Resilience And Discrimination In The Short Story 'Borders'

The short story, Borders, relays its key debate on colonial border definition and the consequences and discrimination they carry. The author also subtly defines the barriers between the characters due to assimilation and perspective.

The story follows a Blackfoot family in their journey between the Canadian to American borders. Based on how the story progresses, I would argue that the author supports self-determination as well as resilience and perseverance in the face of discrimination. The narrator is a young boy and it is clear that he doesn’t really understand the complexity of the situation as he feels that “It would have been easier if my mother had just said “Canadian” and been done with it…” (135). This barrier can also be seen in the interaction when the mother is trying to teach her son through story and the son keeps

Young Laetitia, responding to her mother in English rather than Blackfoot (133) also demonstrates that maturity may lead to a greater understanding, pride and appreciation of one’s identity. The narrator reflects this by saying that “Pride is a good thing to have, you know. Laetitia had a lot of pride, and so did my mother. I figured that someday, I’d have it, too.” (140). Through these covert examples of “borders” King shows how identity is something that is accepted and developed in a sense. The mother’s persistence displays how conforming and being untrue to one’s identity isn’t necessary to achieve your goals. Borders also depicts how discriminatory borders can be, with one reporter asking “how it felt to be Indian without a country,” (142). This quote in particular completely erases the history of colonialism and the overarching issue of land ownership itself. The border police’s statement that “… you have to be American or Canadian,” (139) shows how even though other cultures are embraced, it is done so formulaically, in a way that limits