Response to Alexie

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Response to Alexie The first time I read this essay I thought it was just about how Sherman Alexie learned to read with a Superman comic. He writes about how he was determined to excel and exceed the expectations of Indians in the “non-Indian” world. He ends writing about what he does now to help other Indian kids and how he is determined to save them and help them. In the first section from paragraph 1 to paragraph 4 Sherman Alexie writes about his childhood. He targets the audience’s emotions with the sad story of his childhood. While reading this I visualized the situation he was in which created in me a certain sadness. He creates this sadness not only through the story itself but also with the tone he uses. He then talks about how his father’s interest in books got him interested in books. In this second paragraph I noticed that Alexie liked to get very descriptive with his writing in a way. He spent a lot of time on certain points and relies heavily on imagery. In the last two paragraphs of the first section Alexie talks about how he started to perceive paragraphs at a young age. I found this part of the essay very interesting because of the way he looked at paragraphs. He compared them to fences holding words. He related them to individual houses and individual family members all put together to create a whole, or in this case, an essay. The first turning point comes here after he finishes talking about how he learned how to read. This is where he stops talking about himself for a while. He uses the next two paragraphs to write about the realities of two social systems: Indians and non-Indians. He immediately separates smart Indians from the Indians categories and talks about the sad expectations of Indians in the non-Indian world. He does so in a sort of angry or disappointed tone. The main turning point of the

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