Farewells

So, this is my last post in this blog. It’s been an interesting time and I’ve actually enjoyed a fair chunk of the material we’ve gone over in the class. It has broadened my reading choices and actually caused me to examine the lyrics of some of my favorite songs. I was never a big fan of poetry before. I can’t say I was into the non-traditional short stories though. While they were interesting, I think I would just as soon stick with your stereotypical rising action and narratives. But that’s just my personal writing choice.

Looking at some of my posts from earlier in the quarter, I noticed that my poetry posts were a lot of paraphrasing. Later, I started to elaborate on some of philosophical meanings of the writings, but I did not examine the structure as often and how that might have affected how I read poems. I probably could have stood to do that more.

You might say I did the same thing with the stories when we first started reading them. I felt a bit more comfortable examining them at first though because I’d taken classes already in examining fiction. Over time, it was easier to pick apart symbolism and metaphors as I learned how to distinguish between the two and see the deeper meanings of the texts. Finding out that stories had their own rhythm like poems was a bit of a surprise as well. I think I might try to incorporate that into some of my own writing

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The fact that my blog was written more for a class than the general public, unlike some of my others, did significantly affect more of my writing. I decided it was better to keep out some of my humor and more radical opinions in order to try to keep a kind of professionalism considering the purpose of the blog was academic. The audience I envisioned actually reading the posts were most likely going to be my classmates and professor.

When commenting on others’ blogs, I attempted to draw them to alternate ways in viewing a character’s motivation or possibly the symbolism represented in a certain object. I’ve always enjoyed playing devil’s advocate and the majority of my comments involved a question and not so much statements.

In all honesty, I cannot say I received a lot of comments on my writing. The few that I did either agreed with what I was saying or mentioned something that we covered in class later that day.

In general, I liked most of my blog writing. The few blogs that I didn’t like were the ones I admittedly rushed through, but the others I felt confident with. The best, by far, were the ones that I discussed over with some of my friends as at times they find the need to read the same things I read…strangely enough. I think my best posts had to do with the stories “Girls” and “School.”

As far as whether or not I think the blog postings helped in the class, I would have to say yes. It’s nice to be able to spit out your ideas before the discussion so you have an idea of what you want to say instead of being stuck in the class without a real thought. I think the things that I like to discuss the most are probably metaphors and symbols as I often like looking at philosophical meanings of stories.

Anyway, I hope you all have a great spring break. Maybe I’ll see you again around campus. Take care.

