Borders

[teejay27]

 Thomas King’s fictional story “Borders” is about a woman who, when stopped at the border, would rather identify as Blackfoot than Canadian or American. The woman, who is travelling with her son, is going to see her daughter, Laetitia in Salt Lake City. King tells the story through the Blackfoot woman’s 12 year old son. King strategically bases the story at the Coutts border to make the reader consider both the physical and metaphorical borders that exist in the story. Although, the physical border is where the story takes place, this is not what King’s title “Border” is referring to. King cleverly leaves this up for interpretation. King wants the reader to think about the many metaphorical borders in the story.

The relationship between the mother and daughter in the story can be a metaphorical interpretation. There is a constant bickering between the two. The daughter clearly wants to leave and be a grownup at the age of 17. There is that borderline of where a mother needs to let go of her children. The back and forth between the mother and daughter exemplifies the struggle that the mother is going through knowing that her daughter is growing up. The mother continuously counters Laetitia’s excitement of “wanting to see the world” (132) with the argument that things are just as good on their reserve.

Although the story is told from the young child’s perspective it is evident that the mother wants to teach her son a life lesson. The metaphorical border between the mother and sons relationship is that she knows Laetitia has done well (possibly from other influences) and the mother would like to reciprocate this into the way she raises her son. Her stubborn approach to the “border” situation is subliminally teaching her son to acknowledge his Blackfoot ancestry. Often things that stick with you are messages that weren’t conventionally relayed. The mother does this not only by addressing only with being Blackfoot but in other ways too. For example, when she tells her son, “[w]hen I was a little girl, my grandmother used to take me and my sisters out on the prairies and tell us stories about the stars” (142). The boy seems to not be paying attention by talking about other things, but will retain the story just as he will forever remember his mother not declaring her citizenship anything other than, Blackfoot at the border.

The most obvious metaphor in King’s “Borders” is perhaps the border in which the mother identifies herself with. The mother chooses to straddle herself between borders because she chooses not to identify with being Canadian or American but rather Blackfoot. Although this is a fictional story the message is quite clear. Many First Nations people lived on land that was not separated by an invisible American/Canadian border. The mother intends to make this point not only for herself, but for her son.

Thomas King strategically places a physical American and Canadian border in order to engage the reader into understanding the Blackfoot woman’s scenario. There are many metaphorical borders in Thomas King’s “Borders” such as the borders between the mother and the daughter, the mother and son and between her Blackfoot identity and her Canadian citizenship. There are many different interpretations to be made about the metaphorical aspects within the story. What is most interesting is the way that King leaves it to the reader to decide. 

Comments

strong post

[literarybean]

This is another very strong, nicely organized post.