Sherman Alexie's Short Story 'What You Pawn I Will Redeem'

Authors write for many reasons; most often because they want to tell a story. This is definitely the case with Sherman Alexie, “a poet, fiction writer, and filmmaker known for witty and frank explorations of the lives of contemporary Native Americans.” He grew up on the Spokane and Coeur D’Alene Indian Reservations, and has devoted much of his adult life to telling stories of his life there. Alexie expertly uses language and rhetorical devices to convey the intensity and value of his experiences.

The homeless narrator of the short story "What You Pawn I will Redeem" by Sherman Alexie is an intelligent, articulate man who has fallen into the trap of alcoholism and despair. He believes that he has no future and no identity in a city filled with homeless, cast-off Indians. No one takes notice of him, anymore, he says, although he does seem to have some friends, including a policeman who asks Jackson Jackson at one point why he is wasting his life away. However, the policeman a problem with addiction himself, in the form of sweets he shouldn't be eating because of his diabetes and weight problem. Although Jackson has a sharp sense of humor, he seems unable to 'follow through' with anything. At the beginning of the story, when trying to redeem his grandmother's regalia from a pawn shop, the first thing he does is purchase 'liquid courage' (alcohol) with the little money he possesses. But some of the money he manages to gain and lose over the course of the narrative he spends in compassionate ways, such as when he buys some food for his fellow Indians.

He says, “A little Indian boy teaches himself to read at an early age and advances quickly…if he’d been anything but an Indian boy living on a reservation he might have been called a prodigy. But he was an Indian boy living on the reservation and is simply an oddity.”(Alexie, par. 5). This particular quote is unique to pathos because it’s in third person point of view, whereas the rest of the essay is in first person point of view. Using this technique makes the audience feel sympathetic towards Alexie by comparing to non-Indians, who obviously have a notable advantage when it comes to status and privilege. He wants to be aware that it’s not typical for Native Americans to be as educated and successful as he became. It takes a lot of effort and dedication to be successful and treated as an equal in such a critical world. Closer to the end of the essay he says, “I read my books late into the night, until I could barely keep my eyes open. I read books at recess, then during lunch, and in the few minutes left after I had finished my classroom assignments.”(Alexie, par. 7) This further explains his effort as well as summing up his dedication and perseverance to changing the stereotype placed on Indians that live on reservations. His bond with books was so influential and he describes that bond successfully. Both quotes assist the reader in engaging with the story and convincing them on an emotional

Alexie’s narrator describes a story of assumption and discrimination through not only the thoughts of the narrator and his life, but also how the narrator explains his thoughts and the diction he uses as he recalls certain moments. Throughout the passage, the narrator demonstrates how isolated he is, not only in the country where hia people are shunned, but also with others that are in a situation similar to his. Not only is there a feeling of loneliness and isolation, but also guilt of relation to how Indians are being treated today. Through stories of realistic fiction, Alexie addresses serious issues that others fail to.

The key rhetorical device that Alexie used was pathos in order to cause the reader to feel some emotion of pity, sympathy, and sorrow. This is used towards the middle when he explains the struggle he had to face at a young age when teaching himself how to read and explains how others thought of Indians with this capability, he then writes, “A smart Indian is a dangerous person, widely feared and ridiculed by Indians and non-Indian alike. They wanted me to stay quiet

Alexie wants to show how he is affected by racism in his time and how even though there have been laws passed not to discriminate against people. Whenever police brutality is a main issue in today's era, then that means that racism has not been resolved. Alexie is proving the issue and proving that it has permanently scarred people to where they can’t fall asleep knowing they will be okay in the morning. Whereas the people that are causing this to people of colored decent, sleep as if nothing had happened to them and they are not even realizing how much hurt they are causing other people.

Alexie was born with hydrocephalus (water on the brain). When he was 6 months old, he had an operation that could have made him mentally retarded. He was raised on the Spokane Indian Reservation in Wellpinit, Washington. He spent a lot of his time reading at the school library. At the age of 8, he went to Reardan High School, 32 miles from the reservation. He did well in highschool and then attended the Spokane's Jesuit Gonzaga University in 1985. There, he was pressured to do well and started to follow in the alcoholic footsteps

King claims that reading extensively makes for a better writer as through good and bad literature allows a writer to reflect on his own writing and improve his style. Yet Alexie rather is empowered quite differently by the knowledge he gains in reading literature. Alexie went against the stereotype for Indians at the time which still affects not only Indians but non-Indians as well. He is trying to make a point as to why he did not fail in the non-Indian world and that he deserved to succeed given how desperate he felt at times yet he did not accept fate given that he was considered “dangerous” (17). In doing so he works to change and save the lives of Indian kids but is unable to do so for all of them. He says, “They stare out the window. They refuse and resist. ‘Books,’ I say to them. ‘Books,’ I say” (18). Though the idea of empowerment may not be the same, it came from one source – books. This is how “a novel like The Grapes of Wrath may fill a new writer with feelings to…work harder and aim higher” (222), according to King, while a young Alexie “read “Grapes of Wrath” in kindergarten when other children are struggling through “Dick and Jane”” (17). Furthermore, Alexie stood out in a society which rather put him down for his race, which is not an equal comparison to how King stands out for social norms where he would rather read a novel “at meals” which “is considered

