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Sean ODonnell

WR 37, Fall 2017

Professor Delany-Ullman

November 17, 2017

Knowledge: The Key to a Better Life

For most people, ever since they have been children, they have been attending school.

As people grow up, they move up through the ranks of the educational system and grow to

attend high school and college. The importance of attending school and gaining knowledge is

imprinted on the minds of our youth and adolescents. From a statistical standpoint, this is for

good reason. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, the employment rate for

20-24 year olds that have attended high school or more is 40% higher than that of 20-24 years

olds that have only received their high school diploma or less. With statistics like this, it is no

wonder that the importance of education is such a hot topic among American society today. The

education one receives from school now is a tool to a better life in the future. Thomas Holt in

Knowledge is Power: The Black Struggle for Literacy and Sherman Alexie in Superman and

Me discuss these same ideas but from their own unique rhetorical situations.

As explained by the Department of History at the University of Chicago, Thomas Holt

holds the perspective of an African-American professor and historian that not only teaches the

history of his culture but has also lived through it personally undergoing experiences such as his

time with the Student Nonviolent Coalition Committee during the Civil Rights Movement of the

early 1960s. As for Alexie, in an interview with Terry Gross on NPR, he reveals his own

background explaining his childhood growing up as a Native American on an Indian Reservation

surrounded by poor influences like poverty, alcoholism, and violence. As a result of their

separate backgrounds, the two rhetors approach how they deliver their message in different

ways. Some examples of these differences include academic versus public discourse,

contrasting target audiences, and separate purposes for communicating their ideas. Despite
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these differences in how they present their ideas, both of the authors contribute their own

experiences that add to and complement the argument that although education can be

empowering, it can also be a form of oppression that keeps certain communities down and

forces them to fight for their right to an equal education.

One major difference found in Holt and Alexies respective pieces is the use of academic

discourse versus public discourse. In his piece, Holt mentions the ideas African-Americans have

on the importance of education through a historical account saying, Anonymous black men and

women in countless communities across the South made their own humble witness for the right

to an education that would matter, that would change things (Holt 98). The route Holt takes in

giving historical accounts of African-American education post-Civil War is a product of and

grows out of Holts background as a professor in African-American history. According to the

African-American Intellectual History Society, Holt is unapologetically black and sees

blackness in a constant state of emergence. He is a historian providing historical records and

events in order to support his claim that education is a tool of empowerment and change; this is

academic discourse. Although he discusses the same ideas as Holt about the power of

knowledge, Sherman Alexie takes a different approach by using personal anecdotes to explain

his point. One such story Alexie tells is of his fathers love for books saying, My father loved

books, and since I loved my father with an aching devotion, I decided to love books as well

(Alexie 2). Through this explanation of a personal anecdote, Alexie is able to explain what effect

this had on his ideas about being educated. He confirms this with a personal statement of

empowerment: I am smart. I am arrogant. I am lucky. I am trying to save our lives (Alexie 8).

Alexie takes a different path from that of Holt as his piece is an example of public discourse.

Sherman Alexie has actual experience with what education can do for a person, and therefore

his personal accounts reflect and grow out of this fact. This difference between academic and

public discourse as a result of the authors backgrounds is just one example of how Alexie and

Holt talk about the same ideas but in their own unique way.
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The difference between the two pieces which stems from the difference between Holts

academic discourse versus Alexies public discourse, directly influences the target audiences for

which the two rhetors are trying to convey their ideas to. Since Alexies article was published in

the LA Times, a certain community of newspaper readers were allowed to see it. In using his

personal anecdotes and metaphors to explain the oppression the Native American youth faces

in the educational system, he attempts to target those people that may be the oppressors in

order to reveal to them the struggles of his people. Alexie writes, A smart Indian is a dangerous

person, widely feared and ridiculed by Indians and non-Indians alike...They wanted me to stay

quiet when the non-Indian teacher asked for answers, for volunteers, for help (Alexie 6). Unlike

Holt, Alexies rhetorical situation allows him to use his own personal experience to tell about the

obstacles he has gone through in order to educate those people that have oppressed and

continue to oppress his people through unequal education. This idea is important because Holt

targets a whole other audience in trying to make a similar point. Holt, being a historian and

history professor, creates academic discourse in his piece in order to appeal to the academic

community. He is not able to touch on experience in the same way Alexie is able to in his

explanation of his ideas. Instead, Holt touches on historical accounts of the self-help African-

Americans were forced to turn to because of the oppressive education whites had prepared for

the former slaves post-Civil War. Holt says, Self-help was essential to black education during

the early years after the war, because state and federal efforts were either nonexistent, limited,

or undependable. So the burden of supporting the schools fell on blacks themselves and on

northern missionary societies (Holt 95). Different from Alexie, Holt is not talking about his own

personal experience; he instead uses his knowledge about African-American history to support

his point. In doing so, he appeals to a separate audience from that of Alexie: an academic

audience. This is a strong example that proves how an authors background, experience, and

rhetorical situation not only influences the way they present a certain idea, but also the target

audience for which the author is trying to communicate their ideas.

