What You Pawn I Will Redeem Summary

In Sherman Alexies’ short story, What You Pawn I Will Redeem, the protagonist Jackson Jackson narrates his journey to redeem himself. Jackson is a homeless Spokane Indian living in Seattle, Washington, that struggles with alcoholism. The objective of his journey is to win back his grandmother’s long stolen regalia from a pawnshop owner by raising one thousand dollars in just one day (Alexie 7). However, he struggles with spending money as soon as he can get it, and this makes it hard for him to achieve his goal. Throughout the story Jackson manages to make some money by the generosity of others, but he does not manage to earn the amount he needed to. Even though Jackson did not have the specified amount of money he is rewarded with the regalia

He shares his story about how he moved to Seattle, Washington, to attend college, but he flunked out and he “went crazy” (1). The story suggests that Jackson spiraled into alcoholism slowly as he lost sense of his identity, disappearing “piece by piece” (1). As a Native American that lived on the Spokane reservation, Jackson’s struggle began when he left for college in Settle, Washington. An internal struggle that led to alcoholism, and a loss of identity was perhaps caused because Jackson was not in a familiar environment. In this different environment Jackson may have felt out of place, and this slowly led him to losing his identity. When Jackson finds his grandmother’s stolen regalia, and he has the opportunity to get it back, he interprets the opportunity as a quest to regain a piece of his culture, and heritage

Most of the people he meets are kind to Jackson even though he is a homeless alcoholic. In the beginning of the story the pawnshop owner makes a deal with Jackson to buy the regalia for a price that would cost the owner a dollar, and he also gives him twenty dollars. The pawnshop owner does not have to make this deal with Jackson, but he tells Jackson, “That would be the moral thing to do in this case” (4). Jackson also acts kindly later in the story when he wins one hundred dollars from a lottery scratcher by giving twenty dollars to the cashier that he seems to know well. At first she is hesitant to accept the money from Jackson because of the circumstances, but Jackson explains, “No, it’s tribal. It’s an Indian thing. When you win, you’re supposed to share with your family” (11). Even though the two of them were not actually related, Jackson felt that they were, in a way, family. Towards the end of the story a police officer gives Jackson thirty dollars, and does not take him to the drunk tank because Jackson explains his quest to him. The police officer tells Jackson, “I’m giving it to you because I believe in what you believe” (19), and lets him go because of his faith in Jackson. All the good deeds done in this story are done for different reasons such as morality, tradition, and faith. The common reason why all these different