Themes and morals

The moral in the story "What You Pawn I Will Redeem" is that when one works hard toward a goal, he or she will succeed, even if the outcome is not as expected. The protagonist goes on a long search for money to buy the regalia, leading to Jackson eventually being given the regalia even though he doesn’t have all the money he needs. However, this is not a theme of the story. A major theme in this piece is that of loss; the reader learns that Jackson Jackson lost his grandmother and grandfather before the beginning of the story, and throughout the narrative the reader is told about the disappearances of minor characters such as Junior, the three Aleuts, and several others. Their deaths are not expanded upon, and are merely stated and then forgotten, such as in this line: “I heard later that [Junior] had hitchhiked down to Portland, Oregon, and died of exposure in an alley behind the Hilton Hotel” (Alexie, 37). While both the theme and the moral are important aspects of the story, they are not synonymous. The moral is generally short and somewhat straightforward, a message about how to go about life. Themes, meanwhile, explore less obvious characteristics of the narrative, subtle but powerful facets of the story that give the story a quality of depth.

Morals vs. Themes

In the short stories “What You Pawn I Will Redeem,” “Guests of a Nation,” and “Story of an Hour,” there are main themes that each story deals with, but no clear moral. These three stories exemplify the seperation between the two because the three lack a moral. By not having a moral, but having a theme, there must be a difference between the two because if they were the same, lacking one would mean lacking the other. A theme is a topic that a moral takes a side on, and is impartial to different conflicting groups. In contrast, a moral takes a particular side on a theme, and can change from character to character. While occationally interchangable, a moral and a theme are completely different, and should never be confused again.

The Teaming Themed Theatrical Theis

'What You Will Pawn, I Will Redeem' by Sherman Alexis presents a repeated theme throughout the story, but no clear set of morals that should be followed. The main character, Jackson Jackson, can not seem to save up enough money to buy back his grandmother’s regalia, he spends all his money as soon as he earns as soon as he earns it. The story has a commonly repeated theme of charity, ranging from people helping out Jackson, to Jackson helping out his friends. Even the pawn shop owner helps Jackson gather money to afford the regalia, even though he would lose money, he says to Jackson," here's twenty bucks." Many people would confuse this theme and think that the moral of the story is to give charity to those in need, this is not the case. A set of morals that could be deducted from the story could be that charity does not always help someone in need, sometimes, the needy must pick themselves up.

Understanding Theme and Moral

“What You Pawn I Will Redeem” explores the theme that Native Americans have difficulty running a modern life. In Seattle, Jackson Jackson interacts with numerous other homeless Native Americans from many regions of North America. All of them have the common problem of busting whatever money they earn on alcohol.“Rose of Sharon, Junior, and I carried our twenty-dollar bill and our five dollars in loose change over to the 7-Eleven and bought three bottles of imagination" (Alexie 31). Even though the three friends have a difficult goal, and need all the money they can get, they spend their initial money on alcohol. The moral of the story, however, states to feel as though one has succeeded, one must work to achieve a goal. “‘I’m on a mission here. I want to be a hero, you know? I want to win it back, like a knight’” (Alexie 42). Jackson Jackson explains this thinking to the “good” cop, Officer Williams. Even if Williams had the money to give, Jackson wouldn't take it. 

The Non-Synonymous Relationship Between Morals and Themes

Contrary to the popular belief of some, morals and themes are not synonymous but instead two completely different ideas.  A moral is something the reader learns or takes away from a story, while a theme is an ongoing idea or main point of a story.  The ideas behind morals and themes have been analyzed in three short stories: "The Story of an Hour," by Kate Chopin, "Guests of the Nation," by Frank O'Connor, and "What You Pawn I Will Redeem," by Sherman Alexie.  In the three short stories that were analyzed, no two morals or themes were synonymous.  "The Story of an Hour," deals with a moral of the less surprises in times of trauma, the better, and a theme of freedom from a spouse.  "Guests of the Nation," did not necessarily have any clear moral but instead evident themes of loyalty and betrayal, and "What You Pawn I Will Redeem," contains several morals and themes, including being responsible about one's money as a moral and the struggle to survive as a theme.  In conclusion, the myth that a moral and a theme are synonymous is a large misconception and can easily be debunked just by analyzing texts, as has been done with "The Story of a Hour," "Guests of the Nation," and "What You Pawn I Will Redeem."

