Close reading Journal Entry 1

In “The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me”, Sherman Alexie argues that books and knowledge are a key part of bettering your life, and moving up in the world. Growing up on an Indian reservation where reading and writing was not highly valued, Alexie realized early on the importance of books and their ability to propel him towards a better life. He writes, “Indian children, we were expected to fail in the non-Indian world” (Alexie 28). Realizing this at young age Alexie knew he wanted to break this social norm. Going to school with non-Indian kids and teachers, Alexie’s value of books was far greater than others as he was not supposed to be one of the smart students. His ambition to make the most out of his intelligence is shown when he says “They wanted me to stay quiet when the non-Indian teacher asked for answers…we were Indian children who were expected to be stupid” (Alexie 27). From this it is obvious that Alexie incorporated a new meaning to this passage. While his argument is centralized around the idea that books bring knowledge and opportunity, the hidden meaning within the passage is conveyed here. He explains the fact that it is important to take risks and pursue what you believe in, even if there are people trying to stop you. By being a minority student who not much is expected of, he easily could have not tried in school, but instead he recognized his talent and went against the grain to chase it. Later on in the passage he comes full circle as he talks about his present day life as an author and how he now visits kids on reservations to teach them about poetry, short stories, and novels. He concludes the passage by stating “‘Books,’ I say to them. ‘Books.’ I say. I throw my weight against their locked doors. The door holds. I am smart. I am arrogant. I am lucky. I am trying to save our lives.” By ending the passage with this he ties back to his original argument about the power of books. However, this time he is not just stating that he knows about the power of books, but is now passing his knowledge down to the next generation.