In “Superman and Me” by Sherman Alexie, he talks about how he learned how to read by a Superman comic book. He states that his father loved books and would always purchase many books so he learned to love books as well. When he was very young, although he doesn’t remember the content, he looked at a Superman comic book and taught himself the knowledge of paragraphs. Then everything he could think of, he thought of in paragraphs. This is interesting because I never thought of it that way. He compares different locations to paragraphs and even compares the different people in these locations to paragraphs. However, his knowledge of knowing how to read was difficult to sustain due to the environment he lived in. Despite this, he pushed through and continued to work hard and became a writer which is very inspiring.
In “Mother Tongue” by Amy Tan, she talks about how we have and utilize different languages according to a situation. She supports this argument by giving an example of a speech she’s given to a crowd. When she was giving this speech, she spoke in perfect grammar and full sentence, what school has taught her. However, she soon realized that this very speech she was giving was completely different from the way she spoke to her mom. To her mom, she would speak in broken English. To other people, they might not understand the broken language she uses with her mom, however, to her and her mom, they have an understanding of what they are saying to each other. This suggests that everyone uses different forms of languages when they encounter different people. I can relate to the author because I also use broken English at home and use various types of languages when I’m speaking to my friends and when I’m speaking to professionals.