Rhetorical Analysis: “Superman and Me” by Sherman Alexie
Sherman Alexie learned to read when he was 3 years old, from a comic book. He doesn’t remember much of it. He was a Spokane Indian boy living with his family in Wyoming on an Indian Reservation. His father loved to read, and there was always books in his house. Alexie wanted to be like his father, so he began to love books. Alexie began to understand what the purpose of a paragraph meant. He applied that concept to everything in his life, including his home community, his family, and his school. He learned to read from looking at comic books and created his own dialogue from the images he saw in the pictures. When he entered school, he was reading at a greater level than his classmates. He did not fit in because he was smart, and he did not want to conform to the standard Indian norm of failing in the real world. He read books all the time, even newspapers, mail, cereal boxes, as motivated to make himself successful. Sherman Alexie is now a writer and visits schools and teaches Indian children, trying to make them successful as well.
Sherman Alexie’s intended audience is the children of Indian Reservations, and also people who are not Indians. His piece is a type of memoir, but he repeatedly uses the terms “we” and “your” and “us” to connect himself with his Indian audience. From his description of who he is, he also is connecting with non-Indian readers, as they learn what it means to be an Indian child on the reservation. Knowing who his intended audience is important because he appeals to both Indians and non-Indians, specifically with his use of pathos.
Sherman Alexie uses the appeal of pathos to cater towards the emotional side of the reader. His first paragraph starts by showing how poor he was with the sentence: “We lived on a combination of irregular paychecks, hope, fear, and government surplus food.” This creates an emotion of pity in the reader, or relatability from readers who are, or have been in the same situation. His love for his father shows through when he says: “my father loved books, and since I loved my father with an aching devotion, I decided to love books as well.” This personal connection with his father as well as the use of “aching devotion” is very effective in reminding the reader of the love that one might have for their father or another individual. Alexie further appeals to the readers emotional side when he describes his childhood as an Indian student: “If he’d been anything but an Indian boy on the reservation, he might have been called a prodigy. But he is an Indian boy living on the reservation and is simply an oddity.” This sentence can help readers connect with Alexie if they’ve ever felt unnoticed, not given enough credit for their accomplishments, or if they’ve ever felt like they didn’t fit in.
Sherman Alexie’s love for books shows through with his word choice, saying: “I read with equal parts joy and desperation. I loved those books, but I also knew that love only had one purpose. I was trying to save my life.” He describes his passion as a tool for redemption, and the audience, whether they are Indian or non-Indian, can see that reading is important to him. One final example where Alexie uses pathos to appeal to his audience is the last sentence of the narrative: “I am trying to save our lives.” This sentence has the possibility to really hit the reader hard, because Alexie shows that he is part of the same community as the Indian students, and he is reaching out and is caring for their well-being. It creates a personal connection with the reader and leaves them with a lasting impression of the piece.
Sherman Alexie uses the appeal of ethos to prove himself credible and trustworthy by the way he describes how he learned to read, his background, and his influences. Alexie is an Indian from an Indian reservation. “I was 3 years old, a Spokane Indian boy living with his family on the Spokane Indian Reservation […]” He describes how he had a hard life, saying, “we were poor by most standards” and, “one of my parents usually managed to find some minimum-wage job or another […]” He then describes how he taught himself how to read, saying, “I pretended to read the words and say aloud […] in this way, I learned how to read.” Alexie was always around books, because his father loved to read. He wanted to be like his father, and so he taught himself to read. By describing his hard childhood, and the way he still managed to take it upon himself to achieve the task of reading, it makes the audience trust that what Alexie has to say about reading is backed up by a credible individual.
Sherman Alexie uses multiple rhetorical devices in his piece, including metaphors. His narrative is one giant metaphor, where he connects himself to the Superman character that he used to learn how to read, and to teach the Indian students he now visits how to read. Superman is an alien, a hero, a goal, and someone who saves lives. Alexie is admired as an Indian from a reservation who became successful, and the students may view him as a type of superhero. From his comic book, he read Superman saying, “I am breaking down the door” and in the last paragraph he says, “I throw my weight against their locked doors”, referring to the Indian students who don’t let themselves learn how to read because of society’s social norms. The door is an analogy of their struggle to learn to read. He is their superman.
Another rhetorical device that Sherman Alexie uses is repetition and anaphora’s. His use of these devices truly drives his claim of loving to read. An entire paragraph is devoted to telling his audience the many things he read and how often he would read them: “I read books late into the night… I read books at recess… I read the backs of cereal boxes… I read the junk mail… I read with equal parts joy and desperation.” The phrase “I read” is used in sentence after sentence to drive his point across. He uses anaphora again when he says, “I was smart. I was arrogant. I was lucky.” The use of repeated “I was” catches the reader’s attention and makes them notice what he says about himself.
His use of hyperboles, or exaggerated sentences, help shape his story. “I throw my weight against their locked doors,” gives the image of Alexie literally putting in a physical effort to get to the Indian students. “He might have been called a prodigy,” describes just how odd it was that an Indian boy, who taught himself how to read, wanted to continue to read so badly even though it wasn’t expected. “Our house was filled with books. They were stacked in crazy piles in the bathroom, bedrooms, and living room.” This sentence is a hyperbole because there can’t really be that many books from floor to ceiling in his house, but it effectively shows that books were a large part of his home and his childhood.
Alexie uses third person to refer to himself in his narrative at one point. This change in voice catches the attention of the reader, and so anything that Alexie has to say in this new perspective, they will remember. He says: “A little Indian boy teaches himself how to read at an early age and advances quickly… he might have been called a prodigy… but he is simply an oddity. He grows into a man who often speaks of his childhood in the third person, as if it will somehow dull the pain and make him sound more modest about his talents.” This paragraph describes how even though Alexie was very smart, he was not given credit or valued for his talents while living on the reservation as a child. Parts of his childhood were hard and painful for him, but he has not forgotten, even if he has to detach himself from his identity when he talks about it.
Sherman Alexie discovered books at a young age, through a superman comic book, and taught himself how to read. He later realized that becoming literate saved his life. Sherman Alexie effectively communicates his passion for reading and how that helped him become a successful member of an Indian reservation through his use of pathos, ethos, and other rhetorical devices.
