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.