One would normally think of poverty as a disease that needs to be eradicated by all means possible; however the opposite is true for Jackson in Sherman Alexie’s, what you pawn, I will redeem. Instead of putting a lot effort to save every single coin he gets so that he can manage to buy back his grandmothers dancing regalia, Jackson chooses to spend it all on alcohol and friends. The little money he gets form people he spends all of it and he returns back to the original situation. Saving enough to get the $999 required is a hard task, but one that can be achieved with proper planning and discipline. His actions is a physical manifestation of the typical Indian poor boy growing up in a foreign country. Instead of focusing on how to make more, …show more content…
Jackson has failed as a students, husband and father. He has no contact with anyone from his past and the friends that he has are few and they tend to drift in and out of his life. “I’ve been homeless for six years now. If there’s such a thing as an effective homeless man, then I suppose I’m effective. Being homeless is probably the only thing I’ve ever been good at (Troyer, 2008). The poverty can be greatly associated with the friends that Jackson keeps. According to the text, according to Alexie (2003), “I wander the streets with a regular crew—my teammates, my defenders, my posse. It is Rose of Sharon, Junior, and me. We matter to each other if we don’t matter to anybody else.” All the money that Jackson makes in is trials to mange to buy the regalia is spend on his friends. The opportunities hurled at Jackson in trying to assist in his endeavor to get the money are all thwarted away by alcohol. “Rose of Sharon, Junior, and I carried our twenty-dollar bill and our five dollars in loose change over to the 7-Eleven and bought three bottles of imagination.” (Fletcher, 2006). This shows that the shopkeeper was quite concerned and wanted to help in any way to have Jackson and his family’s pride in the dance
Secretary of State Melvin Johnson walked up to congratulate them and they were cordial to him since he bit down on his pride and made a heartfelt apology to Jackson for all the pain the State Department caused him, even though he wasn’t in office when it happened. Of course, being a gentleman Jackson accepted the apology graciously and pointed out to the secretary he needed to make the same apology to the other two men, to which he agreed and went off in search of Lt. Carter and Sgt. Blackwater. At that moment, Jackson hoped Chief would be cool and not hit him when he made his apology, he didn’t need to get him out of the Marine Corps stockade this time for hitting the Secretary of State.
Jackson Jackson is sent on a quest to retrieve his beloved grandmother’s regalia in the short story, “What You Pawn I Will Redeem”. Instead of just calling the police to get the stolen regalia back from the pawn shop owner, Jackson wants to earn the thousand dollars to buy back the lost heirloom. Along the way, he is met with a few road blocks that try to stray Jackson from his true goal. Sherman Alexie succeeds at humanizing a Native American character through the use of stereotypes, while showing his progression towards getting back his grandmother’s regalia.
Sherman Alexie writes in his story, What You Pawn I Will Redeem about a homeless Salish Indian named Jackson Jackson. Alexie takes readers on Jackson’s journey to acquire enough money to purchase back his grandmother’s stolen powwow regalia. Throughout the story, Jackson’s relationships with other charters ultimately define his own character. Alexie, a well know Native American author tells an all too common tale of poverty and substance abuse in the Native American community through his character Jackson. The major character flaw of Jackson is his kindness, which ultimately becomes his greatest asset when fate allows him to purchase back his grandmother’s powwow regalia from a pawn broker for only five dollars.
Sherman Alexie uses characterization to show how flawed but yet how hopeful one can be even with as little as 2.50$ in their pocket. At first, Jackson’s character is seen as lazy and illogical based on how he decides to spend the money he receives and earns. Throughout the story, Jackson spends every penny he comes across as soon as he gets it which leaves the reader frustrated with his never ending broke cycle. Jackson is lucky enough to win a hundred dollars through the lottery tickets and unconsciously returns twenty back to Mary. The main character explains that “when you win, you’re supposed to share with your family” (Alexie,8). This quote allows us to understand that Jackson is a modest and caring person who always insists on giving back to others even if he’s poor himself. His generosity towards Mary at the Korean grocery store shows us that he isn’t greedy since he insists on giving back a portion of his winnings. This demonstrates us that the small gestures he makes come out of the willingness of his warm heart and selflessness. Later on, Jackson goes to the Big Heart’s bar and spends his eighty dollars to buy drinks for all of his Indian ‘cousins’ instead of finding a way to flip it into a thousand dollars. Secondly, Jackson Jackson uses all of the officers money to pay for breakfast with the hungry Aleuts. Jackson tells the waitress the following: “Don't ask me rhetorical questions. They scare me”(Alexie, 14). This quote explains how the main character doesn’t
As I read through the final chapters of Beam’s book, I felt both hopeful and disheartened. I feel that the original premise or goal of the child welfare system is to ensure that children have a family. A family that is capable of appropriately caring for a child and providing them with unconditional love. Pat O’ Brien and Chester Jackson’s program, You Gotta Believe! resonates with this goal. There homeless prevention program addresses a principle issue of foster care that the system has not properly addressed, so it seems. According to Pat, an estimated 50 percent of the current homeless population consists of individuals that were once in care. Pat and Jackson saw a need to address the damaging aspects of growing up in care, by implementing
