Graff & Alexie

Graff and Alexie both incorporate challenges of higher education in their reading, but in different ways. While both men explain their own experiences, Graff however, goes more into students lives, the school district, and even incorporates other readings to back up his ideas and thoughts. I think out of both Graff and Alexie, Graff is more similar to Harris in Rewriting. Harris describes a project as: “…it refers to not a single concept but to a plan of work, to a set of ideas and questions that a writer ‘throws forward’.” (Harris 17). And I think that is exactly what Graff does. He takes his own experiences and his own thoughts, along with others, and puts forth everything he has. He does not only explain his thoughts on higher education, but takes others and explains them further, saying whether or not he agrees or disagrees, which is exactly what Harris was explain what an author’s project is. Although Alexie does not use many experiences to explain his view on higher education, he uses one in great detail. Alexie explains throughout his story, how smart Indians were dangerous people, and were feared by other Indians. But Alexie was not like the other kids he grew up with. He never gave up and never let anyone get in his way of wanting to learn. Alexie says: “I was smart. I was arrogant. I was lucky.” (Alexie 365). Meaning that he knew what he wanted, he knew how to get it, he was not going to let anyone stop him, and he was lucky enough to have the courage to do so. In the end, we realize that Alexie himself were acting as a superhero (superman) to help give the thing he loved to kids that did not receive it, just like himself. So although both Alexie and Graff showed their differences in challenges of higher education in their own ways, they both still relate to Harris.