Character Analysis: The Aleut

The Aleuts are both round and flat characters. They are round characters as they face a man vs. society conflict as they have been trying to find a way back home for 11 years. “They told me they were going to sit on that wooden bench until their boat came back” (Alexie 13). They show signs of flatness because they did not change throughout the story. There are no fundamental character changes and complexities for the Aleuts. They were depressed from the very beginning and from what Jackson Jackson heard, some Indians saw the Aleuts drown. Their internal conflict is that they wanted to return home but did not have the money as they were broke and broker each day that went by. They have been waiting a long time for their boat to return and have …show more content…
Jackson Jackson did not have the resources to recover the regalia so he had to put a lot of effort in a minimal amount of time by selling newspapers. “’I need one thousand four hundred and thirty papers’” (Alexie 14). He even tried his luck with scratchers. “’I won a hundred dollars’” (Alexie 17). Even though he knew that it was nearly impossible to come up with the money to purchase the regalia he kept pursuing his mission against all odds, yet he didn’t hesitate to spend the money once he earned it. His actions were foreshadowing as we knew he was not going to earn the money needed. He kept spending the money on his friends and on strangers mostly on food and alcohol. “’Me and my cousins here are going to be drinking eighty shots. How many is that apiece?’” (Alexie 18). The pawnbroker was kind from the very beginning and was very compelling to Jackson Jackson when he heard his story. It was predictable that Jackson Jackson was going to recover the regalia at the end because of the kindness of the pawnbroker. The plot was linear as we were able to follow Jackson Jackson on his mission through the timestamps. The timestamps gave us more of an insight of what it is like to live a day in Jackson Jackson’s life, what he goes through to survive, the type of friends he has, and we also learned more about his internal conflicts which include solitude and alcoholism. The story has a determinate ending because Jackson Jackson recovered the regalia that he worked so hard for. The regalia ultimately gave Jackson Jackson a sense of identification, and he was able to fill a void of solitude. He knew that he represented the yellow bead in the regalia and by this means he was able to feel a connection between him and his