Superman and Me
Alexie’s “Superman and Me,” is a Literacy Narrative of his experience with books and his fight against the Indian Reservation stereotype. Alexie writes about his escape and how the knowledge he gained from books, even though he wasn’t initially reading correctly, had given him an advantage over others. He was able to identify with the language of images and used what he knew, which was actions and body language, to form an idea of what was happening. He also realized that the more he read and exposed himself to this new type of language, the more he could achieve small feats which were answering questions and being involved in the classroom. One thing that stood out to me in his story was the fact that he viewed paragraphs as fences. This metaphor made me reminisce because I had this same experience when I was younger and was trying to make sense of reading and writing. Alexie didn’t know the exact meaning of ‘paragraph’ but, he had an idea of what it was and used that to develop his understanding further.
Mother Tongue
Tan’s “Mother Tongue” is about her journey with the English language and the reason behind her challenges with it. She explains that she realized it was the language she used at home with her family that became so natural that she could hardly escape from it. She then goes on to say that instead of fighting against the ‘Mother Tongue’ any longer she decided to embrace it and write stories that were easily understandable and that captured the real intent rather than having to sound ‘smart.’ I relate with this story, in a way, because I speak a dialect in my home that would seem foreign to those that have never heard anything like it before. Tan’s story reminds me of when I was younger and I would have to speak for my parents because even though they knew what they wanted to say, they couldn’t quite find the exact words that would have the other person understand them. I also understand the fact that she understood her mother perfectly when others didn’t because it was the language she grew up with and it was embedded into her thought process. I know sometimes I can’t express certain things without relating it to a Guyanese term and then trying to figure out what is most similar to it in the English language. What surprised me the most, however, was the difference in treatment Tan’s mother received from the hospital before and after they spoke to Tan. I was shocked as to the drastic change in the hospital staff’s demeanor and it made me angry that any person would be treated that way.