Introduction
Thomas King’s “Borders” written in 1993 presents some episodes from the life of a female representative of Aboriginal Canadians who are proud of her native culture. The events described in this short story include the main character’s attempts to cross the border without lying about her national identity. The story deserves positive recognition since the author is successful in introducing a range of socially important topics such as the problems of minorities, generation-based differences, and conflicts within families.
The Main Themes, Conflicts, and Lessons Learned
It is widely known that different generations vary when it comes to the degree of cultural uniqueness and the willingness to respect their ancestors’ views on life and region-specific traditions. This idea is the key message of many literary works written by authors belonging to ethnic minorities, and King’s “Borders” is not an exception (84). Being a person of Cherokee origin, the author is concerned with discussing the problems of the First Nations, paying focused attention to cultural heritage, and the disadvantages of total assimilation (King 84). In “Borders”, the author illustrates this idea by telling about the mother who prefers speaking Blackfoot and rejects the idea that she “has to be American or Canadian” when entering the United States (King 90).
The author is good at illustrating his ideas with the help of contrasts between different characters. For instance, according to Jansen, the mother and her son “fall into a legislative loophole” due to the woman’s attempts to make border guards see Blackfoot people as a separate nation (74). In contrast, her seventeen-year-old daughter Laetitia lives in the United States and manages to get across to the White majority (King 89). As for the woman’s teenage son who travels with her, he seems to be more open to assimilation, and this fact represents the conflict between different generations.
Apart from presenting the mother’s attempts to cross the border without declaring herself as Canadian, the story depicts younger generations’ attitudes to their parents’ lifestyles, successfully introducing the themes of identity and conflict. For instance, visiting her family, Laetitia gets angry and tells her brother that “life around here is too boring”, and these words express her unwillingness to live in the reservation (King 91). By introducing this fact, the author helps readers to better understand the nature of the conflict between the mother and Laetitia who, similar to any teenager, tends to see parental care as an attempt to control her life.
In general, the analysis of the story demonstrates that it has several strong points explaining its popularity among both American Indians and other groups of readers. Firstly, despite being a short story, the work provides enough details about both sides of the conflict, and therefore, all dialogues seem clear and realistic. Apart from that, it contributes to the establishment of a dialogue between the First Nations and other ethnic groups.
For instance, the lessons that can be learned from the story and expand White people’s scope relate to the peculiarities of familial relations in reservations, Canadian aborigines’ mythology, the interdependence of people in native communities, and similar things (King 90). Although it is not discussed explicitly, the work in question also manages to find links between very specific problems of minorities whose identity is not always recognized legally and parent-child conflicts peculiar to any culture.
Conclusion
To sum up, “Borders” by Thomas King presents a story of a proud Canadian aborigine who does not want to lose her cultural identity and has children who are less hostile to the idea of assimilation. In this work, the author introduces several important themes such as personal identity, generational differences, and parent-child conflicts. As for the work’s importance, the author manages to describe the problems of ethnic minorities and link them to the problem of parents and children related to any culture.
Works Cited
Jansen, Anne Mai Yee. “One Good Story, That One by Thomas King.” The American Indian Quarterly, vol. 40, no. 1, 2016, pp. 74-76.
King, Thomas. “Borders.” Great Short Stories by Contemporary Native American Writers, edited by Bob Blaisdell, Dover Publications, Inc., 2014, pp. 84-95.