blog




  • Essay / Analysis of Rhetorical Devices in Superman and Me by Sherman Alexie

    Superman and Me is a memoir written by Sherman Alexie in 1998. It recounts Sherman's childhood and how reading a Superman comic had a impact on his life. Sherman Alexie is a writer from Native American culture who did not have a bright future. He believes that not only will reading books help a student learn, but it will save their life. Alexie uses pathos to please the reader by calling himself “little Indian boy” in his story who taught himself to read at a young age and learned quickly. He does not consider himself a genius but he considers himself the little Indian boy who can read and who was able to perfect his reading skills through his passion for books and literature. Alexie “read books late into the night” until he “could barely keep” his “eyes open.” Alexie's relationship with literature was so powerful that it was like paper and glue stuck together. His emotion indicates to the reader how the reading might influence the reader and Sherman Alexie is a victim of this influence. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an Original Essay Another rhetorical tool Alexie uses is hyperbole. “Our house was full of books. They were stacked in crazy piles in the bathroom, bedrooms and living rooms. A house filled with thousands of books in every room would be a madhouse. He tries to say that he had so many books to read and creates an image for the reader's mind to visualize how many books he read. It also shows how he grew up reading in his childhood life. The more books he read, the more he saved his life by gaining knowledge by reading texts. Alexie disguises himself as an unfortunate little Indian boy in his story to show his audience who he really is, which is an example of a character. He wants the public to know that it is a shame that the Indian boy lived with the expectation of being unsophisticated and unsocial at school because of the environment in which he lived. Throughout his story, he masks the boy as a child eager to learn. reading every book he held in his hands and reading until he could barely keep his eyes open. The little Indian boy saved himself from the life of poverty he led by teaching himself to read comics in sentences, sentences in paragraphs, paragraphs in several paragraphs and several paragraphs in a book containing more and more pages to read until one's eyes are ready to be closed and opened again to learn more. This childhood memoir, Superman and Me, contains rhetorical devices such as pathos, hyperbole, and character to connect to Sherman Alexie's views on education. Many children cannot go to school due to the poor environment they live in which does not provide them with an education. Environments like the ones Alexie lived in as a child can influence these children on a path that will not offer them a future, but rather a future filled with unfortunate events to combat in life. Reading can change a person's life and also save their life. Alexie showed the reader that he did not let his stereotype or the environment he lived in affect his future. He shows that any Native American can be successful, not only Native Americans but many ethnicities around the world can also be successful like him. Alexie will always give credit to the Superman comic book that helped him learn to read on his own and from that day on he began to..