Tag Archives: “What You Pawn I Will Redeem”

Glossary, Week 14

Regalia

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regalia

noun plural re·ga·lia \ri-ˈgāl-yə\

: special clothes and decorations (such as a crown or scepter) for official ceremonies

: special clothing of a particular kind

1
:  royal rights or prerogatives
2
a :  the emblems, symbols, or paraphernalia indicative of royalty

b :  decorations or insignia indicative of an office or membership

3
:  special dress; especially :  finery
In the short story What You Pawn I will Redeem Paragraph 13
“That’s my grandmother’s powwow regalia in your window,” I said. “Somebody stole it from her fifty years ago, and my family has been searching for it ever since.”
Inside this sentence, the powwow regalia is a special clothing that Indian people sew perhaps for special ceremonies. When he finally redeemed it at the end, he put it on and danced like his grandmother used to.
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Glossary

Wharf

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noun, plural wharves

1.a structure built on the shore of or projecting into a harbor, stream, etc., so that vessels may be moored alongside to load or unload or to lie at rest; quay; pier.
2.Obsolete.

  1. a riverbank.
  2. the shore of the sea.

“When I got to the wharf, I ran into three Aleut cousins, who sat on a wooden bench and stared out at the bay and cried.”

What You Pawn I Will Redeem by Sherman Alexie (Paragraph 3 at 2 P.M.)

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Glossary

Flaws

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noun
1.a feature that mars the perfection of something;defect; fault: beauty without flaw; the flaws in our plan.
2.a defect impairing legal soundness or validity.
3.a crack, break, breach, or rent.
“Because they don’t want to be perfect, because only God is perfect, Indian people sew flaws into their powwow regalia.”
What You Pawn I Will Redeem by Sherman Alexie
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Uncategorized

Regalia

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Noun

Regalia– special clothes and decorations (such as a crown or scepter) for official ceremonies.

From What You Pawn I Will Redeem by Sherman Alexie

But the strangest thing of all was the old Powwow-dance regalia I saw hanging in the window. As Jackson walked by the pawnshop that he had never saw before, it was strange because he saw old Powwow-dance clothing hanging in the window and it was his grandmotherĂą regalia.

http://www.merriam-webster.com/

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Glossary

Powwow

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Powwow noun \ˈpau̇–ˌwau̇\

a : a social gathering of Native Americans that usually includes dancing

b : a meeting for people to discuss something

But the strangest thing of all was the old powwow-dance regalia I saw hanging in the window.

What You Pawn I Will Redeem paragraph 6

After coming across this word a few times in the story I just knew I had to look it up. I was thinking something more along the lines of a festival. Instead it’s a social gathering, a meeting of sorts.

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