Analysis Of What You Pawn I Will Redeem

“What You Pawn I Will Redeem” is the story of homeless financially strapped Spokane Indian man named Jackson Jackson faced with the task of coming up with nearly one thousand dollars in twenty-four hours in order to reclaim his grandmother’s stolen regalia from a pawn shop. On the way to raise money, he meets with generosity, compassion, kindness, sympathy. “What You Pawn I Will Redeem” is a story of generosity. At the beginning of the story, Jackson passes by a pawn shop and sees a regalia that belonged to his grandmother. It was stolen from her almost fifty years ago. He has seen photos of the outfit and is sure that this is the same one; he claims that it had been stolen. He proves that to the pawn shop owner. He shows his generosity by making no police complaint against pawn broker. Later, pawn broker tells Jackson that he will give him the regalia if he pays him nine hundred ninety-nine dollars within twenty-four hours. He feels bad about the situation, but he does not want to give the right away because he just paid a large amount on it. The pawn shop owner, gave him twenty dollars as sympathetic to his plight.
After returning from the pawn shop, they reached 7-eleven where he buys drinks for his fellow homeless friends. They were thinking hard to get back his grandmother regalia. He is generous to his friends to spend all money to buy
three drinks for them (174). After Jackson walks to the nonprofit agency designed to help poor and homeless. He has memorized the agency’s bureaucratic mission statement and sometime goes there to get newspapers to then sell on the streets. The agency’s Big boss is a kind man, cannot arrange for Jackson to acquire the hundreds of newspapers, he would need to sell in order to make money. But he gave him fifty free newspapers to sell so that Jackson fulfill his mission, which he now considers a kind of personal quest (176-177). The policeman that wakes him up from the railroad tracks, knows Jackson. He wants to leave him in rehab, but Jackson does not want to go there. He is very compassionate to him. After hearing his story about losing regalia, he gave him some money (189). At the Korean grocery store, he bought a cigar and two scratch lottery tickets. He liked the key who was the daughter of the owner. He wins one hundred dollars on lottery scratcher and gives twenty dollars to the teller key as a gesture of kindness. Because he treats her like a family member (181). Then he walked into a Big Heart Indian bar in south downtown. Most Indian people visit there. Where he buys the large group of native American drinks. He is generous with his money. He spends all his winning of lotto to celebrate with others and ends up getting drunk (182). Sitting next to junior, Jackson reminisces about his grandmother who was a nurse at a military hospital in Sydney, Australia. She was a kind woman who healed and comforted American and Australian soldiers (178-179).
Jackson knows how to make friends. Some store employees who are Jackson friends, allows him to use their bathrooms. They are so kind, who let him use the employee clean bathroom (170). After getting some money from a policeman, he met three Aleut men on a bench who were waiting their ship. He listened some ceremonial songs from them to memorize his grandmother. He takes out them for breakfast where he ordered enough food and gave a good tip to waitress (191-192). Finally, he returns to the pawn shop. The pawn shop owner did not expect he would come back to get regalia. He knows how he would work hard to raise money. He gave him regalia for fewer dollars and tell him that his determination to get it back is more important than the money (194). Throughout the journey to raise money, Jackson met with different kinds of generosity: sympathy, compassion, kindness.
Generosity is shown, when Jackson buys shots for all the Indians with his lotto winnings in Big Heart Indian bar in south downtown (182). Sympathy can be seen, when the pawnbroker returns the regalia to him without full payment to see his dedication to get back it (194). Compassion is shown, when the police officer William gave him some money to fulfil his mission (189). Kindness is there. The agency Big Boss gave him free newspapers to sell (176-177). “What You Pawn I Will Redeem” is a story of
generosity.