Dorian Browne

Response paragraph

English 1101, D342

Professor Lucas Kwong

February 7, 2017

In Terry McMillan’s “The Movie that changed my Life”, through the influence of “The Wizard of Oz” movie the author gained courage to stand up to her mother and finally get a please out of her. Terry’s family wasn’t the most loving and caring. She had no say in her mother’s demands. Her parents were always fighting and when they were smiling and laughing they were drunk. How did the movie influence her and in what ways did it pertain to her life and help her want to make a change.

Sherman Alexie is a Native American author who learned how to knock down the obstacles of poverty and racism through a Superman comic book.  In the story “superman and me”, you see that Alexie embraces the fact that he’s different and is destined to be more than just another poor Indian living on a reservation. The comic taught him to not lose hope, believe in his strength and uses his wisdom to open doors for himself and also pave the way for others Indians who go through similar struggles.

In the story “the movie that changed my life”, you learn how watching the Wizard of Oz helped Terry McMillan get through adversities and teaches her valuable life lessons. Just like Dorothy, terry searched for a way to escape the harsh realities of the way they lived. At the end of the movie they both found that having faith, hope, courage, wisdom and friendship could get them through anything.

The similarities between Sherman Alexie and Terry McMillan both grew up in poor homes and both found wisdom, understanding and inspiration in fictional stories. The difference between the two authors is that they used what they learned from these fictional stories in different ways.

In the story “Superman and Me” author Sherman Alexie was a Native American boy who lived gained the skill of reading from a Superman comic book. With his new skill, he wanted to break the stereotype that  Indian kids were dumb and didn’t know how to read. So he superman motivated him to try and get other Indians to learn how to read so they can too break the stereotype.

Terry MacMillan In “The Movie that changed my Life” was a young  girl who lived with a lot of family problems that led her to find the movie the Wizard of Oz. To Terry, this was her form of getting away from her problems at home,. By watching the movie, it helped Terry gain the things in life by having the qualities the characters had in the movie.

The similarities between Sherman and Terry were that they were young girl growing up in a small part of their town and not really having the same opportunities as others had. They also found something that really made them happy. For Terry it was the Wizard of Oz and and for Sherman it was the Superman comic. They both used the things they liked as a safe haven for them but had different ways they used them. For terry she used the movie, as a way for her to achieve her dreams and escaping her problems at home and to never be afraid of doing something in life, so this was more of something that would help her become a better person. For Sherman, he used the superman comic as a way to not only improve his reading, but the other Indians that were struggling in that subject.