Short Story: What You Pawn I Will Redeem

Overview
Sherman Alexie’s short story follows Jackson Jackson, a homeless Spokane Indian living on the streets of Seattle, as he embarks on a 24-hour quest to buy back his grandmother’s stolen powwow regalia from a pawnshop. Told in Jackson’s wry, conversational first person, the story blends humor, sorrow, and cultural memory into a city-wide odyssey that reads like a mythic quest translated into the realities of poverty, addiction, and Native survival in an urban landscape.

Inciting Moment
Passing a downtown pawnshop with two homeless companions, Jackson spots a beautiful beaded dance outfit in the window and recognizes it instantly as his late grandmother’s regalia, stolen decades earlier. He knows it by its distinctive beadwork and by the way family history seems stitched into it. The pawnbroker agrees it’s likely the same piece but insists he can’t just give it away; he sets a price of a thousand dollars and promises to hold it for a day if Jackson can raise the money.

The Quest Across Seattle
With almost nothing in his pockets, Jackson sets off to earn, find, and luck his way into the thousand dollars. He tries odd jobs, seeks help from acquaintances, and seizes small chances: a spot of goodwill from the pawnbroker, a few dollars and a warm breakfast courtesy of a sympathetic cop, a modest lottery win, a little cash selling a street newspaper. Each windfall is accompanied by his generous impulse to share, buying drinks, meals, and small comforts for other homeless Natives, Aleut cousins he meets along the way, and whoever else crosses his path in need. Money in Jackson’s hands tends to flow outward, governed by communal obligation, pride, and a restless spirit that refuses to hoard.

As the day turns to night and back toward dawn, Jackson drifts between bars, diners, sidewalks, and shelters, his companions intermittently disappearing into the churn of the streets. Rose of Sharon slips away. Junior, his closest friend, vanishes and may be in trouble. Jackson’s narration folds in storytelling and memory, weaving jokes, tall tales, and family lore into the practical grind of getting by. The city becomes a map of Native presence, visible and invisible, where brief kindnesses, bureaucratic indifference, and small ceremonies of sharing create a fragile social net.

Character Portrait
Jackson is charming, self-sabotaging, and deeply loyal. He insists on dignity even as he begs and bargains, and his drinking does not erase his clarity about who he is or what the regalia represents: a living link to his grandmother and to Spokane culture. The pawnbroker, initially a gatekeeper, gradually reveals a guarded compassion. Officer Williams treats Jackson like a person rather than a problem. Secondary figures, the Aleut men, bartenders, clerks, form a chorus of fleeting solidarities and frictions that mark life at the margins.

Climax and Resolution
Near the deadline, Jackson returns to the pawnshop with only a small fraction of the thousand dollars. He has failed by the most literal measure. Yet his persistence, honesty, and the evident truth that the regalia is not merchandise but medicine persuade the pawnbroker. In a quiet act of grace, the man gives Jackson the outfit. Jackson steps into the street wearing his grandmother’s regalia and begins to dance. Morning traffic slows; people watch. The dance is comic and luminous, a street-corner powwow where ancestral presence meets asphalt. Jackson feels his grandmother with him. He keeps dancing as the city wakes, redeemed not by money but by motion, memory, and recognition.