week 9

For this week, I had to read a short story by Sherman Alexie, titled Superman and Me. It is an excellent example of story telling with the purpose. Story telling with the purpose is exactly what one what would think it is. The purpose for this story is how Alexie broke the expectation of his culture.

The story starts off by giving background information about the author’s father.  The father went to catholic school by his own choice and read many western novels. The author remembers trying to read from a young age and can recall teaching himself how to read by looking at comic books. I like the author’s analogy that his house, town, and reservation are all like paragraphs in a book.

I was impressed that the author read Grapes of Wrath in Kindergarden. While I was smart for a Kindergardener, I was not that smart. One thing that made me angry was how a smart Native American is considered a dangerous person. The author could not fit in with whites or his own culture just because he reads. The author then says that he tries to make a difference in his community.  As an author, he goes to the school on the Indian reservations and teaches creative writing. This made me really happy as a future educator because he wants to shape the future, the children’s future.