Thinking About Reading

Sherman Alexei in 2002

In class we read a literacy essay titled "The Joy of Reading: Superman and Me" by Sherman Alexie, an Indian who taught himself how to read using a Superman comic book. In his essay, Alexie reflects on the importance of reading and how it helped him knock down doors that would have been closed had he never learned. He also explains how he learned to read and how it made him feel as a small boy enclosed in an Indian Reservation. The following questions were our reflections after reading the essay:

1)   What is Superman doing in the comic book panel Alexie remembers? Why is it important to remember this detail at the very end of the essay?

When the author first learned to read, Superman was breaking down a door in the comic book he was examining. It is important to remember this detail because at the end of the essay he uses it as a metaphor in which he is Superman and the door are the small Indian boys that refuse to let him help them “save [their] lives” (pg. 18).

2)   In paragraph 7, Alexie repeats a certain verb fourteen times. What is this verb, and what effect does this repetition have? What might Alexie be trying to say about the process of his coming to literacy, in terms of both the effort required and the height of the obstacles encountered?

The verb repeated so many times in the seventh paragraph is “read.” The reason Alexie repeated this word so many times was to emphasize the fact that he learned how to read by reading, nothing more and nothing less. With the repetition of this word he implies that the way to break down all the doors and surpass the obstacles set on Indian youths is by reading.

3)   In “Learning to Read and Write,” Frederick Douglass writes, “In moments of agony I envied my fellow slaves for their stupidity” (par. 6). Compare this sentiment to Alexie’s feelings about his fellow classmates on the reservation. Do you think that Alexie envied his classmates? Why or why not? How were his difficulties from those faced by other Indians?

In contrast to Douglass, who envied the slaves who couldn’t read because they weren’t burdened with knowledge, Alexie didn’t envy his classmates who refused to read or write. He says himself that “[he] was smart. [He] was arrogant. [He] was lucky” (pg. 17). This indicated that unlike Douglass, he felt empowered and (up to a certain extent) better than the rest of his classmates because of his ability to read and write. His difficulties were much less than those of his classmates because by learning to read he opened doors that would not be available to anyone else in the reservation. He could get a better job and make a better living than them because of it.