man had brought upon the worlds
black, brown, red, and yellow peopled every variety of the sufferings of
exploitation. Page 95

Because who in the worlds history ever has played a worse skin game than
the white man? Page 95- this I thought this quote is one of the truest questions

Malcolm X makes. White people have started almost every conflict that has
occurred in the last centuries, and they act like it is everyone elses fault

Background: Teacher told him his race would prevent him from being a lawyer, strong
advocate for African Americans, learned to read and write in prison, assassinated for beliefs
Influences: Mr. Muhammad, slavery, Bimbi- influenced to read the dictionary
Works that influenced him: Uncle Toms Cabin, Finding in Genetics- Gregor Mendel