Thomas King Borders Analysis

Humor in Borders

Thomas kings book, Borders, is one of many popular books he published that took place between the American and Canadian borders at Coutt. Throughout the book, the main character, the mother from Blackfoot is denied entrance multiple times from the Canadian and American borders. She refuses her citizenship being American or Canadian instead she insists on being Blackfoot , Despite the young boy and mother being sent back and forth between the borders for 2 days ,however there was always small moments that made the story that much better instead of being boring .

King gives the story a light relaxing tone, by telling it through the young boy. It is also humorous at times .For example King gives a description of the two guards

It is amusing how well the 12 year old boy can identify things. When the young boy and his mother were at the American border, they were approached by a women , while the women was talking with the mother ,the boy observed that she had a gun ,and it was colored silver ,there were “several chips in the wood handle”(136) and the name Stella was scratched into the guns bottom. Another example of how greatly king detailed things was towards the ending, when the media showed up and a “good looking” man pulled up with a fancy car, he was “in a dark blue suit and an orange tie with little ducks on it”

One guard accepted the fact that the mother and the young boy were Blackfoot, even though he said “Blackfeet”, and went on asking “which side do you come from? Canadian side or American side? ” (136).Another guard asked “citizenship?” at the beginning, than he tried to let the mother approve she was Canadian, and when she stuck with saying Blackfoot, he asked if she is carrying any Tabaco or drugs ,when she answered no, he asked again “citizenship?”(135).The third one was when the female guard approached the young boy and his mother and said that if she tells her citizenship that it won’t be recorded, it is obvious that the guard just wanted to get the job done and get the mother to claim her citizenship(136).The last guard from the Canadian border was a women , and she asked “are you both Canadians?” and when the mother insisted on saying she was Blackfoot, the women went on saying the she had a friend which was from Blackfoot ,and also added that if she was Blackfoot she would be proud. The guard talked in a nice way about Blackfoot and was kind to the mother, she can let them both enter Canada even though the mother refuses to be Canadian or American. The American guards show no remorse to the mother when being asked but when it comes to the Canadian guards, there was a humble and