What You Pawn I Will Redeem Research Paper

Research Paper

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to explore Sherman Alexie’s “What You Pawn I Will Redeem” in a new light. Many relevant sources highlight and explain the allusions to cultural homelessness and rigorous empathy that exist in Alexie’s work, observing these themes through the opposing lenses of polyculturalism and multiculturalism. Using this information, I wish to highlight and focus on the idea that the main character, Jackson Jackson, is not only struggling with poverty and alcoholism but has a nature that is entirely paradoxical.

Research Paper

Part I The discussion by literary critics about Alexie’s short story, “What You Pawn I Will Redeem” has been the reference to cultural homelessness. There has also

This is where the seriousness of his quest could be called into question. The reference to genocide and cultural homelessness could just be coincidental, while the real theme lies within the simple idea of the human condition. Most scholars who explore the story, or similar stories by Sherman Alexie in general, can all agree that Jackson’s quest was truly serious. Nancy Peterson connects this “inherent humor of genocide with this as an idea of “rigorous empathy,” an empathy that allows us to be humorous about the past but reach beyond the colonial attitudes of hatred and difference between descendents of white settlers and native peoples or minorities. According to Jennifer K. Ladino, Jackson Jackson was not only serious about his quest, but in the end his “story feels like a success” (Ladino 47). Ladino also points out that Jackson Jackson’s friendly encounters with people of different social statuses indicate a different kind of polyculturalism. Ladino invokes the ideas of Vijay Prashad, differentiating “polyculturalism” that suggests a more unbounded alliance with people of other races from the generic “multiculturalism” idea that defines culture as “immutable and pure.” Through this polyculturalism and moving beyond the limits of the human condition, Jackson

Most of the sources seem to have at least one allusion to “What You Pawn I Will Redeem,” and those allusions point to Jackson’s quest. I think that scholars like Greg Johnson and literary critics of Alexie would certainly agree that references to genocide and cultural homelessness do exist. However, they would prioritize different aspects of the story and see it through the limited lens of multiculturalism. This corresponds to a paradox on the part of Jackson Jackson. In literal terms, Jackson Jackson is homeless, but all the scholars that I have reviewed would agree that he is successful. His homelessness is also a paradox because Jackson Jackson seems very much at home with his friends of all races and backgrounds (Alexie #). The pawnbroker rewards Jackson Jackson for hard work, but this hard work was in vain because Jackson Jackson himself spent the majority of his money and was unsuccessful based on his own financial merit. This is why I argue that Jackson’s success was a