Sherman Alexie V. Frederick Douglass Essay

There are some children, like the Indian boy in the short story that will simply not be given a chance to learn how to read and must adapt quickly to survive. Alexie took his fate into his own hands at an early age. Although the author never states the age of the boy, we are to imagine he is grade school age. Alexie states that the boy’s father had an extensive book collection from which he had taught himself how to read, but never mentions if the father had helped his son to learn to read. I imagine the father was too busy trying to support his family by working minimum wage jobs and finding work where he could find it. Needless to say, Alexie adapted well given his situation. These experiences give him accreditation with the reader,

Sherman Alexie and Frederick Douglass both grew up in different time periods, in different environments, and ultimately in different worlds. They both faced different struggles and had different successes, but in the end they weren’t really all that different. Although they grew up in different times they both had the same views on the importance of an education. They both saw education as freedom and as a sense of self-worth and though they achieved their education in different ways they both had a strong will and a strong sense of self-motivation.

When comparing two essays, there are many different aspects that the reader can look at to make judgments and opinions. In the two essays that I choose, MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. 'Letter from Birmingham Jail', and FREDERICK DOUGLAS'S 'From Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave,' there were many similarities, but also many differences. Some of them being, the context, style, structure and tone. Many times when readings or articles are being compared, people over look the grammatical and structural elements, and just concentrate on the issues at hand. I believe it is important to evaluate both.

In the beginning of the essay, Alexie talks about how knowledge is a power that opens a window to success by using an anecdote about his personal experience with knowledge. As Alexie talks about his childhood in the beginning, he says, “We lived on a combination of irregular paychecks, hope, fear and government surplus food...” (Alexie). When Alexie discusses the conditions his family lived in, he is setting this frame of pity that makes the reader understand that education wasn’t the first thing on their mind, but what they we’re going to eat next. Later on in the beginning, Alexie explains how his father surrounded him with books and how his love for books started. His love for books was sparked from the love his father had for books. Alexie states this when he says, “...My father loved books...I loved my father...I decided to love books as well...” (Alexie). Alexie also explains how he didn’t understand at first when he first picked up a book but soon learned that “The words inside a paragraph worked together for a common purpose...this knowledge delighted me. I began to think of everything in terms of paragraphs...”(Alexie). This could be seen as a power because although he doesn’t understand, he’s learning how to understand what he’s reading and this could count as one of his first steps to success. As Alexie explains his personal experience with knowledge, he proves how he is an example of

Alexie’s narrator describes a story of assumption and discrimination through not only the thoughts of the narrator and his life, but also how the narrator explains his thoughts and the diction he uses as he recalls certain moments. Throughout the passage, the narrator demonstrates how isolated he is, not only in the country where hia people are shunned, but also with others that are in a situation similar to his. Not only is there a feeling of loneliness and isolation, but also guilt of relation to how Indians are being treated today. Through stories of realistic fiction, Alexie addresses serious issues that others fail to.

In The Life of Frederick Douglass An American Slave, written by himself the author asserts that the way to enslave someone is to keep them from learning at all. Douglass supports his claim by, first, when Frederick was small he was never able to tell his age or the date, and secondly, they were never allowed to be taught how to read that was something always hidden from him as a young child. The author’s purpose is to inform the reader that as a slave there were so many things they were not allowed to have that we may take for granted, in order to make it very clear that we should not take our education and opportunities for granted. Based on The Life Of Frederick Douglass An American Slave, Douglass is writing for the white people who believed that slavery was right, he wanted to make it very clear that the slaves and Douglass had nothing handed to them.

Although the United States was built on the idea of freedom for all, it’s clear, looking back at the treatment of certain groups of people, that “all” didn’t really include everyone. This is evident from the moment we landed in the New World and ravaged Native American’s and took their land, forcing them from their homes. And, even more so, in the unimaginable treatment of enslaved men, women, and children alike. As Frederick Douglass pointed out in the narrative of his life as a slave: Slavery, though often justified in the name of Christianity, was far from a Christian institution. Moreover, the presence of slavery proved that most of the United States was more so an immoral and unjust nation than anything else.

