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Borders Thomas King Analysis

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In this acclaimed short, Borders by Thomas King many themes occur through the rising action to the climax making it a truly symbolic book about identity. This story is set on the border of Alberta crossing into America where there are two remaining BlackFoot reserves on each side. The mother who is the protagonist and the son who is narrating a story of a mother visiting her daughter across the border with the border patrol as the antagonist. This story is a portrayal of an example of being categorized into different sections depending on what you call yourself. It is about refusing to integrate into society's norms or to be ignorant to think people are divided into a limited amount of groups. The prominent themes of this engaging short story …show more content…

Letitia the daughter that moves away to start a new life for herself causes her mother to worry that she will forget where she came from. The mother compares the Blackfoot reserve to Laetitia's new town making it sound worse trying desperately to pull Laetitia back to her home. In the text it states, “Laetitia told us to watch for the water tower… Over the next rise. It’s the first thing you see… We got a water tower on out reserve”. Through this example it is obvious to see that the mother is concerned the daughter will conform to society's norms and expectations. Family is a key part to the mother's identity where it’s who she grew up with that taught her what type of person she should be so she wants to preserve that. For example the mother says, “... my grandmother used to take me and my sisters out on the prairies and tell us stories about all those stars” reminiscing over her past displays how much she treasures it. The connotation of identity reveals who you are or how you got to be who you are so the mother is repulsed by the fact that she had to be categorized into a country where she isn’t from.
In conclusion there are many crucial themes in which build this story but overall the main themes that build upon this story and really affect the characters is persistence in fighting for what you believe is correct and

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