When reading “Evolution” by Sherman Alexie, the plight of the Native American is clearly seen through Alexie’s choice of words. Since the arrival of European settlers to America, the Native American has suffered hardships ranging from deprivation of culture to death. Alexie signifies this using three central images, which include Buffalo Bill, the liquor store and the pawning of body parts. The following is meant to expound on these images and to make sense of what Alexie is trying to convey to the reader. Buffalo Bill is inextricably connected to Native American history through his military service as a scout during the Plains Wars as well as his “Buffalo Bill’s Wild West” show beginning in the latter part of the 19th century and continuing …show more content…
into the 20th century. Buffalo Bill was knowledgeable when it came to Native American tradition and their ways of life making him invaluable to the government during America’s expansion westward. After his military career, Buffalo Bill parlayed that experience into a Wild West show where Native American culture and traditions were exploited for entertainment purposes. At that time, much of the American population was led to believe that Native Americans were a barbaric group of people with no morality and such shows fed this misconception. Regardless, Buffalo Bill became a well-known figure through stories of his exploits and adventures thereby creating a legend whose name is well known today. According to Buffalo Bill’s Wild West (1999): “America’s Wild West bred bold legends and colorful characters, perhaps none more famous than Buffalo Bill” (p. 90). Therefore, Alexie uses the name Buffalo Bill at the beginning of the poem, and throughout the poem, to set the tone and convey to the reader that Buffalo Bill is a symbol of an oppressive American government. Alexie did this because he wanted the reader to understand that America had exacted inexcusable, cruel treatment on Native Americans. Moreover, Alexie’s use of the name Buffalo Bill throughout the poem, evokes sympathy toward Native Americans and allows them to better understand their plight. For example, Alexie begins by writing: “Buffalo Bill opens a pawn shop on the reservation right across the border from the liquor store and he stays open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week…” (Kirszner and Mandell, 2012, p. 523). Alexie is trying to convey to the reader that because of the American government, Native Americans have been demoralized, and robbed of their possessions without cessation. Another central image in the poem that reveals Native American demoralization is the liquor store. Studies have shown that preventable deaths and adverse health effects among the Native American population are directly related to alcoholism (Landen, Roeber, Naimi, Nielsen and Sewell, 2014). When European settlers first came to America they brought their vices with them, which included alcohol. Therefore, it is reasonable to assume that they would have been aware of the effects alcohol had on the human body and would have benefit greatly from plying the Native Americans with it. In other words, by giving them alcohol, the settlers would have been able to essentially rob them of their goods. For this reason, Alexie places the liquor store across the border from the pawn shop in the poem demonstrating how, beginning with European settlers, the American government had systematically driven Native Americans into submission by dulling their senses and weakening them with the use of alcohol. The use of such an image helps the reader to realize that not only were they deprived of tangible items, but of their dignity and good health as well. Alexie successfully conveys this to the reader when he wrote that the Indians were running to the pawn shop to sell various items belonging to them. In fact, Alexie is pointing out that such a practice isn’t only a thing of the past, but is still being used in a more covert way. Lastly, Alexie uses the image of the Native Americans pawning their body parts.
Through Alexie’s image of Buffalo Bill as the American government and the liquor store across from the pawn shop, he clearly indicts America for the maltreatment of Native Americans. First, because of the European settlers, and the American government, the spread of alcoholism plagued Native Americans. Therefore, because of alcoholism among Native Americans, the reader can clearly see a progression taking place in what they were being deprived of. For example, he writes that they pawn items that may have only held some monetary value such as, jewelry, a VCR and television sets, then he writes that they pawned, “a full-length beaded buckskin outfit it took Inez Muse 12 years to finish” (Kirszner and Mandell, 2012, p. 524). The outfit, being a symbol of tradition and culture, would be something of sentimental value to the Native American and would represent the loss of something sacred. Second, Alexie wrote that after all their personal possessions had been pawned, cataloged and filed they began to pawn their hands, saving their thumbs for last and even pawned their skeletons which was falling from the skin. At this point, the reader understands that pawning personal items is one thing, but to pawn one’s hands, thumbs and skeletons is something totally different. Alexie is sending a powerful message to the reader, illustrating that because of the alcoholism, the Native Americans were being taken advantage of by the American government which sought to control and if possible exterminate them. Third, to really grab the reader’s attention and evoke strong feelings from them, Alexie wrote that after pawning all they had, Buffalo Bill takes their heart for twenty dollars. By taking the heart, the reader can infer that the American government not only took personal items and body parts, but they also took their dreams, their emotions and their passions. Next, Alexie sums it with the American