Humor, Irony, and Heritage
The short story is a mode through which humans have sought to express emotion, lessons, and spreading ideals of life. Such tales have always been read for pleasure, but underlying them one can often learn something of his or herself through the reflection of characters and feelings that are brought about through the tension between lines in a plot. Such characters, like Jackson Jackson in Sherman Alexie’s What You Pawn I Will Redeem, teach a reader that by keeping a sense of humor no matter how hard a journey gets a person can always consider the experience worthwhile. The irony and humor in the plot brings the destitute and unfortunate together in such a way as to help the reader better understand and appreciate Jackson’s quest for his heritage and the homeless Indian’s position.
Jackson, a Spokane Indian, feels no need to hide or deny who he is. He lives up to the stereotype of the homeless Indian who enjoys drinking and spending his days roaming about, doing as he feels. While he journeys through Seattle, the reader often sees him cracking jokes about his situation and basking in the dark humor of his existence. He never lets the seriousness of the situation get him depressed, prevent him from his daily musings, or trials in survival. In the character’s own words, “I know it sounds strange to be proud of this, but it means a lot to me, being trustworthy enough to piss in somebody else’s clean bathroom. Maybe you don’t understand the value of a clean bathroom, but I do” (Alexie 1). He takes a kind of pride in being homeless. One would not expect the vagrant to look so favorably on his circumstance considering the images that homelessness conjures in the everyday mind.
Jackson’s desire to have his grandmother’s powwow regalia when he walks into the pawnshop with his companions may even be considered ironic. One would think that he would just as soon want it for warmth or in order to trade for another object seeing as he does not mind being homeless. He actually hopes to possess the clothing because of wanting to be closer to his heritage and deceased grandparent instead of a need to maintain a basic existence (Alexie 1).
The shopkeeper tells Jackson that he cannot have the regalia unless he gives him a thousand dollars the next day at noon. He gives the Indian a twenty dollar bill anyway. With those twenty dollars, Jackson and his companions, Rose of Sharon and Junior, go and buy liquor so they can “think” of what they are going to do in order to come up with the money needed to make the purchase (Alexie 2). What money they had that might have been used in order to get information or invested for a return was squandered on. This seems somewhat more stereotypical of homeless drunkard image. This is not in the direction in which one would believe Jackson would want to go as the reader’s view begins to change of him. It does, however, show that he is willing to share with others.
Throughout the story, the protagonist meets multiple examples of homeless Indians. The first two he references are Rose of Sharon and Junior. He loses both of these people because they wander on their way. Jackson gives brief explanations of their departures, but refers to them as “my teammates, my defenders, my posse” (Alexie 1). This is how he pictures all Indians that he encounters seeing even though he does not stay with one or another for very long. The irony in this is that where the normal person might think Jackson has lost everything he cares for by being homeless he still sees comrades despite not knowing them individually. Even if they are all from different tribes they are linked in that they have lost their heritage in some form, be it from not having a house or simply by being a Native American in a predominantly white society.
This same theme can be seen again in the bar scene where Jackson buys all of his “cousins” drinks after having received money from a winning lottery ticket (Alexie 5). Not knowing any of their names, he still shows charity to his people.
The protagonist meets with some Aleut Indians early in the story who are sitting on the shoreline wishing they could return to Alaska. Jackson mourns with them as they cannot return home because of the money they wasted at “sacred” bars and then asks them for some money so he can continue his quest for the regalia (Alexie 2-3). The passage reflects the plight of the stereotype portrayed throughout the story. The Aleuts symbolize homeless Indians that spent too much time drinking or wasting time and now sit wishing they could return home. Home could be a metaphor for heritage. The interesting and ironic thing about Jackson that makes him different from the rest of these Indians is that he wishes to find his heritage hidden within the regaining of his grandmother’s powwow garb.
When Jackson is picked up for sleeping on the train track by a cop and put into the back of his cruiser, one sees both of them having a conversation that results in much humor and irony. “The two funniest tribes I’ve ever been around are Indians and Jews, so I guess that says something about the inherent humor of genocide” (Alexie 6). This view brings the entire story into a more international focus on the problems of not just Native Americans but those of different ethnicities. The protagonist does not just regard his own people’s problems but also those of others that are downtrodden, making them all family in a dark example of humor.
Another attempt the protagonist makes to earn money is by going to a newspaper publisher where he gets some papers for free. He retells the story of the regalia and the man selling papers suggests Jackson go to the police. Jackson replies that he wants to get the clothing back on his own. “’I don’t want to do that,” I said. “It’s a quest now. I need to win it back by myself’” (Alexie 3). It is of the utmost importance that the character does this on his own and not by charity. This would defeat the purpose of the quest and helps the reader’s opinion of the character change even further as he is willing to try and earn back his “heritage” and not take the easy way out. Jackson proves to be a much hardier character than one might have thought. The fact that he always looks up and keeps his humor throughout story helps to strengthen this view.
In the conclusion, Jackson gets back his grandmother’s powwow garb, but that is only a symbol of his heritage. His tendency to be irresponsible with money and questionable earning techniques does not lessen his generosity with other destitute Indians. His humor brings the reader and those he meets on his journey together in a mutual understanding of what it truly means to find one’s heritage. Heritage is respecting one’s people.

Yeah, it's a bit late.

Essay Topic

Seeing as we've gone over a variety of stories in our textual analysis class, I've decided to write my essay topic using the story "What You Pawn I Will Redeem" by Sherman Alexie. Inside, it carries such themes as generosity, redemption, and a love of a lost heritage. I also aim to discuss some of the humor in the story and how it helps to further the themes presented. Some historical content might be researched upon as well as this story refers to Native Americans.

Another part of the text that I find to interesting is how Jackson lives up to the stereotype of being a drunken, homeless Indian, yet this doesn't seem to bother him. He uses it to his advantage as he embarks on a kind of quest in order to regain his grandmother's ceremonial regalia. Some of the structural elements of the reading also help shape its affect such as using the stated times throughout the day in order to give the reader an idea of how fast or how slow the main character is progressing through the plot.