In everyday life many may fight some type of inner terrors they may have, countless individuals may act as if they are the perfection of living life to the fullest, but only they know inside the battles they may fight. Some may hide it deep within their souls and very few like Jackson, Jackson in the story “What You Pawn, I Will Redeem” displays and fights with his inner torments on a daily basis. In the story of "What You Pawn, I Will Redeem" Jackson is Spokane homeless Indian boy who grew up in Spokane but now lives in Seattle. Jacksons downhill spiral started with his flunking out of College, not able to hold down a steady job, failed marriages and fathering two possibly 3 children which as he states “Piece by piece, I disappeared. I’ve …show more content…
been disappearing ever since.” He finds himself again when he is faced with a challenge to reclaim his grandmother's regalia but his demons: alcoholism and being homeless are getting in the way of his quest by his friends, money and his misguided generosity. Troyer (2008) describes his analysis is applied to all of the dialogue in the short story ‘What You Pawn I Will Redeem” by Sherman Alexie (2004). In this particular story, with its fourteen distinct conversational interactions between the main character and a variety of other characters of differing degrees of status and solidarity, provides an ideal demonstration of the proposed method analysis. Thinking of trying to find your self-identity is a process of obligation instead of making oneself out of your worst enemy. According to Karen Franklin, Ph.D., who is a forensic psychologist in Northern California. “There are a handful of individuals who will use their past or present circumstances to explain their future actions of how and why they are the way they are”; however, this is not the case with this character named Jackson in this captivating tale by Sherman Alexie. When Jackson had come upon his grandmother's regalia, it takes him down an entirely different path; that will one test his loyalty and to test his awareness on how others view him through judging him just as they would a typical lonely, homeless, alcoholic. In this story, the characterizations and their interactions demonstrate the culture description by portraying Jackson as a lone Native American. The author allows this character to develop a voice in this story. The author shows the pride Jackson has for himself and shows how he feels he isn’t like other homeless people. Jackson is allowed to use store owner’s employee bathrooms and knows where to claim the best free food. Jackson over the years has made friends with these shop owners where they have gained his trust. There is a path here that we will see is based on responsibility and manhood which is considered in the various acts that Jackson will face. Jackson had been homeless for about six years and felt he was an effective homeless man. He felt it was the only thing that he was good at. Although he doubted himself and knew society looked down upon him when he came upon his grandmother’s regalia, he was aware that he had a chance to prove his worthiness and show his respect for his heritage. When Jackson has passed by the regalia in the pawnbroker’s window, he knew he was about to start a journey and accomplish a feat he didn’t even know he could undertake. Jackson stated to the pawnbroker he could prove it was his grandmother’s regalia “Because they don’t want to be perfect because only God is perfect, Indian people sew flaws into their powwow regalia.
My family always sewed one yellow bead somewhere on our regalia. But we always hid it so that you had to search really hard to find it” (Alexie, 2003, para.8). The pawnbroker makes Jackson an offer to regain his grandmother’s regalia but after hearing his proposition, Jackson knew deep down he would not succeed but he would give it everything he had not to fail. The pawnbroker helped Jackson with a start of a twenty-dollar bill but at this point Jackson only let his so called friends help veer him off the path of redemption. On Jackson’s journey, the author shows that his friends were a bad influence on him in trying to succeed in his mission. “Rose of Sharon, Junior, and I carried our twenty-dollar bill and our five dollars in loose change over to the 7-Eleven and bought three bottles of imagination. We needed to figure out how to raise all that money in only one day. Thinking hard, we huddled in an alley beneath the Alaska Way Viaduct and finished off those bottles—one, two, and three” (Alexie, 2003, …show more content…
para.13). Instead of brainstorming they found the bottom of all those bottles and has passed out from drunkenness. Through Jacksons journey many different characters came upon him from the Aleut cousins awaiting for a ship that will never come for them to Newspaper stand he had a chance to make some money but each time his demons had pulled him in the wrong direction. Through each of his attempts and failures to gain the money he needed his mind always took him back to thinking of his grandmother. The stories she would tell when he was a young boy to thinking about the cancer that took her from Jackson at such a young age. Jackson was incredibly misguided with his generosity, he was in dire need to save his money to buy back his grandmother’s regalia, but he constantly was giving away his money for instance