Sherman Alexie

There are many forms of sponsors in Sherman Alexie’s The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me. Some of the sponsors that are represented is societal norms, his motivation to learn, his father, books, and socioeconomic status. In his writing, he portrays the life of a Native American in terms of their education. He basically tells the story of his own life growing up and being a Native American and how hard it was to find education and sponsors. One of the biggest sponsors he describes is the American stereotype against Native Americans. He describes it as being stupid. Some of the school teachers expected the Native American students to fail in almost all aspects of education. As a result, Alexie tried his hardest to prove that stereotype wrong. He read all the books he could, and basically anything he could read. A good comparison he compares his situation to is him trying to break down locked doors. People were not accepting of his people. This leads onto another sponsor, books. Books were a huge sponsor in his story. They are what he is being educated with. Of course he has to motivate himself to read, but the books are what is educating him and almost everyone else who does so. This leads to another sponsor, his motivation. No one is going to learn if they have no motivation to do so. You have to be willing to learn in order to learn. If you really want to learn, you will put yourself in the mindset to learn and that you will do anything to learn about anything. For example, you are not going to read books if you don’t want to. In Alexie’s case, he read anything and anywhere whenever he could. He read late at night, recess, lunch, basketball games, shopping mall. He read library books, cereal boxes, newspapers, bulletins posted on the wall etc. Another huge sponsor is Alexie’s father. He is a huge sponsor in this story because he bought so many books for Alexie to read. He is the reason why Alexie has so many opportunities to read. Aside from the books, his father was probably a good influence on Alexie, influencing him to read more and more. A last sponsor is the socioeconomic status of the Native Americans. Because the Native Americans were low income and poor, they did not have the resources to afford high level education and books. They cannot afford all the tutoring or even learning how to read or write. Alexie is a huge part in why people are in the positions they are too. He really is the backbone to how Native Americans learn and have the right to learn. He is their savior. This relates to not only Native Americans but it also can be reflected upon society as a whole. People usually do not get the opportunities they deserve because of they economic status, their neighborhood they were born, societal norms and stereotypes etc. People should appreciate what they have.

 Justin Yu