Sherman Alexie\'s Short Story \"What

¶ … Sherman Alexie's short story "What You Pawn I Will Redeem," a central symbol is Jackson's grandmother's regalia, which he sees in the window of a pawn shop he has never noticed before. Jackson is a Spokane Indian in Seattle, an alcoholic who is himself representative of the plight of the Indian today. Jackson wants to redeem his grandmother's regalia and is given one day to find the needed thousand dollars. Instead, what money he does get is spent on alcohol and breakfast. In the end, though, the pawnbroker gives him the regalia.

The regalia represents the more glorious past of the Native American, a time when he was in his own land and tied to tradition. His links to the past are largely broken, and the stolen regalia represents the way the white man has stolen not just the land but the culture and traditions of the Native population. In the land today, the culture is held hostage in the way the regalia is kept in the pawnshop, and the price for recapturing the culture is simply too high. For Jackson, the regalia is remembered as his grandmother's, and her dancing in that regalia is associated with a time of power and prestige that is now gone. He believes he can regain some of it if he can buy the regalia, and when he does get the regalia, he dances into the street as if the spirit of his grandmother were within him.