Despite these ignorant accusations, Alexie refused to not only be a statistic within his community, but a failure as well. This is shown as he wrote, “I refused to fail. I was smart. I was arrogant. I was lucky. I read books late into the night, until I could barely keep my eyes open” (pg. 17). He jumped at the chance to read anything in his tracks, giving him the opportunity to expand his mind and knowledge base. He fought with his classmates on a daily basis because they expected him to stay silent if questions were asked in class. Alexie refused to do so; he bypassed his classmates intellectually and would not let anyone make him feel inferior.

Row, in “ Without Reservation” emphasizes that Alexie is a storyteller and not a prose fiction writer. A story teller, he defines, has work that, “... contains, openly or covertly, something useful …” (Row 1). Row goes on by giving evidence to why Alexie is a storyteller, and not your usual Indian writer. As he explains, Alexie reinstates the fragmented and ruptured Indian life instead of the political topics associated with them. With this idea in mind, Row believes that Alexie instills this behavior in his writing to give way for his sharp moral endings. These genuine moral endings, installment of stereotypes and Indian beliefs with consequences

In Sherman Alexie’s novel, “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian,” the textbook in his class symbolized the struggle, sorrow and aggravation , as well as the hope that Arnold Junior and other Indians possess in the reservation. First, the textbook resembles struggle in the reservation for decades. For example, “written on the inside front cover: This book belongs to Agnes Adams(30),” then adds, “Agnes Adams is my mother(30).” After finding out the book belonged to his mother, he then knew the books and learning material did not update for decades, feeling that they would end up exactly like their unsuccessful or alcoholic parents.

The non-Indians and Indians alike alienated young Alexie at school. In order to conform to subservient expectations, smart Indian children were bullied into not actively talking or participating in class further emphasizing “Indian children who were expected to be stupid” (Alexie). Teachers would ignore the peer pressuring and bullying happening around them. Because the non-Indians actively denied the Indian kids of participating in school, they could not assimilate. Despite the persistence of non-Indians and Indians to deny Alexie the right to learn, he persevered and overcame adversity. His father inspired him “My father loved books, and since I loved my father with an aching devotion, I decided to love books as well” paving the road to the rest of his life (Alexie). Alexie assimilated to the American way of life, but he did not forget his roots. Contrary to what he originally thought the direction his life was heading toward,

This gives the illusion that these two authors are from two different walks of life. Finally, their paths to becoming great writers were very different. Alexie started his education in hopes to be a pediatrician and it wasn’t till a poetry workshop that made him change his mind. Welty talks about a profound voice that became a passion and I find it hard to believe she ever wanted to do anything else (although I am not for

His portrayal of Native American experiences is praised by critics and scholars as realistic with regard to resistance of mainstream America. He asks three questions during the creation of a literary work, which include what it means to be an Indian, an Indian man, and live on an Indian reservation during this time. “Realism, in literature, is a manner and method of picturing life as it really is untouched by idealism or romanticism.” Specific details are required when using realism to interpret life objectively. To achieve reality with the use of realism accurate depiction is necessary to portray life as it currently is. When putting Alexie’s works under scrutiny, his writing has been impacted by social realism. He is trying to achieve social reality, through characters and themes. Alexie writes in contemporary times as to how Native Americans live, and tends to write about darker context instead of sacred. Even though Alexie’s novels are fiction, his characters are inspired by real people. He has been criticized by some as allowing the societal hidden truths of Native Americans to be revealed. “Alexie wants to unmask the alcoholic addiction and cruel traits of human character.” Because alcoholism is rampant on reservations which leads to premature deaths in Native Americans, and poverty is

Growing up as a Native American boy on a reservation, Sherman Alexie was not expected to succeed outside of his reservation home. The expectations for Native American children were not very high, but Alexie burst out of the stereotype and expectations put by white men. Young Native Americans were not expected to overcome their stereotypes and were forced to succumb to low levels of reading and writing “he was expected to fail in a non-Indian world” (Alexie 3), but Alexie was born with a passion for reading and writing, so much so that he taught himself to read at age three by simply looking at images in Marvel comics and piecing the words and pictures together. No young Native American had made it out of his reservation to become a successful writer like he did. This fabricates a clear ethos for Alexie, he is a perfect underdog in an imperfect world.