Superman and Me is a memoir written by Sherman Alexie in 1998. It’s about Sherman’s childhood and how reading a Superman comic book made an impact on his life. Sherman Alexie is a writer who comes from Native American culture and was not given a...
Sherman Alexie’s The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven portrays the hardships faced by Native Americans at the hands of the overpowering force of mainstream American culture. Alexie uses multiple perspectives in his book to convey the complexity of the situation on the reservation....
Sherman Alexie’s short essay “Superman and Me” offers a powerful reflection on the author’s early life and the role of reading in shaping his identity. Throughout the piece, Alexie uses a variety of tones to communicate the challenges, frustrations, and triumphs he experienced growing up...
‘Superman and Me’ by Sherman Alexie is an autobiographical essay which portrays the author’s journey of learning to read and becoming a successful writer. Throughout the text, the author discusses the stigma Indians faced. This stigma being that Indians were unable to perform to Western...
Sherman Alexie uses embedded analeptic narratives throughout the chapter “This Is What It Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona” in Tonto and The Lone Ranger Fistfight in Heaven to emphasise the importance of both the characters memories and pasts on their lives. Embedded in the main...
While U.S. unemployment is the lowest since 2000, an even greater economic disparity is shown in Native American communities, where jobless rates continue to echo recession-era levels in the rest of the country. Of 27 counties with a majority Native American population, more than two-thirds...
Introduction Have you ever noticed the similarities and differences between characters when reading different books? Consider Arnold (Junior), from The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie (2007). He is a 14-year-old boy whose condition leads to him being bullied by others....
Introduction In Sherman Alexie’s novel “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian,” we delve into the life of Arnold Spirit, a young Native American residing on the WellPoint Reservation in Spokane, Washington. Raised alongside his parents, sister Mary, and frequently conversing with his grandmother,...
Sherman Alexie’s first young-adult novel, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, uses instances of sexuality, aggression, and profanity to expose a rawness in the cultural divide between Indians and Americans. The novel’s protagonist and narrator, Arnold “Junior” Spirit, grows up on an Indian...
Teenagers deal with a lot of opportunities for self-discovery and growth. Adolescence is likely the most difficult time in one’s life because everybody seeks their true selves, hopes and dreams, and true friends. Adolescents will meet new people and go to new places in search...
Throughout the book Flight by Sherman Alexie, the main character Zits is in search of where he belongs and why people have mistreated him throughout his life. In the midst of the action in the novel, Zits begins to experience character jumps, where he is...
In the case of Sherman Alexie’s Superman and Me, we see that self-education is not only just learning what a word is, and what a few letters thrown together looks like. Instead it is taking many of those things and conceptual ideas and applying them...
“The Facebook Sonnet” by Sherman Alexie brings up ideas and controversy over social media because it decreases face-to-face communication. Though Facebook allows people to contact old and new friends, it renders away from the traditional social interaction. Online, people are easily connected by one simple...
Cycle of Revenge Gandhi said, “An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.” What Gandhi meant was that taking revenge will make a destructive cycle. In Sherman Alexie’s Flight, it shows the vicious cycle in action. In the story there is a boy...
“Society exists only as a mental concept; in the real world there are only individuals.” These are the words of the 19th century writer and poet Oscar Wilde, and they perfectly illustrate the oft-contentious dispute between individualism and conformity to the community. Indeed, this dispute...
The central question of Sherman Alexie’s “Superman and Me” is ‘how did the gift of literacy impact Sherman Alexie’s life?’. Alexie expected more of himself than his culture did. Literacy gave him a sense of individuality by separating him from the stereotypes of Indians and...
The difficulty for most contemporary Native American authors is how to present their work to a populace who is not entirely familiar with the modern Indian situation and lifestyle. One way that Alexie Sherman and Velma Wallis achieve this in their books The Absolutely True...
