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Morality In The Short Story 'Borders' By Thomas King

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Morality of the Last Stand In the short story “Borders” by Thomas King the mother is shown believing in her actions regardless of whether it is justified, leading to compromised happiness. The narrator’s mother, with determination to follow through with what she deems the correct choice, sacrifices the wellbeing of others to further her own goals. Originally, the nature of these objectives have their place in moral origin, however, by standing firmly in place, she exchanges the pleasure from disregard of the system, for the effort put in by the border employees. Accordingly, it is common knowledge amongst the characters that there is no option for settlement, evidenced by the guard’s plea in response to her inflexibility, "I'd be proud of being …show more content…

The border sentinel’s sympathy displays the desire to form an agreement, however is unable to, by way of strict security enforced by her superior. At the same time, the mother is fully aware, yet holds no qualms of the benefit she is actively taking away from not just the workers, but her own children, seen during a stay overnight “The car was not very comfortable” (7) and that “The second night in the car was not as much fun as the first, but my mother seemed in good spirits” (7). The mother being happy in this unvaried situation alludes to the notion that this effort was placed in hopes of enjoyable means rather than a moral end, in summary, to supply herself of gratification while under a guise of righteousness. The mother willfully ignores the decline of her culture’s influence, and continues to inconvenience for the purpose of maintaining her identity. Dissimilar to the patterns present in modern day society [1], the mother continues to fight for the preservation of Blackfoot living standards. For example, when she is conversing with her daughter, "You can still see the mountain from here," (2) she ignores her clear preference for English, furthermore her dismissive response of "Lots of mountains in Salt Lake," (2) suggests that the mother consistently

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