Themes and Morals: The Frequent Mistake

In the short story, "What You Pawn I Will Redeem," by Sherman Alexie, there is a theme of alcoholism in Native Americans. Throughout the story the protagonist Jackson Jackson uses his money to buy alcohol rather than saving up to buy back his grandmother’s regalia. Jackson initially sees the regalia in the window of a local pawn shop and thinks that it once belonged to his grandmother. The pawn shop owner offers him a deal of $999, and gives him 24 hours to come up with the money. “'How much for whiskey shots?' I asked the bartender, a fat white guy. 'You want the bad stuff or the badder stuff?'​ 'As bad as you got.'​ 'One dollar a shot.' I laid my eighty dollars on the bar top” (Alexie 37). Jackson clearly has a greater desire to drink rather than to save his eighty dollars and buy back his grandmothers regalia. While reading the short there is no clear moral that can be taken from the text. Other themes, besides alcoholism, appear such as friendship. This difficulty in finding a moral, yet ease in finding themes show an obvious difference between the definition of the two words.