In society there has always been class division between who has resources and who doesn’t. In this particular text Sherman Alexie’s “ What You Pawn I Will Redeem” shows how Native Americans are the group who doesn’t have resources due to colonialism. The protagonist Jackson Jackson is a homeless Spokane Native American living in the streets of Seattle , Washington . Throughout the story it shows his journey of getting back his grandmother’s regalia which is sees being sell in a pawnshop . Which he has to come up with $999 to give to the pawnshop owner to get it back the next day . Throughout this story the critical lens theory that is portrayed throughout the text is Marxism . Theres a constant battle between the classes of those who have recourses and those who don’t and it shows throughout the text . In Alexis’s story , Marxism is present throughout the text because it shows how Jackson is a “ have not” and how does that affect his everyday life .
In the very beginning of the text the author writes “ Indians have to work hard to keep secrets from hungry white folks “ the white folks that he is referring to is the one’s from colonialism killed many Natives and stole their land . When the white settlers stole their land they moved the Native Americans to reservations which got smaller and smaller as time went by they didn’t have anywhere to go . Alexie made Jackson and his Native American friends homeless into to show that Natives that were kick out by white settlers were also homeless . Throughout the text while he was trying to get the regalia people get dispearing to show how families were being separated and killed during history when Native Americans were not wanted here by white people .
In the text it shows that there is a class division due to colonialism . The people who had the resources were the white people and those who didn’t have the resources were the native Americans because they were homeless . They were homeless because their “homes” were taken away . Alexie shows readers what impact colonialism had on his people and how they are looked at as being the struggling class . Because of colonialism Native Americans don’t know where they belong . They have been removed from a land that they found and treated very badly . As a result they are the struggling class because they haven’t been able to healed from colonialism.
He was able to sell newspapers and win a lottery ticket for money to get the regalia back but ends up spending on buying others alcohol and breakfast . He has a caring personality throughout the text and tends to put others first before him and spend his money on them . He is also an alcoholic . Him spending the little money he has shows that its hard to rise above the struggling class because of conflicts and feelings of alienation . Overall this text shows the power struggle between Native Americans and White people due to colonialism. White settlers such as Christopher Columbus meet Native Americans in the new world that they supposedly discovered and ended up brutally killing and forcing Native Americans to move . Alexie writes this piece to show the power struggle between Natives and Whites. Natives are homeless due them being forced out of their land . And he shows that using homeless Natives in the present day and how history still affects them as well .