Introduction Superman and Me by Sherman Alexie is an autobiography that shows the personal experience of the author’s childhood as a vehicle to express the challenges faced by a Spokane Indian boy growing up in the reservations. The text shows the author’s journey from learning...
Sherman Alexie composed “The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven” as a series of digressions that shed light on the inner demons of the narrator. The story clearly demonstrates elements of Native American folklore, which are appropriate for both Alexie and the narrator. The...
Throughout history, reading has played an important role within every society. Nowadays, many if not all modern educators often stress the importance of reading in today’s classrooms. Every child from the 1st grade to the 12th grade is taught that to be a functional adult...
Sherman Alexie’s The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven is a collection of short stories that explores the continuing Native American struggles in the modern era. The product of more than 500 years of oppression and persecution, the world of the Native American reservations...
Society is cutthroat. It’s a killer community where people battle every day to remain themselves while trying to remain in the group. Sherman Alexie portrays this in The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by showing what being an individual in a community is...
The understanding of the readers is dependent on the manner in which they interpret the symbols used in literary works. Symbolism is a literary device which entails the conveying of specific themes and messages through symbols. The symbols help in relaying deeper meanings in a...
Success has no secrets. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure. The main protagonists in the novels; The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Alexie Sherman, and Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card, explore how their status of...
The stigma of death can be traced to many factors, including the fear of life’s end and the anticipation of pain. It is clear that although death is a natural process, the fact that so little (if not nothing) is known about it provides a...
Curtis Sittenfield’s award-winning novel, Prep, and Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian illustrate the prominent theme of isolation in an upcoming teen’s life. In Prep, the reader is brought through Lee Fiora’s trauma filled journey through a renowned institution known as...
Life is full of situations that challenge people to overcome the odds and achieve what they thought was impossible. Such is the case in Sherman Alexie’s short story, “What You Pawn I Will Redeem.” The narrator is faced with what seems to be an impossible...
The improvement of health via the prevention, treatment of disease, injury, illness, and physical and mental impairments in human beings is what health care is. In the United States there are health care improvements meanwhile in reservations there are a struggle in health care. In...
Native Americans are often a forgotten minority, in history and in literature. The slaughter of native lives and the obliteration of their culture is an unfortunate American legacy. Luckily, writer Sherman Alexie has attempted to fill the cultural void and illuminate the plight of his...
One of today many problem involves stereotypes. It can affect many people in several different ways. Cultural stereotypes can be a delicate subject because people outside the culture will try to categorize a culture which creates stereotypes. Although some stereotypes can be positive most stereotypes...
Native American literature, humor, documentary fiction
Literary monement
Indigenous Nationalism
Notable works
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
Smoke Signals
Reservation Blues
The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven
You Don't Have to Say You Love Me: A Memoir
War Dances
Notable awards
American Book Award 1996
National Book Award 2007
PEN/Faulkner 2010
Born
October 7, 1966 (age 55)
Activity
Sherman Alexie Jr. is a Native American novelist, short story writer, poet, screenwriter, and filmmaker. His writings draw on his experiences as an Indigenous American with ancestry from several tribes. He grew up on the Spokane Indian Reservation and now lives in Seattle, Washington.
Works
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Smoke Signals, Reservation Blues, The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, You Don't Have to Say You Love Me: A Memoir, War Dances
Themes
Alexie's poetry, short stories and novels explore themes of despair, poverty, violence and alcoholism among the lives of Native American people, both on and off the reservation. The protagonists in most of his literary works exhibit a constant struggle with themselves and their own sense of powerlessness in white American society.
Awards
In 2010 Alexie won a number of literary awards, including the PEN/Faulkner Award for War Dances (2009; another mix of prose and poetry) and the 2010 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Native Writers’ Circle of the Americas.
Quotes
“If you let people into your life a little bit, they can be pretty damn amazing.”
“Life is a constant struggle between being an individual and being a member of the community.”
“Poetry = Anger x Imagination”