his heart was smitten for the young Korean woman named Mary who worked in the corner store in her parent’s store. Jackson loved to see her and hear her sing. He purchased a lottery ticket and when he won the $100-dollar lottery ticket he stated “I won a hundred dollars,” I said. She examined the ticket and laughed. “That’s a fortune,” she said and counted out five twenties. Our fingertips touched as she handed me the money. I felt electric and constant. “Thank you, “I said, and gave her one of the bills. “I can’t take that. ‘she said. It’s your money.” ‘No it’s tribal. It’s an Indian thing. When you win, you’re supposed to share with your family.” “I’m not your family.” “Yes, you are” (Alexie 2003, para.30). Not only has the story a strong amount of symbolism. It also portrayed the vision of life that all Native American’s have. Native Americans have a need to share everything in their lives: money, assets, sadness and the happiness that they could have. One would say this is a character flaw in Jackson; he is destitute and lacking in funds to complete his quest. However, he is still prone to exhibiting generosity towards others despite hardly being in the position to do so. With his excitement he went back to where he had left Junior earlier passed out, only to find him gone then later to find out he had moved to Portland, Oregon and then later died of exposure from the elements. The money seemed to be burning a hole in Jacksons hands he then ventured upon the Big Hearts All- Indian bar where once again generosity had defeated him once again.
Throughout the night and through the rest of the day Jackson has lost money, came up on some more and blew it again it was a never-ending circle of trying to reach is conquest. Through Jackson misfortune and bad decisions, he always showed so much generosity which is what showed Jackson’s quest for identity was found once he proved he showed his worthiness to the pawnbroker. According to Gale, (2006), As a homeless Spokane Indian far from home and without family, Jackson’s mission to reclaim his family heirloom becomes a link to his past, his future, and his critical
identity. Throughout Jacksons journey all of the characters he encountered from the Aleuts, the pawnshop owner, the waitress, the police officer, the Indians in the bar his friends were the string that held this story together their presence was a necessary intertwining parts like a moving machine with interlocking moving parts to help Jackson reach and fulfill his quest and making him see the true meaning of giving and receiving. In conclusion of this story by Jackson fulfilling his quest for regaining his grandmother’s regalia, regardless of his daily battle with his demons his homelessness, alcoholism, so called friends and his misguided generosity he prevailed at first he didn’t realize why the pawnshop owner had now just given him his grandmother’s regalia but then he realized he proved his worthiness and earned it back and he found his own identity. Jackson’s friends, money squandering, and misguided generosity were the keys to finding himself and his worth once again, and the pawnbroker knew he needed to find himself again and his plan had worked, Jackson left with his grandmother’s regalia with a sense of pride, accomplishment, as he danced in the street wrapped in her regalia and her spirit he felt her live again through his accomplished quest.
This story made me frustrated at the way people get forced into a rut that they can’t escape. Jackson Jackson isn’t completely innocent, no one is, but most of his problems were a result from the wrong that others had inflicted upon him. The frustrating part was that He was incapable of getting himself out. He did things like spend money on alcohol and cheese burgers, only to end up throwing it all up and even less money. To me, this story is about redemption. Jackson received grace from people like the good cop, and the pawnbroker. None of his own efforts changed his situation, only the kindness of others changed him. These kind deeds helped reconcile the reality of Jackson’ life and his situation. In a story like this, I always hope for a
The city stopped. They all watched me dance with my grandmother. I was my grandmother, dancing.” This statement made at the end of the story indicates a strong sense of imagery that details Jackson’s emotions towards getting his grandmother’s regalia from the pawn shop. The yellow bead he mentions was his strongest symbol of feeling toward his grandmother, feeling as if he were a part of that yellow bead, in this case, his grandmother.
... a need to serve justice out to the world. He would go out looking for injustice and cruel people that he could teach a lesson to. Finally he simply became obsessed with and would go looking for any reason to fight people. He had slowly became the person he had feared as a child. After a long time he was sick of what he had become and turned to creativity to change that. He began to write and from that writing he realized that he did not need to fight he could write and that writing made him feel better than fighting ever did. This memoir really portrays the impact violence has on a person’s life and how with a push in the right direction then can be helped. No one ever stops being who they were but they can build on that person to become someone stronger and more to their liking.
