“Superman and Me,” Sherman Alexie

Sherman Alexie recounts her childhood experiences of being a poor Indian boy on a government reservation who, unlike others, held a strong interest in books. Through reading and and maintaining an interest in his education, Alexie diverged from the path of the common uneducated and “defeated” Indian-American. Through reading, Alexie discovers the purpose of paragraphs and describes his own perception of them as a “fence” that held words. The substance inside these fences, as Alexie explains, were separate elements and entities such as individuals, locations, characteristics, and basically everything else. His understanding of the world in paragraphs contributed to a greater understanding of himself and his surroundings, both in his youth and adulthood. I have always found this concept, though straightforward, extremely practical in the understanding of oneself. For our upcoming assignment, using this metaphor could be extremely useful.

 

“Mother Tongue, “Amy Tan, pgs. 165-170

In “Mother Tongue “ by Amy Tan, the intrinsic change of language depending on situation is explored. Amy Tan recounts her experience in noticing how her language changes depending on who her audience is. With her mother, the usual formality of her speech is substituted by a more unceremonious dialect. Tan analyzes and contributes this to the cultural implications of being a Asian-American. Tan asserts that growing up in a immigrant household played a role in the development of her language and to some extent, inadvertently limited it. She defends this claim by connecting it to the fact that Asian-American representation and involvement in literature and language is very minimal compared to that of sciences and maths. This correlation is evident and widespread in Amy Tan’s personal use of language and could probably be observed in that of many others. Since English is my second language and that of my fathers, this only happens after my abilities to use language surpassed his. I naturally tone down my language when speaking to my father but I do not “dumb” it down. I limit my language to match my father’s ability to comprehend English but what I am expressing still holds the same meaning.

 

Today’s readings have quite a lot in common with each other. Both “Superman and Me” by Sherman Alexie and “Mother Tongue” by Amy Tan are both narratives of the authors’ learning english, whether it’s from a simpler form of English, or from a different language altogether. It’s fairly easy to assume that both authors, by having formal English as their second language, come from minority groups, and the audience learns that Alexie is a Native American, and Tan is Chinese by the end of each narrative.
I think one of the most important things to point out about both of these narratives is in the structure of the narratives themselves. They might both be about the struggles minority groups can face when taking on the American system, but they aren’t sob stories in any way. Both stories start out on a fairly positive note, and even though the struggles are mentioned, they aren’t emphasized in a way that says “feel bad for me”.
I think this point can really help us with writing our narratives in a fashion that doesn’t seem cliché. When one thinks of the structure of a narrative, they think that it usually surrounds the writer’s struggles, and how they overcome them to create the person the writer is today, and this can be true to an extent. But if you focus on said “negatives” too much, it becomes uninteresting, and could even show signs that you might not be fully over the fact that these struggles were present (in a psychological sense).

Summary and Response: Superman and Me

This short story is about an Indian man who taught himself to read at a very  young age. HE realized that reading would be a way to save himself from the typical Indian stereotype that was floating around in his school. He became the best reader in his class, but was still looked over. In his later life he became a writer, and now he visits schools and teaches kids the importance of reading books. I found this passage inspiring. It shows the reader that you dont have to follow societies standards, you can be and do whatever you want. It also showed you the importance of reading throughout your whole life.

Summary and Response: Mother Tongue

This short story is about a woman’s experience growing up with a mother that couldnt speak english well. With this, the author learned to speak up and help her mother. Then the author became a writer, she wanted to write a book that anyone could understand, even her mother. She felt great accomplishment when after reading her book, her mother told her it was, “very easy to read.” This short story shows you how the challenges you face as a child can shape your entire life. You arent limited to what your parents can do, or what they cant do.

Superman and Me

In this short story, Sherman Alexie talks about how he learned how to read and the struggles he faced as a young Indian boy. Growing up, Indians were expected to be unsuccessful in the non-Indian world, and by having a love for books, Alexie goes against this expectation, “breaking down the door” that prevents him from achieving his goals. He starts out early by reading his father’s books and Superman comics, quickly gaining an understanding of how paragraphs work. Despite knowing that most other capable Indians have given up on their education, he pushes through, reading nonstop to help himself advance. With his efforts, he soon became a writer and now inspires other Indian children to read and go against this stereotype.

Mother Tongue

In this reading, Amy Tan shares her experience of how she grew up with different “Englishes”: her mother’s “simple” English and her own “normal” English. Her mother, a Chinese immigrant, understood the language, but the way she spoke made other people think that she didn’t know anything. For a while, Tan believed this after viewing how poorly people treated her and how she often had to speak on behalf of mother. Later on, she realized that this was not the case, as her mother had a great mind. She then talks about how languages in a family can shape a child’s language, possibly affecting how well one does in certain subjects. She gives the example of scoring well on math exams instead of English due to how straightforward the subject is. Seeing that language may be why Asians tend to be geared towards math and science, she decides to go against that by majoring in English. Despite being told by others that her writing was bad and that she should do something else like account management, she worked harder and soon became a writer.

