What You Pawn I Will Redeem was published in 2003 in a newspaper we know as The New Yorker. It was written by Sherman Alexie who also wrote Reservation Blues. Alexie wrote his short story on a man named Jackson Jackson, a native american who left his tribe and was now living on the streets of Seattle, who tells us about his grandmother's regalia he sees in the window of a pawn shop. Jackson faces many challenges throughout the story as he tries to get the regalia back. Through the story we learn of Jackson’s past as well as his internal and external struggles. Society pities those who have nothing and those who have nothing pitie society for having everything. Jackson Jackson was born on an Indian reserve in spokane but now lives in Seattle, …show more content…
He left his reserve in hopes of being like everyone; going to College, marrying a good women, raising good kids, and having a good job. Jackson wants to be normal, yet as he does what the other men his age do, dating, breaking a few hearts, taking classes, he feels unsatisfied. Jackson flunked out of university twenty-three years before we find him, claiming to have only been homeless six years yet being very good at it. He claims to know where the good free food is, which business owners let him use the nicer washrooms, and how to make friends. Jackson’s tone while addressing this story suggests that he thinks the readers are all white like the ones he sees every day. Not only is Jackson wary of white’s but he’s also wary of other natives depicting the image that they all make up stories like little pinocchios. Jackson has two friends that he counts on most; Junior who makes him “Jealous, jealous, jealous” and Rose of Sharon, a small woman with a large personality. He feels as if the three of them are against the world