English 102 MWF 11-11:50 I really enjoyed the story What You Pawn I will Redeem. It was very well written and kept my attention throughout the story. It is amazing that he walked by a pawnshop and immediately recognized his grandmother’s regalia without ever seeing it other than in pictures. I enjoy reading about Native American cultures and beliefs. There was a lot of humor in this story and Jackson definitely did not take himself too seriously. I think the 1st person narrator was very important in telling this story.
I do not feel that Jackson was an unreliable narrator because he seemed to tell it like it is. He had no reason to try to make himself look better. He seems to accept himself for who he is. He is an honest man who seems to be well liked by everybody he deals with on a regular basis, from the cop to the guy with the newspapers. He shows his struggles with alcohol and also his giving nature. All the money he came across he spent not just on himself getting drunk but on others as well.
I believe that the theme of the story is that no matter where you go in your life you never forget or really give up where you come from. Jackson Jackson has been homeless for six years away from his family in Spokane yet as soon as he saw his grandmother’s regalia in the window he knew it was hers even before they find the yellow bead. It then becomes his mission to gather the money to get it back. The regalia is a piece of him and the life he left behind. Even though he does not come up with the money to buy it back he still ends up with it in the end.
