Research Paper
Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to explore Sherman Alexie’s “What You Pawn I Will Redeem” in a new light. Many relevant sources highlight and explain the allusions to cultural homelessness and rigorous empathy that exist in Alexie’s work, observing these themes through the opposing lenses of polyculturalism and multiculturalism. Using this information, I wish to highlight and focus on the idea that the main character, Jackson Jackson, is not only struggling with poverty and alcoholism but has a nature that is entirely paradoxical.
Research Paper
Part I
The discussion by literary critics about Alexie’s short story, “What You Pawn I Will Redeem” has been the reference to cultural homelessness. There has also been debate as to whether Jackson Jackson took his own condition and quest to claim his grandmother’s regalia seriously. “The two funniest tribes I’ve been around are Indians and Jews, so I guess that says something about the inherent humor of genocide,” Jackson Jackson says to the white police officer. Some scholars are puzzled as to why Jackson seems to have such astounding and surreal humor towards his own condition based on the traumatic events that took place not only within his own life, but within the life of the American Indian people.
The most important idea are the two theme of cultural homelessness. The story, “What You Pawn I Will Redeem” revolves around a homeless Indian vagabond named Jackson Jackson. Jackson was born and currently lives in Spokane, Washington. He failed out of college and three marriages. With his life ravaged by alcoholism and poverty, Jackson Jackson saw powwow regalia that once belonged to his grandmother. He then sets on a quest to collect enough money to purchase the regalia from the pawn shop owner. Trying to focus on his quest, Jackson is able to sell newspapers and collect money for his quest. Due to alcoholism and other circumstances within the story, Jackson instead ends up spending his money on friends, booze, and lottery tickets. Jackson Jackson returns to the pawn shop owner with only a five dollar bill, who lets him have the regalia since he worked hard for it. According to Anne Marie Hacht, Jackson Jackson and his ancestry as an American Indian living in Spokane “is culturally connected to a history of dispossession, forced removal, and lost lands” (Hacht 519). This could be the theme behind Jackson’s literal homelessness, and if it is not a direct theme then it certainly alludes to the troubled past that the American Indian people have endured.
The humor and empathy shown by Jackson and other characters within the story could be seen as the main idea of the story rather than Jackson’s actual quest reclaim a traditional artefact stolen from his family. This is where the seriousness of his quest could be called into question. The reference to genocide and cultural homelessness could just be coincidental, while the real theme lies within the simple idea of the human condition. Most scholars who explore the story, or similar stories by Sherman Alexie in general, can all agree that Jackson’s quest was truly serious. Nancy Peterson connects this “inherent humor of genocide with this as an idea of “rigorous empathy,” an empathy that allows us to be humorous about the past but reach beyond the colonial attitudes of hatred and difference between descendents of white settlers and native peoples or minorities. According to Jennifer K. Ladino, Jackson Jackson was not only serious about his quest, but in the end his “story feels like a success” (Ladino 47). Ladino also points out that Jackson Jackson’s friendly encounters with people of different social statuses indicate a different kind of polyculturalism. Ladino invokes the ideas of Vijay Prashad, differentiating “polyculturalism” that suggests a more unbounded alliance with people of other races from the generic “multiculturalism” idea that defines culture as “immutable and pure.” Through this polyculturalism and moving beyond the limits of the human condition, Jackson Jackson pursued his journey and found success, rather than hoarding the money that he earned to pay the right price for his grandmother’s regalia. Moving beyond cultural lines on Jackson’s part, and on the part of other Indians within his community, could have been what prompted the pawnbroker and others throughout the story to have empathy for Jackson and complete his quest.
However, there are some who would take an alternative stance with respect to this particular issue. When it comes to the exact definition of the words “culture” and “tradition,” Greg Johnson paints a different picture. When writing his journal article “Narrative Remains: Articulating Indian Identities in the Repatriation Context.” Though he briefly mentions Alexie explicitly, he has a powerful message in many places throughout his article that could apply to “What You Pawn I Will Redeem.” Johnson defines “culture” as the “central utility in defining a group in the here and now over and against others.” Johnson also says that tradition “extends these claims across time.” This idea is different from the polyculturalism that Ladino and Prashad envision. However, the ideas of “culture” and “tradition” could to how Jackson Jackson behaves throughout the story. Jackson gives his friends money, buys them drinks, and gets along with different people whom he barely knows. When the young Korean girl at the cash register asks Jackson why he is giving her part of the money that he received, Jackson Jackson says that it is Indian tradition to share one’s earnings with his family. In a society torn apart by alcoholism, feuding, and poverty, Jackson along with the other Indians seem to embrace a familial bond the end.
Part II
One of the most difficult aspects of this assignment was tying in the actual themes of the story into Jackson Jackson’s paradoxical personality and whether he took his quest seriously or not. Most of the sources seem to have at least one allusion to “What You Pawn I Will Redeem,” and those allusions point to Jackson’s quest. I think that scholars like Greg Johnson and literary critics of Alexie would certainly agree that references to genocide and cultural homelessness do exist. However, they would prioritize different aspects of the story and see it through the limited lens of multiculturalism. This corresponds to a paradox on the part of Jackson Jackson. In literal terms, Jackson Jackson is homeless, but all the scholars that I have reviewed would agree that he is successful. His homelessness is also a paradox because Jackson Jackson seems very much at home with his friends of all races and backgrounds (Alexie #). The pawnbroker rewards Jackson Jackson for hard work, but this hard work was in vain because Jackson Jackson himself spent the majority of his money and was unsuccessful based on his own financial merit. This is why I argue that Jackson’s success was a paradox.