What You Pawn I Will Redeem by Sherman Alexie - 1130 Words

Sherman Alexie writes in his story, What You Pawn I Will Redeem about a homeless Salish Indian named Jackson Jackson. Alexie takes readers on Jackson’s journey to acquire enough money to purchase back his grandmother’s stolen powwow regalia. Throughout the story, Jackson’s relationships with other charters ultimately define his own character. Alexie, a well know Native American author tells an all too common tale of poverty and substance abuse in the Native American community through his character Jackson. The major character flaw of Jackson is his kindness, which ultimately becomes his greatest asset when fate allows him to purchase back his grandmother’s powwow regalia from a pawn broker for only five dollars. AUTHORS†¦show more content†¦Jackson lives in Seattle, Washington. Jackson was originally Spokane, but traveled to Seattle twenty-three years early to attend college before dropping out. His character is described as having working numerous blue collared jobs, having been married multiple times and fathering multiple children. In the story, Jackson eludes to himself having a mental disorder. His character is extremely resourceful with both food and personal care. In the story, Jackson reveals a bit about himself through his introduction of other characters. Jackson states â€Å"Indians are great storytellers and liars and mythmakers† (87). Jackson’s dilemma begins when he and his friends pass a pawn store window and he notices powwow dance regalia in the storefront window that he recognizes belonged to his grandmother. The powwow dance regalia had been stolen years before, but Jackson is confident that he recognizes the regalia from photos. In an effort to prove the powwow dance regalia belonged to his grandmother, he tells the shop owner that he will find a yellow bead sewn on the inside. While the shop owner is sympathetic to Jackson’s situation, he explains that he has paid one-thousand dollars for the regalia, and can’t give it away. He does however offer to discount the price by one dollar. In developing the character of Jackson Jackson, Alexie gives him characteristics that while positive on the surface; often times lead to additional obstaclesShow MoreRelatedWhat You Pawn I Will Redeem By Sherman Alexie999 Words   |  4 PagesJackson Jackson is sent on a quest to retrieve his beloved grandmother’s regalia in the short story, â€Å"What You Pawn I Will Redeem†. Instead of just calling the police to get the stolen regalia back from the pawn shop owner, Jackson wants to earn the thousand dollars to buy back the lost heirloom. Along the way, he is met with a few road blocks that try to stray Jackson from his true goal. Sherman Alexie succeeds at humanizing a Native American character through the use of stereotypes, while showing hisRead MoreWhat You Pawn I Will Redeem By Sherman Alexie2379 Words   |  10 Pagesrelated to their image and self esteem. It guides them through their life as to what they want to do and get out of life. It is also an indication of a person s individualism and self-satisfaction. It is an important aspect of a person s life. Every person identifies themselves to certain groups, organizations, culture, ethnicity, characters, goals or to things. The story What You Pawn I Will Redeem by Sherman Alexie describes a homeless Indian man Jackson from Spokane, Washington who wants toRead MoreWhat You Pawn I Will Redeem By Sherman Alexie1414 Words   |  6 PagesSelf-identity: Methods and Importance Personal identity is a way one sees themselves and is related to their image and self esteem. It is an important aspect of a person s life. The story What You Pawn I will Redeem by Sherman Alexie describes a homeless Indian man Jackson form Spokane, Washington who wants to connect with his past and ancestral roots. One day he sees his grandmother s regalia in a pawnshop, recognizes it, makes a bond with it; and does all he can to get the regalia back. TheRead MoreWhat You Sell I Will Redeem By Sherman Alexi1360 Words   |  6 Pageswith in the Native American community is influenced by social class, alcoholic tendencies/behavior, and ethnic background. The author Shurman Alexie explores the issues of despair, poverty, alcoholism, and racial conflict, which pervade everyday matters of the American Indians (Hossain Sarker, 2016). In the story, What You Sell I will Redeem, by Sherman Alexi, the main character Jackson Jackson is a homeless Native American who is portrayed, that he, li ke many other Native Americans are alienatedRead MoreSummaries of Sherman Alexies What You Pawn I Will Redeem and Jhumpa Lahiris The Third and Final Continent663 Words   |  3 Pages Part I: What You Pawn I will Redeem by Sherman Alexie The homeless narrator of the short story What You Pawn I will Redeem by Sherman Alexie is an intelligent, articulate man who has fallen into the trap of alcoholism and despair. He believes that he has no future and no identity in a city filled with homeless, cast-off Indians. No one takes notice of him, anymore, he says, although he does seem to have some friends, including a policeman who asks Jackson Jackson at one point why he is wastingRead MoreThe Tunnel And What You Pawn I Will Redeem872 Words   |  4 PagesThe main characters in the stories Through the Tunnel and What You Pawn I Will Redeem both have their mind set on determination. In the story Through the Tunnel, Jerry, the young English boy, sees a group of boys diving and calls them men and wants to be like them. The tunnel they swim through is the symbol in the story used to describe his transition to manhood. In What You Pawn I Will Redeem, Jackson found his grandmother’s stolen regalia that had one yellow bead sewed on it that represented aRead MoreWhat You Pawn I Will Redeem Essay775 Words   |  4 PagesAlison DiNucci â€Å"What you Pawn I Shall Redeem† 10/25/10 Jackson Jackson is a homeless Indian living in Seattle. He was given a chance to win back his grandmother’s powpow regalia. I believe that throughout the story all of Jackson’s intentions to try and get back the regalia were good, although it didn’t seem like it at first. What made me like Jackson was his continued effort. Also what made Jackson more likeable in the story was he used his humor to help him. Jackson is a very complex personRead MoreSherman Alexie And Marmon Silko Essay1978 Words   |  8 PagesAmericans, their unfortunate stereotype is rather pervasive. This is exactly why Native American authors such as Sherman Alexie and Leslie Marmon Silko feel the need to address this issue within their own works. While Alexie and Silko approach it in different ways, both make use of the â€Å"drunken Indian† trope to showcase the depth of the characters apart from the harmful stereotype. Where Sherman Alexie employs a lighthearted approach to the ster eotype, Leslie Silko decides to take a more serious route. HoweverRead MoreWhat You Pawn I will Redeem1272 Words   |  3 Pagesï » ¿ Essay 1: â€Å"What You Pawn, I Will Redeem† Sherman Alexie’s What you Pawn, I Will Redeem appears on the surface to be a simply written story of a homeless, alcoholic Indian in Seattle who is trying to earn enough money to reclaim his grandmothers Pow Wow regalia from a local pawn shop. But upon looking closely, there are many symbolic passages that my lead a person to much deeper conclusions. Throughout the story there are many clues that hint at the fact that this quest may not have been realRead MoreAnalysis Of Alexie s Poem Alexie 2924 Words   |  12 Pages Alexie asks three questions across all of his works: ‘What does it mean to live as an Indian in this time? What does it mean to be an Indian man? Finally, what does it mean to live on an Indian reservation?’† (Basso). Indeed, he does, but does that necessarily imply that he does a good job of it? Certainly, he moves us beyond the many ridiculous stereotypes of Native Americans, that they’re alcoholics and lazy, that they all live on reservations and receive special treatment from the government