What You Pawn I Will Redeem

411 Words2 Pages
Famous author Sherman Alexie has written many short stories, two of which would be the most famous ones ,"What you pawn I will redeem" and "Indian Country". Both of these short stories by Sherman Alexie were not only both published in the New Yorker but they also share many similarities and differences In "What you pawn I will redeem", one of the big things that stuck out as a stereotype to me was the alcoholism within the story because of the fact that Native Americans are associated with alcoholism. It is a known fact that because of Native Americans not being around alcohol for generations after generations like Europeans, this made them genetically unable to handle the alcohol and gave them a even higher risk of being alcoholics. This to me is the common miss conception of Native Americans therefore creating a stereotype within the Native American culture. The setting in "What you pawn I shall redeem" is in Seattle Washington , the main character though comes from a Spokane Washington and always tells stories of how he grew up there. The main character also talks about going to college there but flunking out and soon after becoming homeless. In "Indian Country" the story takes place on an Indian Reservation in Missoula, Montana. The author describes the reservation as a monotonous place and says "lowman believed the Coeur D' Alene reservation to a monotonous place, a wet kind of monotony, the mind that white tourists saw as spiritual and magical. The theme of "What you pawn I will redeem" would to be definitely never give up and to keep on fighting. I feel this way because the main character does whatever he can to make money to get the Regalia even though he has set backs and ends up with just 5 dollars he still gets it back. The theme in "Indian Country" would have to be to not chase a goal that is unreachable in any circumstances. The main reason I
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