In conclusion, Major Jackson poem “Mighty Pawns” uses imagery and symbols portray a hopeful child, using his intelligence to succeed; even when his circumstances are against him. Jackson emphasizes the challenging of traditional beliefs and breaking stereotypes throughout the poem. With Earl’s story, he is able to give poverty more depth, instead of marginalising it with a broad stereotype. Thus forcing the audience to rethink their ideas on…
“What You Pawn I Will Redeem” by Sherman Alexie is the story of the mission of the humorous character of Jackson Jackson. Jackson Jackson is a homeless Spokane Indian in search of money to repurchase the regalia that was stolen from his grandmother about 50 years ago. He embarks on a journey to collect 999 dollars, the amount of money the pawnbroker is willing to sell the regalia for. Throughout this journey, the humorous character of Jackson Jackson unravels to reveal a man of culture. Although Jackson has left Spokane to attend college in Seattle, his Indian culture remains an important part of him. He constantly speaks of his Indian beliefs, ways, and customs. In the opening sentence, Jackson immediately acknowledges that he is Indian and differentiates his race from “hungry white folks” (8). As the story progresses, he uses many other statements to distinguish his race; he explains that Indians “don’t want to be perfect, because only God is perfect” (11). This distinctive Indian belief is used to prove that the regalia indeed belonged to his grandmother. Jackson’s culture also proves to play a substantial part in his decisions in regards to the money he needs for the regalia. Whenever he happens to gather a bit of money, it is always squandered almost immediately after, due to Jackson’s over-abundant sense of generosity. After winning one hundred dollars from a lottery ticket, he gives a fifth of it to Mary, the cashier in the Korean grocery store. At first, Mary refuses, but Jackson insists that it is, yet again, “an Indian thing” (18). His cultural sharing tendency also leads him to spend the remaining eighty dollars on whiskey shots for everyone at the bar. One can say that his decision was driven by alcoholism as well as ignorance, but the sense of family among those of his own race also impacted him when he decided that “[he] and his cousins [were] going to be drinking eighty shots” (18). Clearly,…
In Sherman Alexie's, “What You Pawn I Will Redeem,” an alcoholic, homeless Indian sets out on a quest to win back his grandmother's stolen regalia. The main character and narrator, Jackson Jackson, stumbles upon his stolen family heirloom in a pawnshop window and proceeds to spend the next day trying to earn enough money to buy it back. The pawnshop owner tells him he will sell it back to him for $999 and that he has 24 hours to come up with the money. Jackson gains small amounts of money here and there, but always ends up spending it on alcohol or food. When the 24 hours is up, Jackson returns to the pawnshop with only $5 to spend. The shop owner asks him if he worked hard for the small amount of money he had, Jackson tells him, “Yes,” and the owner gives him the regalia. Alexie…
“ That’s okay ma’am, you’ll get to know the country folks after a while. The Cunninghams never took anything they can’t pay back (26).” Walter doesn’t have the money because he is poor and has no way to pay her back so he didn’t take the quarter. Walters father, Walter Cunningham Sr. , once needed help from atticus and could not pay him back in money so he would stop by and deliver a variety of goods as payment.…
2. Jackson had only 24 hours to earn the money required to buy back his grandmother’s regalia from the pawnbroker. The author didn’t start counting time until Jackson left the pawnshop with the $20 that the pawnbroker gave him. From receiving newspapers to sell at 4p.m., to buying everyone in the Indian bar a drink at 9 p.m. we see how Jackson spends the 24 hours he has to get the regalia back.…
In an article published in the Our Brother In Red. newspaper, an author from the Indian Missions Conference penned an article expressing his appreciation and adoration for several of their “friends” from Tennessee, as well as expressing kindness towards baptist ministers in their community in St. Louis (where he mentions that they were detained to). He goes on to express a few outrages that these ministers wish for them to publicly express their sins to the community, when members of the tribe would rather just acknowledge their wrongdoings and push forward to better behavior in their lives. In the context, he is expressing that he and his tribe members had no intention of being a cog in the charges brought upon one of the baptists ministers.…
children´s lives. For young adults, those fairy tale characters give away to darker characters and more realistic situations. However, what do they all have in common? They live in short stories. Two stories that are interesting are ¨Thank you Ma'am¨ by Langston Hughes and ¨The Sniper¨ by Liam O ´Flaherty. Both center around young boys who are having hard times in life. Roger in ¨Thank you Ma'am¨ tries stealing Mrs. Louella Bates purse. The sniper is fighting in the war for others. While there are some obvious similarities, both authors approach these stories, specifically the characters, tone and point of view, in different ways.…
The entire story was about Jackson making money in order to buy back a regalia from a pawn shop. Jackson was told that he had till noon the next day to make the money he needed in order to buy the regalia back, and…
