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Kenna Bandura
Professor Tinkle-Williams
English 101
September 25, 2016

Sherman Alexie
Some people may portray Sherman Alexie as a no good Indian
with no real life goals or desires. Those people are wrong. Sherman is
talented, smart, brave, and courageous. Knowing the struggles
Sherman has gone through ever since he was a baby and now looking
at all the success he has already created is a true testimony that
working hard and following your dreams, no matter the circumstances,
is possible. Sherman has over came poverty, death, getting bullied,
and people who were willing to hurt him only because he is Indian.
Sherman is all over book titles, have written films and made a great
example for the Indian culture. His life journey and outlook on his
situation can be described in one phrase: Oh, Uncle Adrian, Im in the
reservation of my mind.
Living on the reservation was no easy task, but having to deal
with all the complications that come with life, makes it all a little worse.
Sherman was born in Wellpinit Washington and lived on the Spokane
Indian Reservation. Sherman was born with Hydrocephalic, which
means that he had extra spinal fluid in his brain. If he didnt get

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surgery he would die, and if he did there was still a high chance of him
dying, or becoming very disabled. He became very challenged and it
was hard for him to make friends, or any at all. All his elementary
school he was bullied and pushed around every day. His safe place was
his room that was isolated from the world full of hurt. He would draw or
write constantly and that helped him get through elementary school.
(Alexie) Sherman was managing to get by, slowly and painfully. His
freshman year, he was pushed to move to a different school or he
wouldn't survive on the reservation. He decided to make the switch to
Reardon High School. This decision was frightening, and life changing.
At first, he was just the stupid Indian boy, but then became someone
everyone loved. He got a girl friend, had many friends, and was on the
varsity basketball team. In making one of the most life changing
decisions by moving schools, he started his own life that came with
success, freedom, guidance, and helped him create to the person he
wanted to become.
Living in poverty is something no one wants to do, but few are
willing to change their way of living. Sherman is a prime example of
him not wanting to live the way he use to, and to create a new life. He
went to college at Gonzaga and was going to go into the medical field
but once he saw blood in his lab, he knew that field was not for him.
(Gale) After that, he had dropped out of Gonzaga to follow his high
school girlfriend. They went to Washington State University. He had

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enrolled into a poetry workshop with no though of becoming anything
other than a high school English teacher. He also wanted to coach
basketball. But this workshop had changed everything for him. He fell
in love with what he was learning about and how much passion he had
and changed his major and that changed his whole life. (Gale)
The word betrayal has always stuck in the back of Shermans
mind. He was the first person in his family to go to college, to leave the
reservation, to leave his tribe. He felt as he was betraying his tribe and
had no idea where he would end up. But, he had to take those steps in
order to be successful and follow his dreams. After college, Sherman
couldn't find a job anywhere. So he went back to the reservation. When
he went back, he had no money and no hope. He wrote to a person
named Adrian Louis who he looked up to, and told him how mad he
was. Adrian wrote back and gave him $50. He told him to keep writing
your poems. So that is exactly what Sherman did. He started to be
published on small presses and then he was on the front page of the
New York Times Book Review. (Cusatis)
Writing is what Sherman loved to do, so even through the
difficult times of trying to find work and trying to figure out his life, we
would write. Since he got his degree, he pushed through and didnt live
in fear. (Cusatis) Sherman worked harder and faster than all those
people that had it easy. Unlike most of them they didnt have to deal
with brain surgery and all the baggage that came with it. He had to

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work a lot harder in every aspect of his life and that worked in his
advantage. He would go the extra mile for everything and has a
mindset that he cant and wont ever give up, and I believe that has
gotten him exactly where he is today.
Following your heart can be scary, can be crazy and may seem
impossible. Sherman is the prime example of trial and error. Falling
down multiple times, but then standing back up. He shows that life is
worth living and fighting for. If we didnt live life in fear of what could
happen, we would all be following our dreams and not be living day by
day scared of the next bad thing that could happen. Sherman came
from a broken and poor family with nothing to give and only problems
in his way. He overcame each and every one of his problems in the
best way possible and instead of bottling up and hating his life, he tells
stories and how his struggles have changed him into a better person,
and a better writer. He has given many people the courage to follow
their dreams no matter their own life situation. He has been one of the
most inspiring and influential voices in American literature. Oh, Uncle
Adrian, Im in the reservation of my mind.

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Work cited

"Sherman Alexie Wants You To Be a 'Superhero' For Indie Bookstores." Weekend

Edition Saturday 30 Nov. 2013. Literature Resource Center. Web. 15 Sept. 2016.
"Alexie's 'Absolutely True Diary'." All Things Considered 1 Oct. 2007. Literature
Resource Center. Web. 15 Sept. 2016.

"Sherman Alexie." Contemporary Authors Online. Detroit: Gale, 2014. Literature

Resource Center. Web. 15 Sept. 2016.

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Theado, Matt. "Sherman Alexie." Twenty-First-Century American Poets. Ed. John
Cusatis. Detroit: Gale, 2013. Dictionary of Literary Biography Vol. 372. Literature
Resource Center. Web. 15 Sept. 2016.