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…
The story begins with five children attempting to appease their grandmother to sign their report card due to their bad grades. Before grandmother will sign it, she tells them the story of Josiah to teach them a lesson. Josiah 's story is about him leaving home after his mother died and his father gives him his inheritance to do whatever he feels he needs to do in order to find himself. He returns home and his father is overjoyed, but Josiah 's brother and sister have disowned him as their brother. Josiah now has to prove to his siblings that he is still one of them and does whatever his brother wants in order to bring his family back together.…
The last theme that can be identified through the story is that as long as people are kind…
I really enjoyed the story “What you pawn I will redeem” by Sherman Alexie. What made it so enjoyable for me, was not only Jackson who is the main character but also the friends and cousins which were mentioned throughout this story. This story had great characters and a very great story line. Thanks to the main character I got to experience firsthand what it like is to be, not only homeless, but also an alcoholic. During this entire story I felt sorry for Jackson because he was trying his best to get the money for his grandmother’s regalia who passed away and he did not know how to get the money.…
The theme of Miracle on 49th Street is that no matter what happened in the past, reform is always possible. The message is shown in the end of the story when Josh finally realizes that he had previously been a selfish person and that he could change by accepting Molly as his daughter. This theme also connects to me. For example, when I was younger I didn’t listen to my parents when they advised me on how to get better at violin. However, now I have changed and become much better by listening to them. The theme that reform is always possible is an important life lesson to think…
“In this bright future you can’t forget your past.” Sweet, simple, and to the point was this quote said by Jamaican reggae artist Bob Marley. The major theme of this movie is returning to the past to understand your future. In the beginning of the film the protagonist starts off as Mona, a self-centered model oblivious to her surroundings, and its importance. She stood on the very ground where many of our ancestors were chained and held captive until voyage, yet all she did was smile inartistically into the camera. Later while exploring she found herself trapped in a slave trade, and she became delirious. As the slave masters proceeded to pull her back into the dungeon for branding she screamed “I’m not like them, I am not one of them”. I find that in today’s society without blatantly screaming it, the African American culture is doing just that, separating ourselves so we’re not like them.…
‘What You Pawn I Will Redeem’ written by Sherman Alexie, tells a story of a homeless man who is struggling with identity issues and reminisces about much of his culture. Jackson Jackson, the main character, is a round and flat character, showing characteristics of both. 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. Through Sherman’s short story we can see that community, is a recurring theme, shown when Jackson Jackson states, “Indians like to belong, so we all pretended to be cousins” (Alexie 37). This is exhibited not only by the Indian community that is ever present, but in other characters…
The quilts were a symbol of their African-American Heritage, these quilts meant a lot to their…
The primary theme of the story is that a good person (like Phoenix) will do her duty and fulfill her obligations no matter how hard it is to do so. She really has a hard time getting to town, but she will do it because her grandson needs her – she is all the family he has.…
I found Sherman Alexie’s “What You Pawn I Will Redeem” particularly interesting in terms of style and voice. The narrator seems very nonchalant about all of the events that occur in the story. The main premise is that the narrator, Jackson, a homeless Native American, finds his grandmother’s regalia in a pawnshop and aims to buy it back from the owner. He can buy the regalia back for a thousand dollars, so he sets off to try and make the money.…
Initially, the story seems to be about one black boy's struggle to get ahead in a predominately white society. He tries to accomplish this goal by adhering to his grandfather's dying words. His grandfather told him to "live with your head in the lion's mouth. I want you to overcome em with yeses, undermine em with grins, agree em to death and destruction, let em swoller you till they vomit or bust wide open". In other words, his grandfather was telling him to conform to the white peoples way of life in order to get ahead. I believe that the story had…
I interpret the theme of the novel to be, to never lose hope. In the novel, when the character lose hope they dont have long left. The father of the novel had traveled to the ocean, which was a main source of hope for him, when he reached the ocean and saw that it too was destroyed like the rest of the world he soon died he became…
For a book that is a must read in class, Papa Jack: Jack Johnson and the Era of White Hopes is a book that really is a must read. I remember hearing the term about giving someone a Jack Johnson, but I never knew where the term came from. For example, they use this saying in Anchorman and now that I know who the saying is about, I find it to be even funnier. Anyway, if you are someone who likes sports or history of sports, then you should read Jack: Jack Johnson and the Era of White Hopes because it gives a description as to how a young African American came to rise to the top at a time where this was unheard of. This is almost like an underdog story, but it turned out that Jack Johnson was the best regardless of this skin color.…
gets to the end of the story, he finds just the opposite to be true. Jackson shows every day…
The film's theme focuses largely on the inner struggle of Dre. The young boy must adjust to a country with a foreign language, and a completely different culture and a city where he has almost no friends. When he is exposed to physical…