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Sherman Alexie On The Indian-American Analysis

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Sherman Alexie grew up on the Spokane Indian Reservation. He is a child of the Indian-American, and the world saw him nothing more than Indian-American. Still, Alexie has become the well-respected author, the proud owner of the literature awards for novels, short stories, poetry, and filmmaking. In the essay, the author uncovers a reason for such immense success. Unlike most Indian-Americans, Alexie is literate; moreover, at the young age, he could read better than other kids. The author’s father instilled this love for literature. The family house was full of all kinds of books, and young Sherman often spent time reading and rereading them. The delight of words lately saved his life from being another one neglected Indian. Alexie refused to fail and resisted. Now, the author helps other Indian-American kids to keep the same light of knowledge. From the beginning of the essay, the writer emphasizes the powerful influence of the household. Even though Alexie’s family was poor, his father spent any extra money to get more books, journals, magazines and other kinds of …show more content…

Because of his unwillingness to fail, the writer was constantly mocked by Indians and non-Indians equally. “As Indian children, we were expected to fail in the non-Indian world. Those who failed were ceremonially accepted by other Indians and appropriately pitied by non-Indians” (6.) The surrounding, peer pressure and overall attitude in reservation’s schools stifle any attempts to change the way things go. Those who failed prevented others from success and expect others to fail as well; such philosophy goes from generation to generation. The only chance is to be arrogant and focus on one goal: to survive and escape from this vicious circle. The author’s attachment to books was his form of resisting. Maybe such form of confronting not only shaped his unique writing style but also helped to stay

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