government adding insult to injury by closing the pawn shop, opening a Native American Museum and charging them five dollars to enter. This is to convey to the reader that the American government profited from the suffering of the Native American. Through these three central images, Sherman Alexie clearly shows the systematic degradation of Native Americans from the first European settlers until today. With his use of figurative language throughout the poem, he makes his case for the injustices brought on Native Americans which in turn generates a feeling of sympathy within the reader. References Buffalo Bill’s Wild West: An American Legend. (1999). Virginia Quarterly Review, 75(3), 90-91. Kirszner and Mandell, (2012). Lit. Wadsworth Cengage, Boston. Retrieved from https://www.betheluniversityonline.net/ Landen, M., Roeber, J., Naimi, T., Nielsen, L., & Sewell, M. (2014). Alcohol-Attributable Mortality Among American Indians and Alaska Natives in the United States, 1999-2009. American Journal Of Public Health, (S3), S343-9. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2013.301648
Modern day Native American are widely known as stewards of the environment who fight for conservation and environmental issues. The position of the many Native American as environmentalists and conservationists is justified based on the perception that before European colonists arrived in the Americas, Native Americans had little to no effect on their environment as they lived in harmony with nature. This idea is challenged by Shepard Krech III in his work, The Ecological Indian. In The Ecological Indian, Krech argues that this image of the noble savage was an invented tradition that began in the early 1970’s, and that attempts to humanize Native Americans by attempting to portray them as they really were. Krech’s arguments are criticized by Darren J Ranco who in his response, claims that Krech fails to analyze the current state of Native American affairs, falls into the ‘trap’ of invented tradition, and accuses Krech of diminishing the power and influence of Native Americans in politics. This essay examines both arguments, but ultimately finds Krech to be more convincing as Krech’s
Pages one to sixty- nine in Indian From The Inside: Native American Philosophy and Cultural Renewal by Dennis McPherson and J. Douglas Rabb, provides the beginning of an in-depth analysis of Native American cultural philosophy. It also states the ways in which western perspective has played a role in our understanding of Native American culture and similarities between Western culture and Native American culture. The section of reading can be divided into three lenses. The first section focus is on the theoretical understanding of self in respect to the space around us. The second section provides a historical background into the relationship between Native Americans and British colonial power. The last section focus is on the affiliation of otherworldliness that exist between
In the fourth chapter titled “Native Reactions to the invasion of America” in the book, “Beyond 1492: Encounters in Colonial North America, the author James Axtell shares with us an essay he wrote and shared at a conference at Vanderbilt University. Historical accounts are followed beginning at the arrival of explorers and settlers until the 1700’s with various Native tribes in North America. Axtell’s goal is to educate us on the multitude of ways Native Americas reacted during various periods of colonization, and the various methods that the Native Americans perished. Axtell also educates us in his essay on the ways that Native Americans tried to ultimately prevent their extinction at any cost.
“What you pawn I will redeem” is a story written by Sherman Alexie. The story takes place in Seattle, Washington and follows the homeless native american named Jackson Jackson on his journey to obtain his grandmothers regalia that was stolen 50 years ago. He finds the regalia in a pawnshop and spends the rest of the story doing many different things in attempt to make enough money so that he can purchase it back. Throughout the story the author uses Jacksons humor and like-ability to do impressive job of tricking the reader into feeling compassion for Jackson. But when you take a deeper you look into the story, it reveals that in the end Jackson is just a tricky homeless alcoholic.
Raibmon’s book focuses on stories of the people of the Northwest Coast in late nineteenth century United States and Canada. She has two main reasons for doing so. The first is because the area was the focus of much of the work being done by early American anthropology. Early Anthropology was focused on preserving as much as possible of the “vanishing Indian.” By doing so they provided copious examples of what “authentic” Indians should look like with photographs as well as artifacts of “traditional” Indian culture. Raibmon’s second reason for placing the focus of her book here because there were big political changes in the area at that same time. ...
The depiction of Native Americans to the current day youth in the United States is a colorful fantasy used to cover up an unwarranted past. Native people are dressed from head to toe in feathers and paint while dancing around fires. They attempt to make good relations with European settlers but were then taken advantage of their “hippie” ways. However, this dramatized view is particularly portrayed through media and mainstream culture. It is also the one perspective every person remembers because they grew up being taught these views. Yet, Colin Calloway the author of First Peoples: A Documentary Survey of American Indian History, wishes to bring forth contradicting ideas. He doesn’t wish to disprove history; he only wishes to rewrite it.
