Read Article and Answer According.
Can you help me understand this English question?
Sherman Alexie is a”novelist, short story writer, poet, and filmmaker. His writings draw on his experiences as an Indigenous American with ancestry from several tribes.” He grew up on the Spokane reservation where education was not necessarily valued; in fact, caring about education was seen as rather “uncool.” He writes about his experiences with education in his novel, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian.
I ask that we read through his short article “Superman and Me.”
Total words 300-350 words for all 4 questions.
Please respond to the questions below:
- Why would a smart Indian be a “dangerous person, widely feared and ridiculed” (paragraph 6)? Why would non-Indians adopt this opinion? Why would Indian children adopt this self-defeating idea?
- What does the author mean when he writes in paragraph 7, “I was trying to save my life”? What point is he making about books and educating oneself?
- Based on Alexie’s story, what inner characteristics or outward support does a person need to break free of stereotypes and dead ends and forge a a path to success?
- In paragraph 3, the author uses the metaphor that “a paragraph was a fence that held words.” Does this metaphor help you understand what a paragraph does? How would you explain a paragraph?