What You Pawn I Will Remember

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A lot of us go through life feeling as if we have failed or have personal flaws. Some of us are unable to accept the fact that we have those imperfections. On top of that, we complicate matters by associating our self-worth with the apparent success of our lives. This leads to us living our lives ashamed of our mistakes because we feel as if we are less beautiful because of our failures and our flaws. Jackson Jackson from Sherman Alexie’s “What You Pawn I Will Remember” says this about his family’s tradition concerning the regalia: “Because they don’t want to be perfect, because only God is perfect, Indian people sew flaws into their powwow regalia. My family always sewed one yellow bead somewhere on our regalia. But we always hid it so that…show more content…
Homelessness is an obvious theme that is prevalent throughout this story but loneliness is also a theme that shows its face. It can be seen in excerpts such as, “They were lonesome for cold and snow. I was lonesome for everything,” (1447) and “Lonesome for Indians” (1441). Those excerpts point out that Jackson is indeed alone like the secret bead. Most people in this world tend to not just hide their flaws from the world but also from themselves. We may do that because sometimes it’s easier to pretend like they’re not there than to embrace them and accept them as a part of a greater more beautiful whole. Like the secret, yellow bead to the regalia, Jackson is alone and considered to be a…show more content…
Jackson provides us with a good example of this with the police officer. According to Jackson, Officer Williams “was a good cop” (1443) and “was the second-best cop I’d ever known” (1444). The only cop that beat him out in Jackson’s mind was his own blood, his grandfather. Jackson tells the cop, “No really, you remind me of my grandfather” (1444) and “…my grandfather was a Tribal cop. He was a good cop. He never arrested people. He took care of them. Just like you” (1444). It is in these passages we can tell that sometimes it is harder to see someone else’s flaws than it is to see ours. We only see them as beautiful, good souls. But, unless you’re a God, you have flaws. Officer Williams says “I’ve arrested hundreds of scumbags, Jackson. And I’ve shot a couple” (1444) to counter Jacksons praise while also unearthing some of his own personal flaws that he battles. Like a stranger looking at the beautiful regalia but not knowing its secret, Jackson saw only the unflawed image of the cop and failed to see the cop’s own yellow bead until the cop told

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