Living for Yourself

In "The Story of an Hour" the recurring theme was freedom; the wife's short-lived "freedom" of her husband, or the freedom from marriage. On the other hand the wife died of being overjoyed by her "freedom" right before her non-deceased husband walked into the house. The moral of the story is that you should always be living for yourself rather than living in his shadow. “There would be no one to live for during those coming years; she would live for herself. There would be no powerful will bending hers in that blind persistence with which men and women believe they have a right to impose a private will upon a fellow-creature.” (Chopin 14). The wife felt that during her marriage she had to live in the shadows of her husband, and due to the time era she couldn't really live as herself but as the person her husband would want her to be. The moral and the theme once again are different.

Theme and Moral

In literature, themes and morals are not synonymous. In “What You Pawn I Will Redeem,” there is a theme of wasted effort. All the main character’s effort allows him to earn no money in the end. The moral of the story, however, is exemplified in what happens after the character earns no money. The pawn shop owner gives the main character his grandmother’s regalia regardless of how much money he earned. This demonstrates the story’s moral, that sometimes it’s better to do the right thing, rather than the fair thing, as exemplified by this quote from the pawnbroker: “You did win it. Now take it before I change my mind.” (Alexie 45) The theme and moral are different, but they work together to convey the message of the story.

Themes vs. Morals

Another example of a story in which themes and morals can be mistaken as synonymous is “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin. In this story, the character Mrs. Mallard is informed about the recent death of her husband. Mrs. Mallard is portrayed as a sensitive and emotionally weak woman. Although people were careful in breaking the news to her, she was still utterly devastated when she initially heard about her husband’s death. However, she eventually saw the good in the situation: that she was then free from her husband. When mrs. Mallard realized that she was free, she had a “feverish triumph in her eyes, and she carried herself unwittingly like a goddess of Victory" (Chopin 14). Mrs. Mallard feels liberated, as if she is no longer living under the shadow of her husband. Then, the story takes an unexpected turn and the indeed alive Mr. Mallard returns. Mrs. Mallard then ironically dies, of shock, and “a joy that kills” (Chopin 15). An instance of a theme in this story is freedom: illustrated in mrs. Mallard’s unexpected feeling of liberation after her husband dies. However, this is not a theme, or a lesson that one can take away from reading this story. An example of a lesson that a reader can learn from reading “The Story of an Hour”  is that although some marriages may seem perfect and joyful, they can be engaged with feelings of oppression, often especially felt by only one of the partners. 

Themes versus Morals

A distinction exists between the theme of a story and the moral of a story. It is easy to confuse these two elements of a story due to their common property that they are often inferred by the reader; however, they can vary vastly in goals, uniqueness to stories, and ways of expression. An author uses a theme to unify a story and its content, whereas a moral is used to present a virtue or ethical ideal to the reader. A story’s theme is also closely tied to the story itself and usually cannot be applied to other works of writing, while morals are more of a blanket statement and can relate to many stories at once. The way by which these two elements are expressed deviate as well: a theme is usually discovered by the reader after close analysis of the particular setting, characters, and plot events of a piece of literature, but morals are usually much more apparent and easy to detect. Such differences cause the theme and moral of a story to be incredibly diverse, as shown in short stories such as “The Guests of a Nation,” “The Story of an Hour,” and “What You Pawn I Will Redeem.”

Paragraph

“What You Pawn I Will Redeem” has themes and morals that teach how to be a better person. A big theme in the story is to put others before yourself. Jackson Jackson needed to save money to buy back his grandmother’s regalia, but he used his money for others instead. “‘I’ve got twenty-five dollars I can spend. Bring us all the breakfast you can, plus your tip’” (Alexie 44). A moral in the story is good things happen to good people. Instead of helping himself, Jackson helped others with his money. However, in the end he still got his grandmother’s regalia even though he did not have enough money to buy  the regalia.

“Take it,’ he said, and held it out to me.

“I don’t have the money.”

“I don’t want your money.”

“But I wanted to win it.”

“You did win it. Now take it before I change my mind” (Alexie 45).