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As a result of Holt and Alexies separate target audiences, the two authors show that

they also have different motives or purposes for creating their respective pieces. In knowing that

Holt is a historian that provides statistics, information, and historical events as his main forms of

support and evidence, he reveals that his core purpose is to inform the academic community

about the origins of knowledge as a tool of empowerment, especially amongst the African-

American community. Unlike Alexie, Holt can not call upon his own personal experiences to be

his supporting evidence, and instead he turns to historical information, stories, and even

statistics. Therefore, the purpose for which Holt writes his piece grows out of his rhetorical

situation as well as his target audience. Sherman Alexie displays a different motive in his piece.

In a general explanation of Alexies work, Encyclopedia Britannica explains that he uses his

work as a means of examining life on the reservation and the issues facing Indians. Alexies

personal approach in Superman and Me shows how informing others on what is happening in

his Native American community is not his only motive. Alexies work is a plea to both the

oppressors and the oppressed (his Native American community). Alexie mentions his own

efforts to break the stereotype that Native Americans are unintelligent by attempting to teach the

youth himself. The youth fail to respond: There are the sullen and already defeated Indian kids

who sit in the back rows and ignore me with theatrical precision. The pages of their notebooks

are empty. They carry neither pencil nor pen. They stare out the window. They refuse and

resist (Alexie 8). Sherman Alexies personal approach and target audience influence his

purpose in his piece; unlike Holt, Superman and Me is a plea to both the oppressors and the

oppressed to end this sort of education to oppress that seeks to keep the Native American

community down.

In all, Holt and Alexie cover similar ideas. Both mention the importance of education and

the struggles certain communities are forced to overcome in order to receive an equal

opportunity in education. In looking at their rhetorical situations though, they use very different

methods for which they go about presenting their messages. Holt, being a historian and
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professor of African-American history, takes the academic discourse route and targets an

academic audience. History, facts, events, and statistics serve to be Holts main source of

evidence support. On the other hand, Sherman Alexie uses his personal experience to create a

public discourse piece that targets those that seek to oppress others through education as well

as the Native American community. His piece has much more of a personal purpose to it, and

this grows out of his use of personal anecdotes, metaphors, and storytelling to make his point.

Both Holt and Alexie are able to use their respective rhetorical situations to provide new

dimensions to the argument that knowledge is a tool of empowerment that can fight against

those that seek to use education to oppress certain communities.

Works Cited

Alexie, Sherman. Superman and Me. Google Drive, Google,

drive.google.com/file/d/0B5-OfM-v_D05M1BFVTljTWloZmM/view.

Gross, Terry. Sherman Alexie Says He's Been 'Indian Du Jour' For A 'Very Long Day'. NPR,

NPR, 20 June 2017,

www.npr.org/2017/06/20/533653471/sherman-alexie-says-hes-been-indian-du-jour-for-

a-very-long-day.

History. Making History: Thomas Holt and the Civil Rights Movement | History | The University
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of Chicago, history.uchicago.edu/content/making-history-thomas-holt-and-civil-rights-

movement.

Kuiper, Kathleen. Sherman Alexie. Encyclopdia Britannica, Encyclopdia Britannica, Inc.,

18 Aug. 2017, www.britannica.com/biography/Sherman-Alexie.

Los Angeles Times Media Group- Who Reads Newspapers? Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles

Times, mediakit.latimes.com/insights/Who_Reads_Newspapers.

Lunsford, Andrea A., et al. Knowledge Is Power: The Black Struggle for Literacy. The Right

to Literacy, Modern Language Association of America, 1998, pp. 91102.

Mount, Guy Emerson. When Scholars Cry: Celebrating the Career of Thomas C. Holt. AAIHS,

www.aaihs.org/when-scholars-cry-celebrating-the-career-of-thomas-c-holt/.

The NCES Fast Facts Tool Provides Quick Answers to Many Education Questions (National

Center for Education Statistics). National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) Home

Page, a Part of the U.S. Department of Education, 2016,

nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=561.
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