What You Pawn I Will Redeem

Use these questions or activities to help gauge students’ familiarity with and spark their interest in the context of the work, giving them an entry point into the text itself.

Short Answer

1. What myths, folk tales, or works of literature can you think of that feature a quest? Try to come up with at least three.

Teaching Suggestion: Quest narratives are ubiquitous: The oldest written work of literature—The Epic of Gilgamesh—is in part the story of Gilgamesh’s quest for immortality. The mission driving a quest is often the retrieval of a valuable or magical object (as in stories about the search for the Holy Grail) or the slaying of a monster (as in Beowulf). However, there are many quest narratives that break this pattern, including Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (the quest for freedom) and Herman Hesse’s Siddhartha (the quest for spiritual enlightenment). Use students’ responses to spark conversation about what constitutes a quest: Although the quest in “What You Pawn I will Redeem” does center on a material object, it also has significant personal and spiritual dimensions.  

• “Robert Irwin’s top 10 quest narratives”: 2011 article for The Guardian in which writer Robert Irwin discusses works that feature spiritual quests
• “The Hero’s Journey”: NPR TED Radio Hour episode discussing Joseph Campbell’s idea of the “hero’s journey”—a story structure that overlaps significantly with the quest narrative

2. Have you ever heard of the Spokane Nation? Where do you think it’s located?

Teaching Suggestion: Students will likely know little about the Spokane people, but if they’ve heard of the city of Spokane, they may correctly guess that the Spokane Reservation is in eastern Washington. Sherman Alexie is Spokane, as is Jackson Jackson (the protagonist of “What You Pawn I Will Redeem”), so you may wish to use this prompt to introduce students to Spokane history and culture.

• "Northwest Profiles: Spokane Tribe Culture Week”: KSPS PBS video about teaching Spokane culture to younger generations
• “The History of the Spokane Tribe of Indians”: Brief overview of Spokane history from the tribe’s official webpage

Short Activity

Song and music feature prominently in “What You Pawn I Will Redeem”—especially the songs of the Aleut people from the Alaskan archipelago. Listen to these four recordings of Aleut music. Before scrolling down to read more about them, jot down the emotions or images each conjures for you personally. Without understanding their language, can you nevertheless grasp their basic meaning?

Teaching Suggestion: Notably, the protagonist of Alexie’s story connects with the Aleuts via their songs despite not understanding the words. Use students’ responses to discuss the way music conveys meaning: Does music itself transcend language barriers, or do Jackson and the Aleuts’ shared experiences of colonialism and alienation facilitate his understanding? 

• “History”: Overview of Aleut (or Unangax̂) history and culture from the Aleutian Pribilof Islands Association; written by Dr. Douglas Veltre and abridged for inclusion on this website