The Topic Of Poverty And Privileges In Superman And Me By Sherman Alexis And Peculiar Benefits By Roxane Gay

A nation Prowess, and capability to prosper is directly dependent upon its people’s edification. Moreover, in countries with poor background, peoples think that they lack some privileges that can allow them to succeed in school and in their life, so they refuse to open their mind and allow themselves to be taught, they become dull, ignorant and frozen in time. In the text of Sherman Alexie title “Superman and Me”, the author defied this stereotype by being prosperous, Alexie defies the standard because of his love for the books and self-education which saved him from the poverty, and in the other hand the text of Roxane Gay title “Peculiar Benefits” which discussed also the problem of poverty, and also put an special ascent on particular privileges that each one of us have, and how important it is to use of them for the greater good.

Although both Sherman Alexis Superman and Me and Roxane Gay peculiar benefits discuss the topic of poverty, and privileges, they approach this topic in very different ways. In the text of Sherman Alexie, he described where he came from and how he lives throughout poverty. Alexie is an Indian who was raised in an Indian reservation camp in Spokane Washington, he described how poor his family was and how they “lived on a combination of irregular paychecks, hope, fear, and government surplus food”(14) this show how poor they were in the concentration camps, and also the Education System was Obsolete in the camps, he did not grow up with the best teacher to teach him how to read however he did it himself. Alexie describe again their poverty when he was talking about how his father bought the family books “He bought his books by the pound at Dutch’s Pawn shop, Goodwill, Salvation Army, and Value army. ” (14), the author is showing that their book was not selected, but the would take whatever the can get because the could not afford the expensive ones and preferred to go to places known as less expensive. And because of his love for book and the faith that the book will help him out of poverty, he was able to break the expectation that people have of Indian kids, which can relay to the metaphor that he used Superman “Breaking down the door”.

In contrast of the Peculiar Benefits by Roxane Gay, in which the author herself did not live in the poverty and did not know anything about poverty “until visiting Haiti, I had no idea what poverty was or the difference between relative and absolute poverty”. (P1), here the author discover that it can existed different degrees of poverty, some people really poor that other, “I saw the sprawling slums, the shanties housing entire families, the trash piled in the streets” (P2) this made Roxane realized how her education on privilege began before she could have appreciated it. “One of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do is accept and acknowledge my privilege” said: Roxane Gay, this quote completely tied everything together as she concludes, learning about your own privilege and accepting them is the key. Instead of criticizing others privileges, she states we need to allow ourselves to accept them to move forward because most of us come from different backgrounds and have experienced things others will never encounter therefor we need to use that privilege for the greater good and also try to share the benefits of our privilege with people who less. In the same way Sherman Alexie did not keep the privilege that he had for himself, even though he was self-educated, he recognized that his privilege was having a father who love’s book and “Since I loved my father with an aching devotion, I decided to love Books As well”, by consequences the author also try to go and give back what he had. Both Sherman Alexie Superman and me, and Roxane Gay Peculiar benefits have tried to discuss the problem of poverty in their own way, and also Roxane Gay in Peculiar Benefit have insisted on the recognition of our privileges and once we do make others benefits from it.