One day, in Miami there was a homeless man looking for change on the ground. Some kind man named Tyler saw him and went over to talk to him , Tyler started a conversation with him and got to know him and his story. Tyler learned that he was a veteran of the United States Marine Cor. he had came home from deployment and lost contact with his family and now can’t find a job. He’s been homeless for two years and eight months now and can’t find any help. He lost contact with family and has tried everything he could to find them. Tyler decided to give the man all the cash he had on him. Then, took him to the store and bought him a pay phone to stay in touch. The homeless mans name was Rob and his hometown was Collins, Ga. With the money Tyler gave
The war to end homelessness seems to not have an end, although there are so many great organizations and communities working tirelessly to end homelessness. At this moment in time, there is no doubt that some communities are trying to end chronic homelessness. A chronically homeless individual is someone with a disability who lives in a place not meant for human habituation. Many communities create great programs to reduce the number of homeless individuals. In addition to that, the communities attempt to save the state several thousands of dollars that might have to be spent on those individuals that might need medical assistance or when problems with law enforcement
Today's world is filled with both great tragedy and abundant joy. In a densely populated metropolis like New York City, on a quick walk down a street you encounter homeless people walking among the most prosperous. Unfortunately, nine times out of ten the prosperous person will trudge straight past the one in need without a second thought. A serious problem arises when this happens continually. The problem worsens when you enter a different neighborhood and the well-to-do are far from sight. Many neighborhoods are inhabited only by the most hopeless of poverty - ridden people while others downtown or across the park do not care, or are glad to be separated from them. Such is the problem in New York City today and in Mott Haven in Jonathan
Homeless are people who do not have the basic necessities to survive which leads them to living on the streets. In places like Santa Monica there are many homeless and rather than the city addressing the problem they are just making it like it doesn’t exist. Forcing the homeless to fix the situation when they are not able to get through. Middle class Santa Monica residents see the homeless as a burden that they wish they did not exist. Since, they continue to be a dilemma some have even considered being homeless should be a crime since they continue to invade public space. The way we treat the issue is made to seem as
Getting a handle on homelessness of African-Americans and other minorities is even more challenging. "Even though the majority of the homeless still appear to be white, what we find is that African-Americans are over represented in the homeless population," said Nan Roman, director of the National Alliance to End Homelessness. Roman and others who work with the homeless say blacks make up anywhere between 30 percent to 40 percent of the nation's
One of the major issues nationally is people who are becoming homeless and the fact that one third of the homeless population have served this country, which is around 195,000 veterans. Thats more than the death count of the Vietnam war. Most homeless people are male about three percent are women, most are single and come from disadvantaged backgrounds. It's a major issue, this is America there should not be thousands of people across this nation that are homeless especially our veterans. They gave their life to this country; I think in return we could at least keep them in a home somewhere. It wouldn't be so bad if their was actually enough shelters to occupy all of the people that are homeless but the ratio to
In 1788 Captain James Cook and the first fleet came with soldiers and convicts that had came to colonize Australia. The colonization had lead to the encountering of problems with the indigenous people including the battles for resources, defence for tribal land and the fight for racism. This out break turned into a war zone between the Indigenous people and the European and it was justified that the Indigenous people did resist the British. These issues between the European and the indigenous had both long-term affects and short-term affects on the growth of the Australian culture. There were a number of reasons for conflict between Europeans and indigenous Australians.
Stupid journal. Stupid Mathias. I probably shouldn't write about how I thought Mathias was a total douche. Yes, I should erase that part.
In Charles Dickens novel, Oliver Twist, Dickens portrays the hardships of people in poverty during the Victorian era through Oliver and various characters throughout the novel. Oliver is born into a workhouse with no name where he is starved, beaten, and treated like a prisoner during the first ten years of his life. Dickens makes all his characters in the novel “…either a jailor or a prisoner, like Dickens himself both, the author and his turn key” (Lepore). Two characters that are both exemplified as prisoners throughout the novel are Oliver and Nancy. During Oliver’s younger years, he is under both the Parochial and Fagin’s reign. As for Nancy, she is depicted in certain ways as a
The homeless stand down was an eye-opener experience for me. I had the opportunity to interact with several individuals, and one family. Initially I conducted some interviews with them to help complete the questionnaire; and the remainder of the time, I escorted the individuals and helped them choose items that were necessary for them. As I talked to each of them, I realized that the present state of these individuals were a product of the current economic situations. According to the National Homeless Coalition (2009), work factors are one of the many reasons why individuals are homeless. One of the individuals that I spoke to informed me that he was working a regular nine to five job at a construction site, but now due to the