Borders by Thomas King

Solutions

Look at the projector!

Activity

:-)

- Try to solve the crossword puzzle on your handout's back!

That's it

Thank you for your attention and time

questions?

:)

ANY

Literary devices

Symbols:

guns: control, power, force of the

"superior" (carried by guards)

Blackfoot Nation: pride

border (actual title):

1. Border-Society, intolerant, not open for new things

(also mistreating and disregarding Blackfoot natives)

2. Physical border between USA

and Canada

NAMES

Laetitia: joy, happiness

> became happy in Salt-Lake City

in Canada she wasn't

Mel: a bit far-fetched: -> nickname for Melvin, meaning servant of Jesus ( helpfulness)

Irony

- imaginary line separates two big countries (US and Canada) and a nation (Blackfoot), which was there way longer than the border

=> mistreat

- be tolerant with other nationalities and accept them

- have acceptance to others, even though they are different

#3 - Tolerance

=>"I told him we had nowhere to go, that neither the Americans nor the Canadians would let us in" (220)

=> "Every so often one of the reporters would come over and ask me questions about how it felt to be an Indian without a country" (270)

How is it shown in the story?

- Citizenship does NOT represent your identity. You choose by yourself who you are

#2 - Personal Identity

=> "Canadian side or American side?" asked the guard. "Blackfoot side," she said. (115)

=> "I'd be proud of being Blackfoot if I were Blackfoot. But you have to be American

or Canadian." (183)

How is it shown in the story?

♂♂▬▬- be proud of who you are and of your nationality

=> also FACE THE CONSEQUENCES

according to Laetitia's brother:

►- pride good thing to have

- thinks it's inheritable (something you have in your family) [in reality it's not!]

- important

Themes

#1 - Pride

=> "It would have been easier if my mother had just said "Canadian" and been done with it, but I could see she wasn't going to do that." (94)

=> "Pride is a good thing to have, you know. Laetitia had a lot of pride, and so did my mother. I figured that someday, I'd have it, too. " (214)

How is it shown in the story?

Point of view

>> mentioned in story, it commences when the mother refuses to decide between American or Canadian. Then the media gets involved and the conflict is eventually over when they are able to drive through the border with saying "Blackfoot"

Conflicts

>> small problem between Laetitia and her mother, because she wasn't too happy about her leaving at the start

- Mother vs. border-guards

- Sister vs. mother

- Aboriginals vs. society

- Story told from the point of view of Laetitia's brother (the boy)

- get to know his thoughts

- DON'T get to know thoughts of others

=> not omniscient

- story is told in the first-person perspective

=> only one perspective

>> intolerance of society is represented with the actions done by the guards

Setting

Laetitia

'

Others

- Guards

=> antagonists

=> intolerant

- Mrs. Manyfingers

=> neighbour of mother

- TV-team

=> support for stubbornness

of mother

Mel

Worker at the shop

- helpful, supportive

- tolerant

- kind

- sympathetic

Characters

Laetitia

- independent

- mature (probably full aged)

=> left home when she was

an adult

- impulsive

- dual citizenship (USA & Canada

=> that's why she was able

to move to the USA

... used to have a boyfriend

(they broke up)

Boy/son

- 2nd protagonist

- child

- sensible, reasonable

- calm

- naive

- dual citizenship (USA & Canada)

Mother

-> reliable, although a bit naive

(no disease or distorted perception)

narrator

- native Canadian

- protagonist

- loyal to Blackfoot

- stubborn

- determined

-> roots in Blackfoot

Father

- not much information given

- divorced

- lives in USA

- a native of USA

the mother is Canadian and the father American, that's why the kids have a dual citizenship

Play

Summary

Flashbacks

- parts of story told in flashbacks

- contain past of Laetitia and her mother

Blackfoot

- indian tribe between America and Canada

- Aborignals used to live there

Blackfoot= Canada

Blackfeet = USA

starts in past:

- sister leaves home

- goes to Salt-Lake City (USA)

- mother not really happy

back to the present:

- the narrator (the boy) & his mother want to visit Laetitia

- at the border of Canada to USA, they asked for their nationalities

=> answer: "Blackfoot"

- they don't get through the border

=> trouble with the guards

- rest at convenience store

- TV-team and media arrives

- they try again get through it (because of the media)

=> nationality Blackfoot accepted now

The only thing you have to do

is watching.

Author

Shortstory Borders

- published in 5.4.2003

What happened 2003?

- CBP laws in America were applied

- CBP = 'Customs and Border Protection'

=> support border-system

=> against immigrants and Aboriginals!

... makes it harder to cross it

- could interpret that T.K. was against this CBP law

- Thomas King

- born 24.April, 1943, California

- author of various shortstories and well-known novels (even awarded)

- Native American but known as a Canadian author

=> born in America but moved to Canada to study. He personally feels more

Canadian than American. Still has a dual citizenship, American-Canadian

Parallel to "Borders"

?) Aboriginals= original inhabitants

- T.K. fought politically for Aboriginals (e.g. Blackfoot) by assisting their rights and preventing America AND Canada from taking away their land.

- T.K. was mostly raised by his mother - the same as in the shortstory