Sherman Alexie's Short Story "What Term Paper

He believes he can regain some of it if he can buy the regalia, and when he does get the regalia, he dances into the street as if the spirit of his grandmother were within him.

Jackson is not the only example of what has happened to the Native population, for his friends are also alcoholics or delude themselves that their ship will return one day. Different tribes are represented, and it is implied that there are many Indians in Seattle, most on the local version of the Bowery, most drinking their lives away. Each of the friends Jackson meets on this day walks away and either dies or just disappears, but the impression left is that Jackson's world is getting smaller and smaller, leaving him more and more alone on the streets.There is something mystical about the regalia to him and also about the pawnshop where it is found, a shop that seems to appear and disappear like a mirage. When he earns the regalia back, he does so not by getting the money to buy it but by helping his friends and showing his belief in the greater powers watching over….....