Analysis of Sherman Alexie - Mickey Green March 3 2008...

Mickey Green
March 3, 2008
Analytical Paper
What You Pawn I Will Redeem: Analysis
In the short story, “What You Pawn I Will Redeem,” by Sherman Alexie, a homeless
Indian, Jackson Jackson, goes on a journey to reclaim his grandmother’s stolen powwow regalia
from a Seattle pawnshop by trying to raise $999. The story, which is told over the period of
twenty-four hours, illustrates Alexie’s concern with the Indian search for identity and the
inherent universal trait of goodness in people.
Jackson begins his story by telling us that he is homeless. “One day you have a home
and the next you don’t” (Alexie 1). Jackson moved to Seattle for college, but failed after two
semesters, and then worked various blue-collar jobs. In Jackson’s opinion, the only thing he is
good at is being homeless; essentially, being homeless is Jackson’s occupation. He knows where
to get free food, how to get around Seattle, and in which restaurants and stores to use the private
bathroom. Jackson is friends with two other homeless Indian people, Rose of Sharon and Junior,
who he describes as “my teammates, my defenders, my posse” (Alexie 1). Jackson spends most
of his day either pan-handling or drinking with his friends.
According to Jackson, most of the Indians from the Northwest region come from Alaska
on fishing boats. Once they come ashore they tend to squander their hard earned money in the
Indian bars and eventually go “broke and broker” (Alexie 2). Jackson himself is a Spokane
Indian, whose people have lived within a hundred-mile radius of Spokane for more than ten
thousand years.