Alcoholism and culture shock. Two major concepts in the short story, “What You Pawn I Will Redeem.” Some would ask why these are important, and the answer is simply because these concepts can devastate relationships in a person’s life and change the outcome for their future.  The future is always changing and these problems can make the future take a turn for the worst. Alcoholism is an addiction that is a worsening problem in America, more so than other countries. In “What You Pawn I Will Redeem,” a Spokane Indian experiences both the issues of culture shock and alcoholism, potentially one even leading to the other. His culture shock could have been too much for him and lead to his addiction to alcohol. The only thing the Indian appears to value is his grandmother and her regalia. Through his journey to get the regalia the issues he faces leads him away from his path; however, this somehow does not make his journey longer than a day. As unusual as that sounds, he did complete his task and ended up with his grandmother’s regalia. Through the short story, “What you pawn I will redeem,” the Spokane Indian faces his addiction with alcohol and his struggle with culture shock while on a mission to honor his grandmother by regaining the possession of her regalia. 

In “What You Pawn I Will Redeem,” the setting is in Seattle, a well-known place for Indian reservations.  A Native American is taken out of his natural habitat and placed in a big city area with very little of his close family. This causes him to feel out of place; he eventually turns to alcohol in an attempt to escape his harsh reality. He funnels all of his money into his alcohol addiction, prioritizing alcohol over his family, safety, and shelter. He eventually becomes homeless and is shunned by his entire family as a result. He may have felt abandoned before, but after his alcoholism he becomes truly alone. He has his homeless friends but they soon leave him too. The only hope he seeks is to get back his grandmother’s regalia. A regalia is someone’s royalty item in simple terms. Usually the grandmother is the most respected in the tribe because they are the most wise. In my opinion, this is the reason he tries to get the regalia back so bad. He feels a sense of honor if he had it in his possession. The alcohol numbs the pain of his family dishonor. His sense of dishonor lead him to his downfall of his life. His downfall was when he lost all his families. His culture shock and his addiction lead to the downfall of his life. 

Why would he have a downfall? The protagonist of the story always has a downfall of the story.  The protagonist always has a downfall which in his case is alcohol. The alcohol addiction was an effect of the culture shock because he needed to numb the pain. The numbness did not however make him forget about the regalia. Usually the downfall is a bad end result, but in his case it was not a bad outcome or at least readers do not know if he did or not. He did earn money throughout the journey in the short story, but he blew it all on alcohol. He blew his money, time, family, and almost his grandmother’s regalia. The interesting fact about him regaining his grandmother’s regalia is that he obtained it so easily. This leads readers to believe he is still drunk from his night before or he even might have drunk himself to death. He also is a very unreliable main character, which is the main reason I think that he is drunk when he so called “gets back his regalia.” The evidence against him is substantial and make readers not sympathize with him, even with the loss of his family. The only good relationship he has left is the cop that tries to help him go into a shelter. Of course, the Spokane Native American does not go and the cop after he refuses still gives him money so that he will have food and water. The Indian man spends the money on food and alcohol. The man even pays for other people’s food. This is appalling because he does not even have money for himself or to get the regalia back. The reason this relationship works is that the cop does not expect anything from the Native American so he does not feel disappointment when the man drinks again and again with no remorse. Also, he does not seem thankful for the kindness the cop shows him. He dug his grave and now he needs to lay in it. 

In America, the alcoholic rates of people over the age of 18 is 24.7%. These statistics are drawn from people that are not even 21 yet. The number of people binge drinking is astonishing; however, the more terrifying fact is that America seems to be the most well-known for binge drinking compared to countries like the United Kingdom. The reason this topic is so influential is because most people know someone or have experienced drinking themselves. Alcoholism is the reason the Spokane Indian in “What you pawn I will redeem,” is homeless and has no family. This is not evident at first in the story, but there are clues that attribute to this. 

The problem with alcoholism is that the end result is usually detrimental to that individual’s life. It usually results in loss of loved ones, loss of career, and sometimes death. In a study in the United Kingdom, there are no programs for statewide programs on alcohol or research being done to help this widespread problem in the United States (Edwards). This study was conducted in the 1940s, so the problem is on an even larger scale now and affecting even younger people. In this short story, the Spokane man lost his family, his home, his job, practically everything because he kept feeding his addiction. Night after night and day after day he drank his pain away alone, not even with friends. He has some friends, but they are also homeless like him, which they end up leaving in the middle of the story anyway. He does not seem attached to any people in his life until readers are introduced to his grandmother. He seems to really value what she thinks, which is maybe the reason he has fallen off the beating path ever since she died. He cannot have successful friends because they are not on the same career path. His families gave up on him. He did not have just one family, but multiple families, yet he managed to screw up all of the families he did have, which contributed to his many questionable decisions throughout the story because he was trying to regain some of his honor back. This tends to happen when a person spends all their time, money, and energy into their addiction, which in his case is alcohol. 

In another aspect of the research of alcohol is that the men and women have different reactions and side effects to this addiction. This study was also performed in the United Kingdom. The study showed that were at higher risks for liver disease and brain damage (Agabio). Also, as common knowledge, men can handle more alcohol than women in general. However, these differences could be a reason that wives do not understand their husbands need to drink and how it is not already killing him. Scientists have seen a lot of differences in men and women who are alcoholics, yet they do not fully understand how this all relates. This arises another issue of how non-alcoholics do not understand alcoholics. This is a reason the Spokane man is on the streets. He gave his family no choice. He did get a goal in the midst of his journey though. He wanted to buy his grandmother’s regalia. However, all the money people gave him he blew on food and lots of alcohol. He was not wise with his money at all and another reason he has no home or job. He has people that will help him out, but he does not take advantage of the resources available to fight his addiction. 

