Sherman Alexie is a talented poet, short story writer, novelist, and performer that grew up on the Spokane Indian reservation. He has published twenty-four books and also written and co-produced a movie. In “The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me,” Alexie conveys a story to the reader about how reading and writing significantly changed his life. Living on an Indian reservation in Washington in 1966, Indian children were projected to fail: “We were Indian children who were expected to be stupid. Most lived up to those expectations inside the classroom” (Alexie 364). Even though Alexie was likely to fail, he refused to do so. His article is directed toward the children on Indian reservations who think there is no hope for them and who are having complications in school. He uses rhetorical techniques to describe his past and how it contributed to his commitment to help children on the Indian reservation. Alexie uses ethos, or authority, to establish to the reader that he overcame the …show more content…
He writes about how underprivileged his family was and how they “lived on a combination of irregular paychecks, hope, fear, and government surplus food.” (Alexie 363.) This statement proves Sherman Alexie’s credibility because it identifies his background and how he personally experienced the learning environment in a Native American School and wanted to help other Indian children excel. He writes: “These days I write novels, short stories, and poems. I visit schools and teach creative writing to Indian kids” (Alexie 365). Alexie’s achievements in his career allows the reader to realize that he overcame the stereotype that America had placed on the Native Americans. Overcoming this stereotype allowed him to assist Indian children because he encountered the same complications that the children were