¶ … setting of Sherman Alexie's "What you pawn I will redeem." The story is set amongst the community of homeless Native Americans in Seattle, Washington. The story juxtaposes images of the tribal past with images of Indians in modern times. I explore the question of how this contrast enables Jackson Jackson's redemption of grandmother's regalia to be symbolic of his people's redemption as well as his own redemption. My understanding of the story shifted as a result. Rather than focusing on how Jackson viewed his life alone, I also examined the life of the other Indians around him, many of whom like Jackson have struggled with addiction-related issues.
The hardest part of the essay was narrowing down a topic, given there is so much rich material that can be discussed in the story. Jackson has many relationships with both Indians and non-Indians. The strength of the essay is that it examines the two sides of Jackson's fallible but likeable character; the weakness is that it is difficult to do justice to a story that deals with the plight of American Indians today in so few pages. I would like feedback about how to accomplish this yet still create a tightly-constructed essay.
Jackson is extremely articulate and intelligent but also an alcoholic. His scheme to make money to redeem his grandmother's legacy involves lottery scratch-off tickets and using the little money he has to buy alcohol for more 'inspiration.' Everywhere, there are reminders that Indians are haunting the streets, often with terrible problems with alcohol…
Sherman Alexie There is no denying the fact that Sherman Alexie is a writer of considerable fame. A number of his literary publications have been transferred into film, which is generally a more lucrative market than books. When a writer's work of fiction is made into a movie, it generally signifies that he or she has created something of significant cultural value -- the most valuable aspect of which is its
He believes he can regain some of it if he can buy the regalia, and when he does get the regalia, he dances into the street as if the spirit of his grandmother were within him. Jackson is not the only example of what has happened to the Native population, for his friends are also alcoholics or delude themselves that their ship will return one day. Different tribes are represented,
Frost, Hughes, Alexie The Meaning of "Home" in Frost's "Hired Hand," Hughes' "Landlord" and Alexie's "I Will Redeem" Robert Frost writes in "The Death of the Hired Hand," "Home is the place where, when you have to go there, / They have to take you in" (122-3). Implicit in these lines is the notion that "home" carries certain rules. "Home" is not just a place devoid of higher meaning, but an abstract
The scholarly heroine of the library set tale, entitled "The Search Engine," turns to books and literature, for the "huge number of books confirmed how much magic she'd been denied for most of her life, and now she hungrily wanted to read every book on every shelf. An impossible task, to be sure, Herculean in its exaggeration, but Corliss wanted to read herself to death," in a fashion that
While different views of the American experience, then, both of these stories and their authors are quite deserving of their place in the canon. Edwidge Danticant's "Seven" is similar to "The Third and Final Continent" in terms of plot; an immigrant man that as finally received his green card is preparing for the arrival of his wife. This story is as concerned with the meeting of the husband and wife
Tale as Told by another Character: Sweat - Zora Neale Hurston Sweat The spring came along with its flare of sunny afternoons in Florida on that particulate Sunday afternoon. For a given number of women in the small village populated by the black persons would be thinking of what the family would have for supper. However, for Delia Jones, she was still in bed, thinking of her previous life when she was
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