Response

In both of these readings, Alexie and Tan face ethnic stereotypes, which is something that all of us face. Although it was difficult, they chose to fight against those stereotypes, striving to do what they wanted to do instead of what they were expected to do. We also see how language plays a big role in their situations. With Alexie, he learns how to read to gain more knowledge and help himself advance. In Tan’s case, we see how the language used in her family shaped her to be the writer she is today.

, ,In the story, “Superman and Me,” a young Indian boy living on an Indian preserve in Washington state was heavily influenced by his father’s intrigue and love for reading. At a young age, before he learned to read, he understood the idea of a paragraph as “a fence that held words,” and the words in the “paragraph worked together for a common purpose.” He began seeing the whole world in terms of paragraphs which led to his early reading and advanced reading abilities when attending school. However, there existed a stigma that “Indian children were expected to be stupid…expected to fail in the non-Indian world.” Therefore, “those who failed were ceremonially accepted by other Indians and appropriately pitied by non-Indians.” The Indian boy refused to be part of the stigma, he kept reading anything and everything with words, in an effort to save his life. Breaking down the barrier that “writing was something beyond Indians,” the boy grew up to become a writer and occasionally visited schools to teach young Indian children to write, in order to save their lives.

In Amy Tan’s piece titled Mother Tongue, Tan begins with describing how her “tone”, or use of English, changes when she speaks to her mother compared to when she speaks to her husband. After providing an example of something her mother said, Tan explains that as a range of people listens to her mother speaks, she receives different levels of understanding from each; from understanding everything to understanding nothing, and everything in-between. Because of her mother’s “broken” English, Tan often took on the role of assisting her mother with communication. Tan further explains the possibility of her mother’s English limiting her possibilities in understanding and language skills. For example, she describes how she often struggled on word analogies and English portions of standardized exams. However, after even being discouraged and told that her writing was one of her weakest attributes, Tan majored in English and became a writer in nonfiction and fiction. Her writing and vocabulary comprised of “all the Englishes she grew up with,” simple, broken and watered down. Unshaken by the critic’s comments about her first book, she old cared about her mother’s verdict after reading the book: “So easy to read.”

Superman and Me Summary

In the short story “Superman and Me”, Sherman Alexie narrates how he first learned to read. He was a Spokane Indian boy living in a middle-class family on the Spokane Indian Reservations in the eastern Washington state. Books were very accessible to him since his father was an enthusiast reader. His father got books from where ever he got his hands on. There were so many books at one point in his house that one could find books even in the bathroom of their house. When he first comes to learn about what a paragraph is, he turns it into a metaphor that he applies to every aspect of his life. Alexie explains that the first time he began to read something was when he held a Superman comic. He read the comic and as the pictures depicted some sort of action, he used his general knowledge as to what one would normally say when he/she is performing those actions and that’s how Sherman Alexie learned how to read. He was far ahead of the kids of his age. Perhaps, what annoyed Alexie the most and caused him to pursue a field in writing was because he wanted to change the norms of how Native Indians are perceived; most people think of them as stupid and backward in nature. As an effort to help to save the lives of the Indians, he made visits to the school at the reservation and helped children read and write.

 

Mother Tongue Summary

In the writing “Mother tongue,” Amy Tan talks about how the world perceives one differently if the language he/she uses is not understandable or, as she says, “broken.” Tan explains how the English she professionally use is so different than the English she grew up using at her house. Her mother was as Asian immigrant women who read all a variety of English readings daily, varying from scholarly articles to everyday magazines. But even then, her spoken English was considered “limited” or “fractured.” Most of her friends barely even understand a word Tan’s mother said. But what was astonishing to notice was that Tan understood her mother’s English. This is maybe because when you live with someone, you start to comprehend their “intent, passion, imagery, rhythms of her speech and the nature of her thought.” Anyways, apart from Tan, her mother’s English was not received welcomingly, in fact, most of the times she had to get involved and talk to the people on behalf of her. Tan refers to these instances as not only embarrassing but also detrimental to her learning of the English language. To break the norms that immigrants cannot be writers and to simplify the language used in literature, Tan decided to become a writer.

 

Response

Both of these readings are quite relatable to me as I am also an immigrant and face similar problems when it comes to distinguishing between the language spoken at home and outside. I also have to adjust to the stereotypes of the society where one is not served right or is looked down upon if he belongs to a non-English speaking country. And to make a resonating impact, I have to know what type of English I should use and where. More importantly, I have to learn the English that conforms to the conventions of the United States.

The narrators of the two short nonfictional stories Sherman Alexie and Amy Tan describe similar situations regarding their upbringings, family, ethnicity, and most importantly, language.  Given their backgrounds and aspirations, the two were bound to become extremely proficient in the English language as they show they are in the readings.  In the reading Superman and Me, Alexie credits his adeptness and fascination with the English language and all the things accessible with a deep understanding of it to arrogance; arrogance that stemmed from being different and being outspoken about it.  He is much more sympathetic to other Indian kids in school, as he once was a bright-eyed youngster that discovered his love of the language in a Superman issue.  Tan, on the other hand, explores the communicative aspects of English, calling the different ways and manners in which she speaks to different people her “Englishes”.  She also points out the implications of not being able to speak the language in an ordinary way, writing about her mother who was fluent in English in her own respect.

