What rhetorical strategies does Sherman Alexie use in his essay "Superman and Me"?

Sherman Alexie grew up on an Indian reservation.  Alexie was  lucky.  His father loved to read.  This encouraged Alexie as a young child to look at books.  His first experience was with a Superman comic book.  He would look at the pictures and say what the pictures represented. Thus, he eventually was able to actually read the words.

In "Superman and Me," Alexie's claim declares that reading can make a difference in a person's life. 

"I refused to fail.  I was smart. I was arrogant.  Iwas lucky.  I read books late at night...I read books at recess...

Alexie emphasizes that because of the white man's attitude some Indians do not try in school.  They have been taught to resist the white mans's education. Now he returns to the schools to encourage the students to grab onto their education:

'Books," I say to them. 'Books,' I say.  I throw my weight against their locked doors. The door holds. I am smart. I am trying to save your life. 

To Alexie, reading and books helped him get off the reservation and find his way in the world.

Alexie's use of rhetorical strategies makes his essay appeal to the reader in more than one way.  HIs use of ethos or his ethical appeal comes from his illustrating what reading did for him. From this, he establishes his authority and character  as someone the reader can trust.   He points out that books have made such a difference in his life that he has become a published writer. 

Alexie wanted to be a pediatrician, but instead he writes poetry, short stories, and novels. His decisions have enabled him to look at the Indian boys who resist education and through his success tell them the importance of reading and an education.  When he visits the reservation to talk to the children about the importance of reading and education, this is his response:

The Indian kids crowd the classroom. They have read my books. They look at me with bright eyes and arrogant wonder.

They trust Alexie because of his success.

His logical [logos] argument follows the story of his life.  Interestingly, he explains that he sees everything as a paragraph.  He defined the paragraph as a " fence that held words." He placed everything within the paragraph: his family was seven different paragraphs; the reservation was a small paragraph in the larger United States.  This way of looking at things helped Alexie to find his place in the world.

Throughout the story, he appeals to the emotions [pathos] of the reader.  His description of his difficulty in the Indian world as an intelligent person strikes a heart string:

A smart Indian is a dangerous person, widely feared and ridiculed by Indians and non-Indians alike.  We were Indian children who were expected to be stupid. 

But Alexie was none of those things.  He refused to fail because he knew is future depended on his education; so he read everything that he could find. Sadly, he explains that anywhere else he would have been considered a "prodigy." However, on the reservation he was considered weird or eccentric. Sherman Alexie beat the system by growing up and using his talents to become a successful writer.

What writing styles does Sherman Alexie use in "Superman and Me"?

Sherman Alexie's essay "Superman and Me" is primarily written in the narrative style. The narrative style of writing is used to tell a story. Sherman Alexie is a self-proclaimed storyteller. In an interview with WNYC, Alexie explains,

Now in this storytelling life of mine, I’m a nomad. I’m an old-school storyteller wandering the Earth.

Typically, narrative pieces are novels, poetry, biographies, and short stories. In this particular case, "Superman and Me" can be thought of as both a short story and an essay. In "Superman and Me," Alexie describes himself as a storyteller, again saying,

Alexie also describes "Superman and Me" as a story in the essay. He says,

This might be an interesting story all by itself. A little Indian boy teaches himself to read at an early age and advances quickly.

Narrative writing is not simply facts; it uses information to construct characters, conflict, and setting. In "Superman and Me," Alexie writes from the point of view of the main character, presumably telling a story about himself. Alexie builds his character and setting by explaining a bit about his own upbringing and background. He says,