Story: Borders Thomas King

1. Why do you think the story moves back and forth between the border
scenes and the talk about Salt Lake City? Discuss the relationship
between the structure of the story and its content.
The narrator of this story is a twelve or thirteen-year-old young boy. The
boy narrates the story as what people say, what they did and what
happened. At the start of the story, when his mother announced they were
going to go to Salt Lake City, it only seems like the story is about the
story of the boy going on a journey to visit his sister, who moved to a
different place. However, as the story goes on he starts to share all his
relevant memories- talk about Salt Lake City. I think the story moves back
and forth between the border scenes and the talk about Salt Lake City
because the boy is having flashbacks of the Salt Lake City stories and his
sisters relocation in the past. I think the boy is too young to interpret the
identity issue and so he narrates the story with his memories and
experiences.
However, at the point when they go back to the American border for
second time and he asks his mother if they were going see Laetitia, she
replies no. He interprets there, Pride is a good thing to haveLatetia
had a lot of pride and so did my mother. So, maybe he understands the
little conflicts and recalls the past as Latetia leaving home without
mothers blessings, or Latetia saying that her mother was angry because
she wanted to see the world, or mother saying that they had everything
right there in their home. The structure of the story is primarily about the
boy and his mother having a failing situation to cross the border and
attempting multiple times to get through and finally making it. I think that
the boy is learning things in that situation and so it happens that he
oscillates back and forth to relate to the journey with his past memories.

2. What happens at the end of the story? Why are they finally allowed to
cross the border? Why does Mel say the narrators mother is an
inspiration to us all? Is she? Explain.
At the end of the story, the boy and his mother finally get to visit Latetia,
see around Salt Lake City, have a nice time and come back to Canada.
Most importantly, the mother is finally able to make herself be recognized
as who she wants to be, Blackfoot. The mother repeatedly attempts to
identify herself as a Blackfoot but not Canadian or American, which
raises conflict with the border patrol officers. The issue of border forcing

mother to identify her citizenship, her choice to be identified as only native

and none of the borders letting them pass through got the media attention.
The media highlighted on how it felt for them to be an Indian without a
country. Since they owned a home across one of the borders, keeping
them locked within the two borders would not be reasonable. Since the
media went over to both American and Canadian border, they might have
raised questions to resolve the issue. The guy in dark blue suit and an
orange tie with little ducks, who could have had high authoritative power
most probably have resolved the issue. Finally, when the officer at the
border told them to have a pleasant trip even when the mother identified
the citizenship to be Blackfoot, may suggest that the border agreed to let
the natives pass through without identifying them as citizens of either
Canada or America.
Mel says the narrators mother is an inspiration to us all because she
took her position on identity, stood by it even though she was not let
towards her own home and succeeded in establishing Blackfoot as her
citizenship identity. I think she is indeed an inspiration because she
respected her identity even in front of the law. She could have simply
called herself Canadian and passed through easily but she chose to
stand by her history (something that will never change) and pride. She
proved herself as a strong woman. She is an inspiration.

3. Compare this story to Gloria Anzalduas To Live in the Borderlands

Means You on page 948.
To Live in the Borderlands Means You and Borders both relate to the
identity issue of people living close to the border of America. Anzaldua
writes living in the borderlands means, that denying the Anglo inside you
is as bad as having denied the Indian or Black. From this line, it may be
understood that borderlands people cannot deny themselves as one race
or the other but have to carry all of them together. Similarly, in Kings story,
the Indian mother is forced to identify herself as either American or
Canadian rather than just Blackfoot.
As Anzaldua writes, people walk through you, the wind steals your
voice, carrying all five races on your back, may suggest that people like
her are suppressed within their society while attempting to live within all
the prevalent cultures. It seems that the women struggle finding their true
identity. However, in borders, the mother seems to be a strong woman
able to fight for what she thinks she really is, a Blackfoot. The mother
and her son become Indians without a country while they are still in the
border of their own country. A similar understanding is found in the poem
when the writer expresses, you are at home, a stranger.

The ability of the mother to stay adamant towards the border officers and
losing the opportunity to meet her daughter suggests that she is loyal to
her heritage. On the other hand, it is found in Anzalduas article that
women in borderlands have conflicting identity within their own community
and they do not know who to be loyal to or who to run from.