Frederick Douglass belittles the mythology of slavery in his narrative. The abolitionist scorns the idea that slavery brings happiness and argues that slavery does not benefit anyone, including slaveholders. He berates the mythology of slavery by rebuking its unrealistic perception and by noting that blacks are not intellectually inferior to whites. Douglass also describes the disloyalty among slaves to shatter the false, idealistic views of slavery.

Alexie wants to show how he is affected by racism in his time and how even though there have been laws passed not to discriminate against people. Whenever police brutality is a main issue in today's era, then that means that racism has not been resolved. Alexie is proving the issue and proving that it has permanently scarred people to where they can’t fall asleep knowing they will be okay in the morning. Whereas the people that are causing this to people of colored decent, sleep as if nothing had happened to them and they are not even realizing how much hurt they are causing other people.

In this quote, Alexie uses foreshadowing as a literary device. Flashbacks show what is important in the past and how it reflects the future. While Thomas and Victor were/are kids they got into a fight and stopped talking. Now Thomas is helping Victor. Although this is a flashback, it may also be interpreted as a hint of Victor and Thomas being friends again and help each other.

In the ending paragraph he writes, “These days, I write novels, short stories, and poems. I visit schools and teach creative writing to Indian kids.” These two sentences certify all that he has said previously. For all the reader knows, Sherman Alexie’s whole story was full of dramatic and heartwarming events just to create a good paper. And as a reader one should understand that he not only needs to establish himself as a writer, but also as a struggling Indian boy living on a reservation. “… a Spokane Indian boy living with his family on the Spokane Indian Reservation in eastern Washington State. We were poor by most standards, but one of my parents usually managed to find some minimum-wage job or another, which made us middle-class by reservation standards. I had a brother and three sisters. We lived on a combination of irregular paychecks, hope fear, and government surplus food.” Alexie gains our trust by establishing himself as a struggling Indian

Alexie compartmentalized his life in paragraphs which shows how important reading was even as a young child.. In the beginning of the essay Alexie writes that he grew up poor with “a combination of irregular paychecks, hope, fear and government surplus food”(324). His parents hopped from one minimum wage job to another so his life lacked stability. Once alexie realized the purpose of a paragraph he “began to think of everything in terms of paragraphs”(325). Alexie then goes into specifics on how catagorized every part of his life. He organized his life into paragraphs to bring a sense of stability. Making that connection shows that literature was essential in his development since before he could

In his essay, Alexie is showing how his childhood struggles made him the man he’s today, along with all of his hardship in life as an Indian boy with no expectations. Basically, he was told time and time again that he was going to get nowhere in life and would be another stereotypical Indian boy expected to fail. His message is to encourage his readers that no matter how hard life hits you, always remember that it’s you who chooses the path you are going to take and what you make of it, regardless of the circumstances (63-66).

In developing the character of Jackson Jackson, Alexie gives him characteristics that while positive on the surface; often times lead to additional obstacles

At the very end of the poem both Alexie and the man were stopped at a light. But, they both ended up going different directions. Alexie did not do anything about the man and came to realize that there is nothing that he could have done. This man is already the way that he is and there's nothing that alexie could do about that. The last stanza of the poem states "why do poets think they can save the world? The only life I can save is my own.” What Alexie means by this, is that many people think that they can do things that isn't in their power to do. Some people are just the way that they are. Even if Alexie were to have said something to the man or tried to fix the problem, the man will never be fixed from the way that he is. How does he know he won't continue to do it again. In this poem, there was only so much that he had control of, and that was going home and doing something that he was good at, in the process of helping other people remember the same thing. He couldn’t save the man but he could consider to change himself. I think that this relates thoroughly to Alexies home life. Alexie had no control over the family that he was brought into let alone the type of parents that he was conceived from. With his mom gone most of the time due to work, and his dad being absent due to his alcohol addiction, Aleixe was forced to figure out his life pretty much on his own. I think that this poem really describes