Essays on Regalia

The narrator in the ‘What You Pawn I Will Redeem’, Jackson, tells the story of his life and the inability to complete school, his multiple marriages and several kids with different women. He explains how he ended up in the streets, how he uses his wits to win the trust of hotel managers for the use of hotel bathrooms and his close friendship with two friends, Junior and Rose of Sharon both homeless people of Indian-Americans. One day in their normal street adventures they come across a regalia that looked like his grandmother’s, and upon talking to the ...

At the brink of war, America, which has distinguished herself as a world leader and a responsible country knew that she would be at the center stage of the showdown. The war eventually came with anxiety and patriotism contemporaneously looming across the country. The media shifted interest in the war. Countless patriotic books and artistic artifacts were born during and after the time of war, but nothing has done much for the history of war than the picture taken by Alfred Eisenstaedt at times square after the war. The image quickly found its way to magazine front pages and ...

Cultural appropriation has been subject to debate in the American music industry for several years. While it remains debatable as to whether there is a need for serious actions to be taken to provide justice to the members of the original cultures when it is evident there is an incident of misappropriation, how such cultural appropriation occurs still elicits debate. It is critical to understand that certain actions of the singers can be considered culturally offensive while others can be accommodated despite the cultural debate it brings. It is thus important that artists show appreciation to another culture by ...

Pow-wow is a Native American cultural gathering held annually to celebrate and honor the tribal customs and cultural connectedness. The term pow-wow has originated from the word powwaw, a native Indian word which means a “healing ceremony” led by spiritual or religious leaders from different tribes (Schweigman, et al, n.p.). While there is no clear evidence when the pow-wow started, it is believed to have originated from the Pawnee tribe where their religious ceremonial meeting includes dancing and other rituals. Since then, other Indian tribes have adopted the ceremony and integrated their own traditions. The Indians have practiced this ...

“What You Pawn I Will Redeem” is a short story written by Sherman Alexie and it is about an Indian man, whose name is Jackson Jackson, who is in search of his identity in life. Jackson has friends and most of them are Indian and his faith in the humanity of people is great and amazing. He believes that the good he does will come back to him and he lives by this rule. Jackson never says that, but it is obvious from his actions. He is kind and considerate towards people and he is rewarded because of that ...

In Sherman Alexie’s story, What You Pawn I Will Redeem, the homeless narrator Jackson Jackson is a Spokane Indian. When he describes himself, he says, “Piece by piece, I disappeared. And I’ve been disappearing ever since,” he is describing both a literal disappearance and a figurative one (401). Literally, he has been discussing his disappearance from his lovers’ lives, meaning that he didn’t simply walk out on them with no notice. Figuratively, he means he is slowly losing his identity as a person and as a member of his ethnic background as he becomes more absorbed in his alcoholism and vagrant ...