He purchased the stolen regalia and put it up for sale at the pawn shop. He faces a man vs. self conflict because he felt sad and sorry for taking advantage of Jackson Jackson’s disadvantage when he found out that particular regalia was stolen from Jackson Jackson’s grandmother. On the other hand he couldn’t afford to lose the one thousand dollars he paid for it. He is not your stereotypical pawnbroker as he gave Jackson Jackson the opportunity to purchase the regalia for less than what he paid for it. “’I’d sell it to you for a thousand dollars if you had it. Heck, to make it fair, I’d sell it to you for nine hundred and ninety-nine dollars. I’d lose a dollar. That would be the moral thing to do in this case. To lose a dollar would be the right thing’” (Alexie 12). Pawnbrokers are known to buy things for cheap and sell them at a higher price to make a profit. He not only gave Jackson Jackson the opportunity but he also got him started by giving him twenty dollars. To conclude, he eventually gave the regalia back to Jackson Jackson even though Jackson Jackson didn’t have the money for it. “’I don’t want your money’” (Alexie 28). The man vs. self conflict was not resolved even though he gave the regalia to Jackson Jackson, he still ended up losing one thousand dollars. He experiences fundamental character change because even though he gave the regalia to Jackson Jackson, he had always felt it was the right thing to do from the beginning. He may have lost one thousand dollars, but he gained satisfaction knowing that the regalia went back to its rightful owner. The pawnbroker in this story is a sympathetic character. He was nice to Jackson Jackson from the beginning and a very good…
I believe that the theme of the story is that no matter where you go in your life you never forget or really give up where you come from. Jackson Jackson has been homeless for six years away from his family in Spokane yet as soon as he saw his grandmother’s regalia in the window he knew it was hers even before they find the yellow bead. It then becomes his mission to gather the money to get it back. The regalia is a piece of him and the life he left behind. Even though he does not come up with the money to buy it back he still ends up with it in the…
Capitalism is the root of exploitation all around the world especially the colonized countries. Domitila Barrios De Chungara, a Bolivian woman, along with Moema Viezzer wrote the book Let Me Speak to illustrate and provide a deep understanding of the revolution and the living conditions of the miners and their family in Bolivia. Capitalism is an economic and political system which is central to modernism and ruled the countries that depended on industrialized countries like the United States. Domitila Barrios De Chungara is a courageous woman who sacrifices so much in the struggle to better the condition of the poor working class. Chungara despises the exploitative and repressive aspect of capitalism and unites her compañeras and their compañeros…
Pawn Stars is a show set in a pawnshop in Las Vegas. The show goes through a day in the life of the workers. It shows all of the interesting people and items that walk through the door, and tells us a little of the history behind them. In the show pawn stars the coding and other elements in the background have a very profound effect on the show as a whole. All of the elements of the show can be broken down by the TAP model, which has three main elements text, production and audience.…
The narrator in this story was a homeless drunk native. He told us that drunken natives are storytellers and liars and mythmakers. So was some of the stories he was telling us a lie? “Her name was Agnes, and she died of breast cancer when I was fourteen” (73). “When I was sixteen, my grandmother told me a story about World War II” (76). Was this all a lie or was the author trying to show that this man was really drunk and couldn’t remember everything from back then. Or proving his own point in the story when he said drunken natives were liars. I also was thinking that this man would spend mostly all of his earnings on things like lottery tickets, alcohol, and food than to rather save it and buy his grandmother’s regalia. Did he really want that regalia? Or did he just use every opportunity he got the money to buy something different. When he did get those things though, he did share his and got other people in need things as well. Like when he bought everyone five shots and when he paid for the Aleuts to have some breakfast. He did give back to his people. Those are very traditional and moral things to do as a Native American. Just like when he gave the twenty dollars to Kay. He may not have his priorities all together and in line but he does try and do the right thing when he has the chance to. I also liked when he had the opportunity to go to the authorities on the stolen regalia, he turned the policeman down because he knew it wasn’t the pawn man’s fault the clothing was stolen and it was his job to get it back on his own. I loved the end when he put the regalia on and started dancing. He said everyone stopped and starred. Now that part can be true because Native dances aren’t your typical dances that you see every day and people who have never seen it before would be take it by surprise. They are beautiful dances that catch a lot of…
A couple of my friends have asked why I write so much. I guess they have seen some of my articles and do not understand why I keep writing. I told them I was trying to give something back to the clowning industry. As you might suspect they did not understand and asked what I meant.…
The plot of the story is unfolded around the Bixby family, so the story opens with the description of this family. The author from the very start lays bare that Mrs. Bixby has a lover whom she constantly visits in Baltimore. Also the reader is informed that her husband has no idea about this. Then the events of the story are developed swiftly. In the complication the reader informed that Mrs. Bixby got a mink coat from her lover Colonel as a farewell gift. Further the story provides us with the information that she didn’t know how to appear in front of her husband in this coat. So she decided to hand this coat in to the pawnbroker for fifty dollars, explaining it by the fact that she’d lost her purse and she needed money. But the fact was that she demanded the pawn-ticket which had no name and no address in order to say her husband that she had found it on the back seat of the taxi. The starting point of culmination was when Mrs. Bixby’s husband phoned her and announced that he had got that thing from the pawnbroker’s and that she had to come up to his office to see it. Also he added that the thing was exactly for her. A well-defined beginning and a series of closely connected events…