Superman and Me Response

By Christine Mitchell

Like so many people before us struggling to fight against the stereotype people may have of you when living in a certain environment, to prove them differently. People naturally assume because you are from poverty that you will never amount to anything, that you have no future. When reading superman and me Sherman Alexie describes the story of an Indian boy who found the love of reading and realized reading was the key to put aside the stereotype and expectations his people had to fail. When reading this story I was able to relate insistently, someone that’s battling to prove to myself as well as to others that just because you grew up in a certain neighborhood doesn’t mean you have to be a product of your environment.

Growing up in a spoken Indian reservation in the eastern Washington state, living poor and pay to pay check expected to be stupid and have no strive for better. The author  describes an Indian boy who seen the love his father had for reading and being that he loved his father dearly he decided to share that same love. With a growing love for reading, the boy thought to himself some would call him a prodigy if he wasn’t some Indian boy growing up in the reservation. Living in the reservation being a smart Indian boy was frowned upon, which lead to many fights on a daily basis with his classmates, but that didn’t stop him. He continued on to broaden his love for books and reading, and went on to become a writer.

One part that stood out to me was when he said “I refused to fail. I was smart. I was arrogant”, just because his people felt the need not to do/ be better themselves, why shouldn’t he. Why should he just become another Indian boy who has no hope for the future before him?  I love how even though his community may not have had that same motivation he still tries to instilled it within them. He didn’t forget where he came, he took that knowledge he has learned, and went back and took it to his people. I feel the purpose the Arthur had for this story is no matter where you come from, no matter what people expect of you always strive for the best. The only person that can stop your future is you.