The article, “Native Reactions to the invasion of America”, is written by a well-known historian, James Axtell to inform the readers about the tragedy that took place in the Native American history. All through the article, Axtell summarizes the life of the Native Americans after Columbus acquainted America to the world. Axtell launches his essay by pointing out how Christopher Columbus’s image changed in the eyes of the public over the past century. In 1892, Columbus’s work and admirations overshadowed the tears and sorrows of the Native Americans. However, in 1992, Columbus’s undeserved limelight shifted to the Native Americans when the society rediscovered the history’s unheard voices and became much more evident about the horrific tragedy of the Natives Indians.
of Native American Culture as a Means of Reform,” American Indian Quarterly 26, no. 1
In a lively account filled that is with personal accounts and the voices of people that were in the past left out of the historical armament, Ronald Takaki proffers us a new perspective of America’s envisioned past. Mr. Takaki confronts and disputes the Anglo-centric historical point of view. This dispute and confrontation is started in the within the seventeenth-century arrival of the colonists from England as witnessed by the Powhatan Indians of Virginia and the Wamapanoag Indians from the Massachusetts area. From there, Mr. Takaki turns our attention to several different cultures and how they had been affected by North America. The English colonists had brought the African people with force to the Atlantic coasts of America. The Irish women that sought to facilitate their need to work in factory settings and maids for our towns. The Chinese who migrated with ideas of a golden mountain and the Japanese who came and labored in the cane fields of Hawaii and on the farms of California. The Jewish people that fled from shtetls of Russia and created new urban communities here. The Latinos who crossed the border had come in search of the mythic and fabulous life El Norte.
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.
The author starts the chapter by briefly introducing the source in which this chapter is based. He makes the introduction about the essay he wrote for the conference given in at Vanderbilt University. This essay is based about the events and problems both Native Americans and Europeans had to encounter and lived since the discovery of America.
“What You Pawn I Will Redeem,” by Sherman Alexie gives readers a look at the life of homeless, easygoing, middle aged Native American, Jackson Jackson. The story, which is set in Seattle, describes the conditions that Jackson finds himself in. Alexie’s choice of motifs emphasizes the significance of cultural and historical references. With these concepts in mind, the reader is taken through a journey of self-realization. “What You Pawn I Will Redeem” narrates the internal struggle Jackson feels trying to figure out his personal identity as a Native American. The story chronicles situations that illustrate the common stereotypes about Natives. Through Jackson’s humble personality, the reader can grasp his
In the short story “What You Pawn I Will Redeem”, Sherman Alexie uses the two most well known stereotypes of Native Americans today, that they are alcoholics and homeless. These are more modern day stereotypes but they fall under the the main stereotype, that Native Americans are helpless and uncivilized. Alexie’s short story focuses on a character named Jackson Jackson, who happens to be both homeless and an alcoholic. Jackson is walking past a pawn shop when he notices his grandmother’s regalia that was stolen from his family fifty years ago. The owner of the pawn shop gives Jackson twenty-four hours to come up with the money for the regalia. The story takes us throughout his journey which consist mostly of Jackson buying alcohol, food, and even some lottery tickets. Jackson would acquire money through a variety of situations right after getting money he ended
“What You Pawn I Will Redeem,” by Sherman Alexie gives readers a look at the life of homeless, easygoing, middle aged Native American, Jackson Jackson. The story, which is set in Seattle, describes the conditions that Jackson finds himself in. Alexie’s choice of motifs emphasizes the significance of cultural and historical references. With these concepts in mind, the reader is taken through a journey of self-realization. “What You Pawn I Will Redeem” narrates the internal struggle Jackson feels trying to figure out his personal identity as a Native American. The story chronicles situations that illustrate the common stereotypes about Natives. Through Jackson’s humble personality, the reader can grasp his true feeling towards White people, which
Similarly, in Alexie's "Evolution", the Native Americans pawn off their entire culture to Buffalo Bill, who represents whites who generalize and stereotype Natives, so that, in the end, even the most significant pieces of who they are are gone. They start by giving up unimportant things for money, such as electronics. However, this quickly escalates to culturally important items, such as a cherished buckskin outfit. When the Natives are tricked into trading these treasures, it rids them of their identity and shows they have little cultural-pride, a result of damaging dehumanization. Not only do irreplaceable material items get pawned off, but pieces of themselves are traded too. Finally, when the Natives have given up nearly everything, they pawn “[their] heart[s]” and “Buffalo Bill takes that for twenty bucks” (Alexie 12). A heart is a piece of a person that allows them to live and feel happy; no one can be prideful without a it. Sadly, it is taken by whites as any other item suggesting that it is