Why The Caged Bird Cannot Read

In “Superman and Me” Alexie begins by telling a short story about his childhood where he lived on an Indian reservation. He presents us with a few tales about how as a kid he was always interested in books and he compared paragraphs to fences as well as his siblings. Alexie viewed everything in his young life as pieces of paragraphs which made up the entire story of his life. Subsequently he transitions into the next part of the story where he presents us with the idea that an indian who views knowledge as a tool can be dangerous because they can break out of the common stereotypes placed on their culture. Alexie now gives back to his culture by trying to help other Indian children value knowledge like he has. Similarly, in “Why the Caged Bird Cannot Read” Prose uses evidence she obtained from high schools across the country to build on the idea she proposes which is schools all follow the same set curriculum of books they have kids read; consequently, the students are never able to break out of their shells and advance their learning capabilities. Prose suggests towards the end a solution to the problem but doesn’t build much on her idea, but we can infer she believes students should be challenged. Alexie and Prose use different writing patterns, but they both use similar rhetorical devices to help us understand why they are writing their essays. Alexie breaks her short story into two parts by beginning with how she was taught to read. On page 110 Alexie says, “We bought books by the pound”, which shows when she was younger her family valued reading and the knowledge with it. This quote is also a rhetorical device used by Alexie to show the reader how she learned to read. Alexie also uses the short story as a rhetorical device; this shows where he was as a kid to what he has transformed himself into as an adult. Early in the story we feel bad for Alexie when he portrays himself as a poor child on an indian reservation, and then proceeds to shift into the second part of the story where he is a prosperous author who wants to give back to the kids who share a common culture with him. This comparison helps the audience analyze why Alexie values reading as an essential part of indians breaking from the stereotype people have placed on them. Similarly, Prose also uses metaphors to explain her point in the essay. She believes the books being read in high schools across the country are all based on the same boring curriculums and they never allow students to stray from the norm. She states on page 91, “One can …show more content…
Many people also agree with them on this issue, but they push for students to read difficult text and form conclusions on these books by themselves. Many students are not ready at such a young age to use reading as such a powerful tool. In Prose writing she says teens enjoy the complicated stories that are considered classics, but this is not always the case. Students should be allowed to choose what they read based on their interests. Learning based on interest would allow students to not create a negative attitude towards reading. This could be a way to allow more students to enjoy reading and learn from the books they