On his journey to get the regalia, he runs into many obstacles, however most of these are self-inflicted. With all the money, he acquired on the way, he could have already bought the regalia back.  This was not his main focus, yet again it was alcohol. The regalia reminded him of his grandmother and home so he wanted to regain that and make his grandmother proud. Everyone on his journey helps him out, yet he still seems to fall short. When he finally goes back to the pawn shop, he states that he could not find it, which makes readers think that he is drunk. This would not be a surprise. When he gets there, the owner just gives away the regalia and the Spokane man “danced with his grandma.” This seems a little far-fetched and not like it is possible. This could be that he is so drunk that he thinks that he has the regalia and is dancing with his grandma which in reality could very well not be true. If he was more credible in the short story then readers would not question this, but many arise when these events take place. So the question is was he too drunk or did he really get the regalia? This brings readers back to their thoughts on how reliable he is or if they trust him as a character.

Culture shock is a relatively well known term that is used to describe someone who has just entered a new culture and are unfamiliar with the traditions or their way of life. Most of the time this happens to people who are traveling internationally. New cultures are hard to get used to and it takes time to fully adjust in a new place. In “What you pawn I will redeem,” the Spokane man moved to Seattle for college and it was a major difference. He could not even make it two semesters at college; this could be due to the fact that he could not adjust to this lifestyle. He could be trying to deal with the culture difference and how much he misses home. His downfall started when he moved to Seattle and away from his home. Also, this is the first time he was in the civilized world and not in his tribe. However, a good result from culture shock is adapting; it was shown in a study with international students that they thrived when adapting, but not necessarily losing their culture (Presbitero). This study had over 190 countries represented with its students.

In the short story, the Spokane man even states that he is going crazy because he has a “mental problem.” This could be culture shock and why alcohol soothed him so much. He lost all his loved ones because of this addiction that made him feel so much better, but why did he turn to alcohol in the first place? He was not used to the life that he had to live and this took a toll on him. It seems like his problem started once he dropped out of college and was forced to conform to this modern society. He says that, “Piece by Piece. I disappeared.” He loses himself because he lets his family and friends down because he is not himself, so this makes him not feel right. He still even seems like he is unsure of the customs throughout the story. This is made known because he thinks that living on the streets is ok because he provides for himself, but this is more of the Spokane culture than American civilized culture. There are no tribes in Seattle so he has not found his niche in the community yet. It is not common for people to be homeless, yet he reiterates the fact that many homeless Indians are in Seattle. It has been shown that people who have experienced culture shock make a lower income and take more time in college (Jack). There are programs that can help people adjust to their new life, or at least in America they have programs to help international people. The Spokane Indian feels as though if the Indians stay quiet with the “white folks” then they can live in a sort of harmony. This could be ok for the white people, but not for the Indians that move there. This is sad because this is the image created for the Native Americans being portrayed in the community in Seattle because people do not know any other image of them. This is because they do not seem truly comfortable in the community yet. Apparently, it is quite common for there to be homeless Indians, however this allows the Indians that are homeless to band together. This seems to give the Spokane Indian comfort because he is with people of a similar background as him. Even though this is not the ideal situation, he seems to be happy with his fellow Indians. 

Another thing that could have brought back many memories of his tribe is his grandmother’s regalia. The grandmother was well respected because the regalia is in a sense a “royal” article of clothing. This reminded him of all the good and some bad times he had with his tribe and on his home land. Once he saw this, he simply had to have it. This reminded him of his grandmother whom he loved dearly and her memory seemed to be the only person in a sense that has not left him. This does make readers sympathize with him until he ruins all the other good relationships he does have. However, when he realized how much it was, it discouraged him. Sadly, this made him spend even more of his money on alcohol because he thought he would never have enough money to get the regalia back. When he received money, he would just blow it on alcohol and not save it for the regalia. He did not just spend money on himself but other people who would never spend money on him. This could be due to him not having his family with him, which made him homesick or he could be battling his addiction which the regalia could have triggered this addiction. He just wanted to regalia so bad to make his grandmother proud and feel closer to her. This was his struggle. Fortunately, the owner of the pawn shop must have seen this too, so he gave him the regalia. This was a rewarding day for the Spokane Native American, even though he achieved nothing on his journey that lead to his end goal. He messed up even more on his journey unless that is his normal life, which from the short story it seems to be his life.

In response to his uncanny emotions throughout the short story, he does succeed in his goal. This is surprising considering he did not work hard for the regalia at all and yet he felt satisfied. He felt a sense of relief when he got the regalia back, but how could he feel fully satisfied knowing he did not work for it? As readers think about this question, they realize he has never had to work for anything in his life, he just settles for what he has. This is a sad life to live and maybe he was compensating for that by making it his mission to regain his grandmother’s regalia for his honor to be restored. He did not seem too deep in his thoughts however. Readers may never know what happened; if he retained the regalia or not. It could have been a dream or he could have been so drunk that he thought he obtained it, but in reality he did not. The culture shock and his addiction leads readers to the conclusion that he is an unreliable main character.
