The Pawn

The story I picked is “what you pawn, I will redeem” by Sherman Alexie. I feel like this story related to me and past circumstances that have happened in my life. The story helps me to remember the general choices that I had to make in life. The hard choices that confronted me when growing up. The story brings two distinct ways, the adult way that surfaces with obligation and development and the youthful side that showcases the different adventures the main character has. One would consider…

Sherman Alexie’s “What You Pawn I Will Redeem” is about cultural oppression. In an important passage of the story, Jackson meets his friend Junior covered in vomit and the three Aleut cousins. This passage, along with the story’s resolution, contributes to an important theme. This main theme is that the best way for people to recover from cultural oppression is to take appropriate actions. The story suggests that there exists cultural oppression. When Jackson walks to the wharf, he meets…

Jackson Jackson, an American native, is a character in "What You Pawn I Will Redeem" by Sherman Alexie. Though he might seem to be a traditional literary hero, after analyzing him more thoroughly on how he makes his own decisions and acts, will lead us to how he actually is a character. Perhaps we should define what is a traditional literary hero? A traditional literary hero is a character who is a perfect character with little or no imperfections. Some examples of literary heroes are Superman…

I liked to ask questions and listen to people’s opinions on certain topics. Especially when, I posed a question and people are able to get into a deeper discussion on what I was trying to clarify. I remember specifically in one reading, “What You Pawn I Will Redeem,” by Sherman Alexie our class discussed the validity of the author. I remember because this was the first time our class made an initial hypothesis to prove or disprove whether the author was a reliable person to tell the story. Also…

One of the round and flat characters in “What You Pawn I Will Redeem” is the Pawnbroker. The pawnbroker has internal conflict in the beginning of the story. “That would be the right thing to do,” the pawnbroker said. “But I can’t afford to do the right thing. I paid a thousand dollars for this. I can’t just give away a thousand dollars”(Alexie). He wants to give Jackson back his grandmother’s regalia, but at the same time he doesn’t want to lose the money he spent on the regalia . The…

today’s world, people have the tendency to ignore the real meaning of what the media portrays. Whether a person enjoys what they see does not mean they do not have to analysis the biases that are been broadcasted in front of them. The article, “Reality Pawns: The New Money TV,” by Editor Nick Serpe explore the reality television in the context of a social and economic condition in the United States. Serpe discusses how the shows such as “Repo Games,” reflect worsening economic condition for…

like to be homeless, but there are few who truly understand what it is like. People have ideas in their heads of what it is like living on the street and like to pass judgement on what the homeless should be doing to improve their lives. In What You Pawn I Will Redeem, Sherman Alexie challenges these ideas and judgements with his portrayal of Jackson Jackson, a homeless Spokane Indian living on the streets of Seattle Washington. Like many people living on the streets, Jackson has lost his job,…

In “What You Pawn I Will Redeem” Sherman Alexie gives the reader insight into the struggles of identity endured by contemporary Native Americans. Alexie was born in 1966 and spent his childhood years on the Spokane Indian Reservation in northeast Washington. Before the forced resettlement and assimilation of the Native Americans, the Spokane Tribe was a proud nation that roamed the Pacific Northwest fishing, hunting, and camping. In 1881, President Hayes relocated the tribe to a small…

unstated throughout the whole story. Sometimes two stories that have similar characters express their identities in completely different ways. This happens between the short stories “What You Pawn I Will Redeem” by Sherman Alexie and “Sonny’s Blues” by James Baldwin. The protagonist Jackson squared in “What You Pawn I Will Redeem” his identity is expressed in such a manner that you feel like the author wanted to display to the readers that this guy was no good. While the author for “Sonny’s…

“WHOOO HOOOO!” cried a boy named Pawn who was in that band. The Pawnee tribe and people were a fierce, wonderful, and brave group. Pawn went inside a tipi and saw a picture of The Creator God. For some reason, he thought that she was a fraud and not true. He lost his mind and went back outside. “I don’t think The Creator God is what you all think she is along with the good spirit!” Pawn shouted. The crowd gasped with an Uh Oh look on their face. A bad thing about Pawn was that he did not…