The name of the protagonist from Sherman Alexie’s story “What You Pawn I Will Redeem” is Jackson Jackson. His family nickname is Jackson Squared. He is an Indian man who grew up in Spokane and moved to Seattle. He describes himself as “an effective homeless man” (Alexie 2).
The protagonist’s quest is to get nine hundred and ninety-nine dollars in one day and redeem the regalia that belonged to his late grandmother from the pawnshop. Jackson says that “somebody stole it (regalia) from her, fifty years ago” (Alexie 3).
Obviously, the pawnbroker did not believe Jackson and asked him to prove that the regalia belonged to his grandmother. Native American families sewed flaws on their regalia, so a yellow bead had to be sewn onto the hero’s regalia (Alexie 4). The protagonist found it under the armpit of the regalia.
Jackson and his friends spent twenty dollars the pawnbroker gave them and their five dollars on three bottles of alcohol between 1 p.m. and 2 p.m. The hero explained this by saying that they needed to think about how to earn almost a thousand dollars in one day (Alexie 5).
Jackson asked for money from the Aleuts, wanted to sell newspapers for one dollar, bought two lottery tickets, and tried to borrow money from the policeman.
He spent the first money he got on food. Further, Jackson spent part of the money on two lottery tickets and gave 20 dollars from the winnings to the register Mary (Alexie 10). Then he treated the Indians from the bar with a drink (Alexie 11). And he spent the last money feeding the Aleuts (Alexie 19).
The pawnbroker appreciated Jackson’s efforts to earn impossible money in a day. He returned the regalia to him since it is part of the protagonist himself and his national identity (Alexie 20).
From this story, I learned that the Indians do not live the simplest life, but despite this, they look for the positive in everything and know how to laugh at anything.
Work Cited
Alexie, Sherman. What You Pawn I Will Redeem. The New Yorker, 2003, pp. 1-21.