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What Is The Theme Of The Short Story Borders By Thomas King

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In the short story Borders, Thomas King uses the mother to demonstrate that identity is fluid; changing through a person’s experiences, nationality, citizenship, and pride. King aims to demonstrate the effects of indifference towards Indigenous identity and citizenship through his short story. King demonstrates the theme in many ways. Illustrating the mother’s pride in her nationality, which is Canada, while continuously contrasting this throughout the story by having the mother not change her answer about her nationality of being Blackfoot. A key point that King drives in his short story is the denial of Indigenous identity and the turmoil that Aboriginals face due to that. However, his story has an underlying message that while many Indigenous …show more content…

Throughout Borders, King illustrates the mother’s pride in her own heritage and identity thoroughly and in a multitude of ways. The first and most obvious was during her time spent on the border. When the guards asked the mother about her citizenship, she replied, "Blackfoot," and she continued to defend that answer for the entirety of the story. This shows not only pride but also dedication, defiance even. Instead of answering as being Canadian or American, the mother picked a third option and stuck to it; instead of taking the easier option of answering the question ‘correctly,’ the mother defended her identity by not conforming to authority and not allowing the guards to deny her answer of being Blackfoot as being an invalid answer to identity. In a more subtle way, the mother demonstrated her dislike of being identified as anything, but Blackfoot is when it was noted how the mother "did not want us (herself and her son) [to] [cross] the border looking like Americans." Furthermore, wearing a dress …show more content…

She is proud of her Indigenous heritage; however, it is also demonstrated how proud she is to be Canadian. Throughout the story, the mother continuously draws comparisons between American and Canadian cultures, with Canada, namely Alberta, being better in her view. For example, when Laetitia notes, "[t]her’s good skiing in the mountains" of America, the mother quips back, "[p]eople come from all over the world to ski at Banff." This continues all throughout the story. In this way, it is seen how the mother finds Canada to be better than America and will defend it even if some statements might be untrue; for example, when the mother said that "[p]eople in Salt Lake City are probably sending away for brochures of Calgary and Lethbridge and Pincher Creek." While these are good cities, there is nothing noteworthy about them for people to want to come and tour them. When it was noted that the mother "did not want us (herself and her son) [to] [cross] the border looking like Americans," it demonstrates how she does not mind to be identified as Canadian if it comes to it, as she does not want to "look[] like [an] American;" however, there is no mention of not wanting to look like a Canadian. This now brings up the question of why the mother would not say that she is Canadian instead of adamantly telling the guards she is Blackfoot. If she has pride in Canada, why would she be against saying that she is Canadian for ease’s sake?

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In Borders, by Thomas King the mother is affected by a border crossing. In the beginning she is very upset that her daughter is going to Salt Lake City. Everything the Laetitia says Salt Lake City has that makes it so great; her mother points out they have the same things right there on the reserve. For example, when Laetitia’s boyfriend Lester says they have a huge temple, a zoo and great mountains for skiing, her mother replies, “got all the skiing we can use here, Cardston’s got a temple, if you like those kinds of things.”

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Comparatively, King's recurring mention of Salt Lake City in "Borders" establishes its symbolic value as a detrimental influence to one's socialization which is seen through the character Laetitia, the narrator's sister. This is clarified by the narrator's recount of Laetitia's remarks, who said that "She was going to Salt Lake City, that life around here was too boring" (King 6). Laetitia's actions were influenced by the dominant Western culture, which led her to lose connections with her Blackfoot relatives who resided on a reserve, exemplifying cultural assimilation. Laetitia later contemplates returning to the reserve, as the narrator mentions "Laetitia said she was thinking about

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