What You Pawn I Will Redeem Analysis

n “What You Pawn I Will Redeem” by Sherman Alexie, the main character is a homeless Native American Indian who came to Seattle to go to college and quit after two semesters. Alexie creates a world where the protagonist seems to find help from every turn that he makes.
Setting
The setting is the 1990’s in Seattle. Jackson Jackson is a Spokane Indian. According to Jackson Squared, his "people have lived within a one-hundred-mile radius of Spokane, Washington, for ten thousand years." Several places are used as part of the setting: under the bridge, the pawn shop, an all-Indian bar.
Tone
The tone of the story spans a range of emotions. The character of Jackson determines the mood of the story. At times, he is humorous and even cheerful.
The writer of this story did not go into great length to explain these characters, but he didn’t need to, because the few words that he used to explain each one, were more than enough. There was Rose Sharron who “was over 7 feet tall if you measured effect, and about five feet if you measured physical” (Alexie 88). There was also Junior, who was described as a good-looking Indian, like the ones from the don’t litter, public service announcement commercials” (Alexie 88). Then there was Irene Muse who was wonderfully fat, and whose body felt like a large, warm, and soft breast” (Alexi 95). Not to mention a handfull of other great
Jackson’s conflict is internal conflict because he wants to save money to purchase his grandmother’s regalia from the pawnbroker, but he also wants to spend money on his fellow Indians and friends. For example, Jackson receives money throughout the story; “’I’m hoping, and I don’t know why I’m hoping it, but I hope you can turn thirty bucks into a thousand somehow.’ ‘I believe in magic.’ ‘I believe you’ll take my money and get drunk on it’” (Alexie 25). When he receives money, he always ends up spending it on alcohol and occasionally food, though he does share it with other Indians. Jackson is complex since he is generous with everybody, buying things for them, yet he steals from his friend to get more money. He is also a stereotypical homeless man; this claim can be seen by his actions in the story when he purchases liquor multiple times in the story. Jackson also is dynamic since he clearly changes because in the beginning he was just a homeless man with his friends trying to live day by day with nobody really paying attention to him, then at the end by stating that everybody stopped to watch him dance when towards the beginning he said he felt like he was disappearing. Jackson also clearly has conflict with man versus mother-nature and man versus man-made environment since he is homeless and a drunk. An example of man vs. mother-nature ; “’I was cold and sleepy,’ I said.