1. A smart Indian would be considered a “dangerous person, widely feared and ridiculed” due to Americas history. For many years many different cultures have been shamed due to the ignorance of others. Social groups higher than others feel as if because a person cannot get the same education as another they lack intelligence or because of where a person is from can determine how far one can succeed in life. Non Indians adopted this opinion from ignorant people who make comments about other cultures and people because they have nothing positive going on for themselves, they have to bring others down. Indian children adopted this self defeating idea to prove that just because we may not look the same or have the same beliefs I am a human just like you, and I can be successful just like you.

2. When Alexie writes “I was trying to save my life” in paragraph seven he means that because he did not have the privelage to have an education because the reservation treated Indians poorly, he used books to educate himself.

3. The inner characteristics a person needs to break free of stereotypes, dead ends and fo forge a path to success is resilience, acceptance, gratitude, consciousness and integrity. I say this because we are all human beings and the important part of life is to learn, strive and improve daily.

4. The metaphor “a paragraph was a fence that held words” simply means a groups of words are connecting with each other to support and thesis. If I was to explain a paragraph to someone I would say a paragraph is a group of sentences that fleshes out a single idea.