Short Story Borders

The short story Borders written by Thomas King tells about a worried mother that has pride in her culture and values where she comes from dearly. She resides in a native community. This intriguing story entails a woman who displays strong feelings towards her ethnic background. She is a member of the Blackfoot tribe and when she has to declare her citizenship at the Canadian-American border, she persistently presents herself as "Blackfoot." (King pg 169). Despite the anger of the national guards and the potential threats of arrest and detainment, she neither identifies herself as Canadian nor American.

"Morning, ma'am" "Salt Lake City" "Purpose of your visit" "Visit my Daughter" "Citizenship?" "Blackfoot" my mother told him "Ma'am" "Blackfoot" my mother repeated "Canadian" "Blackfoot"

(King pg 169)

Borders sows identity between the mother and daughter; induces a sense of interweaving of the proudly static mother .We see how the mother is proud of being a Blackfoot. Thomas King uses many ways in revealing characters, either through words, descriptions or how others react to the character. One technique that Thomas King uses is "What the character says." The mother strongly believes that she is neither Canadian nor American; she believes she is a Blackfoot and relentlessly keeps replying with the same answer when she is asked a question about her citizenship. "Citizenship

"Blackfoot" (King pg 171)

Another way that Thomas King reveals about the mother is "What other people say about the character." The mother creates chaos because she has too much pride to point out if she is Canadian or American. "Pride was a good thing to have, you know, Laetitia had a lot of pride, so did my mother" (King pg172)

One other way that King uses to reveal a character is "What the character does." Both the mother and the daughter have pride. In closing, the mother carries pride for her family, culture, and where she comes from. The mother keeps coming back to the border to still identify herself as a Blackfoot.