Sherman Alexie's Story Of Jackson: A Native American Hero

confirms that he has. Jackson says of the pawnshop owner, “He closed his eyes and thought harder about the possibilities. Then he stepped back into the room and returned with my grandmother’s regalia” (Alexie) then the pawnshop owner gives Jackson his grandmother’s regalia stating that he won it back. Jackson states when he takes the regalia back, “Do you know how many good men live in this world? Too many to count!” This is significant because Jackson himself is a good man. He is an unlikely hero, when he was accumulating money to buy back his grandmother’s regalia, he was helping others that crossed his path, the Aleut Indians, Mary from the Korean grocery store, and his Indian cousins in the bar. Additionally, nearly every person he encountered returned the kindness to him. Winning the regalia back means that Jackson has won back what has been missing for him, his identity. Jackson was lost for
But Jackson Jackson is the hero that comes along and redeems Native Americans when he reclaims his family heirloom and regains his identity, he is no longer the man that once said, “Piece by piece, I disappeared. I’ve been disappearing ever since” (Alexie). In Sherman Alexie’s “What You Pawn I Will Redeem”, protagonist Jackson Jackson is not the typical hero but he is a hero nonetheless as a result of the Hero’s Journey, as explicated by Joseph Campbell, that he goes on to reclaim a family heirloom, his grandmother’s regalia. He traverses all over Seattle trying to complete his quest, however it seems like he does not make much progress toward actually completing his quest due to distractions and personal demons; but in the end, it is the journey itself, the journey of self-identity and redeeming his culture that is much more important than the