Automatically I can say I relate to Tan’s story much more than I can Alexie’s.  My parents learned English after having to move here later in life, and don’t sound too convincing themselves.  ‘Oh give it a break, what are they supposed to be, perfect, you miscreant son??’  No, no, no, at the very least they’re supposed to be able to talk to most people, which they can do just fine.  And it’s not like there aren’t Korean communities, businesses, and churches all across New York, am I right?  Speaking of which, coming from a Korean family, I might be expected to excel in my academics, with special attention towards STEM subjects; yet I always noticed I gravitated toward subjects such as history, music, English, and writing.  Language’s ability to elicit different responses and emotions always intrigued me; and such curiosity led me to learn how to make people laugh, cry, sympathize, or how to piss people off or tease and flirt — you know, basic communication skills.

Superman and Me

Superman and Me, by Sherman Alexie, is a tale of books and the massive effect they had on Alexie’s life. He taught himself to read at the age of three by picking up a Superman comic book. His reading skills advanced quickly; as a result, his experience growing up in an Indian reservation was a challenge. Indian children were expected to be unintelligent, to be failures in the world outside of the reservation. Alexie’s life was one of bravely resisting a stereotype. Instead of pretending to be stupid like the other Indian children and being submissive to the non-Indians, he read non-stop until he developed into a writer. He became a writer despite the fact that writing was never taught in the Indian schools. Now, he pays visits to Indian schools to teach kids something they might never get another chance to learn – the power of books. Language played a crucial role shaping Alexie’s life. Through his dedication to experiencing and learning language, he was able to defy a controlling stereotype and worked towards helping young kids defy it as well.

Mother Tongue

In this piece, Amy Tan writes of the “broken English” that she grew up with. When people hear Tan’s mother speak in “broken English”, they tend to not take her seriously or pretend to not understand her. As a result, Tan often had to use her “proper” English to help her mother out. While most people will barely understand this “broken English”, it is just another language for Tan and her family. It is clear and natural, conveying the same ideas as if it were regular English.  Despite the fact that English was spoken by Tan’s mother, people refused to service her because she wasn’t speaking the language “correctly.” She was seen as unintelligent even though she understood complex, English things such as Wall Street Week and the Forbes report.

Superman and Me:

Sherman Alexie tells the story of how he learned to read through his interests in comics, explaining how he combined the pictures, narrative, and dialogue, to make a “three-dimensional paragraph” in his head. He explains he could never read words but by looking at the pictures he could understand what was being said. Alexie then talks about how although he was a better reader than most of his peers because he grew up in a struggling Indian reservation where there was a looming stigma of how being dumb was normal. In the end, Alexie explains how because of his situation he is surprised that he still became a writer and not a pediatrician but he continues to go back and convince the next generation to be like him and fight this stigma. When I read Alexie explain how looking at the pictures helped him learn to read, I immediately thought of the phrase “a picture is worth a thousand words.” Alexie’s life experiences also shaped him into becoming who he is and how he writes. Because he felt like an outcast growing up, he writes himself as the hero for his people, just like Superman in the comics he read.

 

Mother Tongue:

Amy Tan explains the different ways she speaks English with she is with her family compared to when she is working. She explains that when she is with her mother, her English becomes more broken because that was the way she learned to communicate with her and how she can completely understand what her mother is saying. Tan talks about how some of her friends can understand some of what her mom says while others cannot at all. She then goes on to explain the dangers of saying someone has “broken” or “limited” English and how it personally affected how she perceived her own mother. I agree with Tan in this writing. I also think she brings up an interesting dilemma. It’s easy to say someone’s English is broken, but it could just as easily be on the listener and their own experience with understanding the different ways of speaking.

SUPERMAN AND ME

Author Sherman Alexie describes himself when he was a 3 year old Indian boy living on the Spokane Indian Reservation in the state of Washington. His father was a bit obsessive with his monster collection of books, varying from many different genres and pretty much anything he could get his hands on. When he began to start reading his father’s books, Alexie realized that the society around him was like a “paragraph”, a word he encountered when reading one of the books. This meaning that he started to view everyone and everything around him to be apart of something even better, similar to how a paragraph is apart of an entire book. However, the society around him doesn’t notice that, and ultimately becomes part of the stereotype that people living in the Indian Reservation are meant to be stupid and not pursue their goals/careers.

MOTHER TONGUE

Amy Tan discusses the fact that her own mother, who grew up in Asia, however learned a good amount of English and is very literate. As her experiences with her mother go by, she realizes that the impact her mother has with others, when she is speaking English, is significantly greater than her own native language. However, the debate remains to be settled of whether the people can truly understand what she is genuinely speaking about. Amy realizes that the people her mother is encountering are simply understanding the words she is saying, but not necessarily comprehending the ideas she is trying to make, mainly due to the fact that she is not speaking “proper English”.