He has an internal conflict because he wants to save money to buy back his grandmother’s regalia from the pawnbroker, but he also wants to share his money and he receives money throughout the story. “‘I’m hoping, and I don’t know why I’m hoping it, but I hope you can turn thirty bucks into a thousand somehow.’ ‘I believe in magic.’ ‘I believe you’ll take my money and get drunk on it’” (Alexie para 230). When he receives money, he always ends up spending it on alcohol and sometimes spends it on food. He never spends all his money on himself. Jackson has a man versus nature conflict and a man versus man made environment conflict. His man vs. man made environment conflict occurs when he is too drunk to find a good place to sleep. He ends up falling asleep on train tracks. An example of Jackson’s man vs. mother-nature, “’I was cold and sleepy,’ I said. ‘So I lay down.’ ‘You dumb-ass, you passed out on the railroad tracks.’ I sat up and looked around. I was lying on the railroad tracks’” (Alexie para 195). Jackson also has a conflict with white society. “‘One day you have a home and the next you don’t, but I’m not going to tell you my particular reasons for being homeless, because it’s my secret story, and Indians have to work hard to keep secrets from hungry white folks’” (Alexie para 1). Jackson also has a man versus man conflict with Honey Boy, who tries to get Jackson to hook up with him but Jackson says he’s not a homosexual. “‘I’m flattered, Honey Boy, but I don’t play on your team.’” (Alexie para 165). Jackson does not show any signs of complexity. He is also a stereotypical homeless man. He does spend the majority of the money he gets on alcohol. Jackson also is dynamic since he clearly changes because in the beginning he was just a homeless man with his friends with nobody really paying attention to him, then at the end he felt that everybody stopped to watch him
middle of paper ... ... If Jackson did not change his view of life, work hard at everything he did, and excel at sports, who knows where he would be today? He could be sitting in a jail cell because he never changed his ways and lost his temper, or he could still be living in a small house in a small town.
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.
To understand Jackson’s book and why it was written, however, one must first fully comprehend the context of the time period it was published in and understand what was being done to and about Native Americans in the 19th century. From the Native American point of view, the frontier, which settlers viewed as an economic opportunity, was nothin...
Growing up on the North/South Carolina border, Jackson’s exact state of birth is debatable. Unlike most historians, Jacksons ascertained that he was from South Carolina. Wherever he actually grew up, it is unequivocal that it was a truculent and violent place to be raised. During his childhood, Jackson became accustomed to the social imperatives of the land; hard work, and military spirit. Specifically, in his hometown, one used “[their ]military spirit to defend yourself, and [their] hands to pull something out of the soil”. Here, Meachem believes the constant exhaustion and threat of violence was “one of the many reasons Jackson became a man who was so prone to violence. He grew up with it, he didn’t know anything else”.
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
Jackson is proud of his heritage and throughout the story references the way of the Indians, whilst befriending and conversing with a number of other tribal relatives. Jackson, even admits, “Being homeless is probably the only thing I’ve ever been good at. at.” Despite his failure, he is still an Indian man, searching for a proclamation of his. heritage in his grandmother’s regalia.
Andrew Jackson is one of the most controversial presidents. Many regard him as a war hero, the father of the Democratic Party, an inspiring leader, and a spokesman for the common man. While there is plenty to praise about the seventh president, his legacy is tarnished by his racism, disregard for the law of the land, cruelty towards the Native Americans, and ruthless temper. Jackson was an intriguing man who was multi-faceted. One must not look at a singular dimension, and cast judgment on him as a whole. To accurately evaluate one of the most complex presidents, it is crucial to observe Jackson from all possible angles. Prior lifestyle, hardships in life, political ideology, lifestyle of the time, political developments, and his character
“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.
named after him. As readers we begin to learn the type of man that Jackson indeed
...f their family (Jackson 867). In everyday life, we posses the same selfish attitude portrayed in the story. What is one of a child’s favorite words? It’s "mine!" We constantly say well "it’s better you than me" and "it’s every man for himself." It’s pretty scary _when you actually think about it, because you realize we really are that selfish.
...this situation to be a truth in any city in the world. So in this Jackson shows how setting is used to magnify the darkness in all of human hearts.