Identity And Identity In Thomas King's Short Story 'Borders'

In Obasan, Joy Kogawa highlights the emotional trauma that came with the decision by the Canadian government under Prime Minister Mackenzie King to intern immigrants of Japanese ancestry, even if they held Canadian citizenship. Kogawa is able to convey her points with usage of flashbacks to the period between 1941 and 1949, when the interment took place while the main setting of the story takes place in 1972. The fact that the main storyline takes place in 1972 and the book was published in 1981 underlines the fact that in the 1970s and 1980s, these issues had become a larger point of focus in Canadian society, especially because Canada did not have a true sense of national identity in how it viewed itself. Overall, the novel reveals much about

She begins the chapter by making a distinction between those two cultures. For Brant, words communicate the Mohawk tradition of "truth-telling and story" across generations. "Words themselves come from the place of mystery that gives meaning and existence to life" (3). " And because our words were spoken, it is important that we choose words carefully, and that we listen with equal care" (49). She describes how important oral culture is to her as a Mohawk and how, by separating children from elders, this was destroyed by the colonizers who discriminated against anything outside their own frames of reference.

Source 1 depicts the lack of collectivism between the Aboriginal people and the generation we live today. This shows the strong liberal stance in which has been imposed onto the minds of Aboriginal people. “In the earlier days, people shared food even if they didn’t have much, as long as there was a little bit of extra food” shows the major decline of food in the ancient generation of Inuit people. When people came close to each other, their collectivist ideas grew into a much a larger extent in which sharing became a fundamental part of their life. These people are not been bothered to look after, thereby growing into a minority society.

Imagine living a simple lifestyle where growing up everyone close to you was content and knew exactly who they were in life. Unfortunately for you, everything began to change as you grew up and the life you knew so well was becoming more modern. This then caused you to start forming different identities for yourself with all of these changes. That was the personal battle that Andrew Blackbird, author of History of the Ottawa and Chippewa Indians of Michigan, faced during his lifetime. In his short book he describes the events of his life and past events of his tribe and others in the area.

He emphasises the unfair treatment of Aboriginals, what has been done in the past and explains why common discriminatory beliefs are held. He uses rhetorical questions, “How would I feel if this were being done to me?” to challenge the way people have thought about this issue. “Imagine if… imagine if… imagine if…” he uses the anaphora also to challenge preconceived ideas and force the audience to realise that what has been done is not fair or equal, this being experience. Using the juxtaposition and opposing binary of Aboriginal and non-aboriginal people, Keating demonstrates the inequitable treatment Aboriginal people have received compared to what they have given “war… sport… literature… art… music.”

The history of Aboriginal alienation was an important context that assisted Silvey in the making of his novel, and furthermore establishing a successful play. The year 2009 was an influential year for Aboriginal’s rights. After twenty years of negotiation, the United Nations

The voices of Indigenous children are unheard and purposely ignored. This is portrayed through the literature of Birdie by Tracey Lindberg and Indian Horse by Richard Wagamese. Despite both apologies from Stephen Harper and Justin Trudeau, the government system to protect First Nations children appears to have detrimental effects on the life of a child. This is proven by young children turning to drugs in order to satisfy their growing pain, family members who abuse their children because they consume high amounts of alcohol, which has a negative impact on the child, and discriminatory behaviour by surrounding communities. To begin with, young children turning to drugs in order to satisfy their growing pain.

In "Borders" by Thomas King, there are multiple levels of storytelling as the narrator tells both a primary and secondary story simultaneously, and in doing this, the narrator is able to use the secondary story to establish themes and a background for the primary story in a way that makes the story flow in an interesting and engaging way. King's choice of narrator also impacts the way a story based on serious cultural disputes can be told in a light an unbiased way, through the eyes of a young boy. These choices contribute to an interesting flow of reading and an intriguing unbiased report of politically charged events. The authors choice of narrator can influence the flow of the story and what message is expressed, which makes the young, clueless, innocent boy an interesting conduit to tell a story based on cultural and racial divides.

Throughout Australia’s post settlement history a blind eye, or rather more of a blindfold, has been turned by ordinary Australia’s towards the indigenous population. The original inhabitants of this country have suffered through the injustices of being dislocated from their own land, not just when the ‘invaders’

This example proves that to the Indigenous, the discrimination has been taken to a far higher level with murder of loved ones involved, and this counter-argument is inferior to the voices of the broken families. Now, this happens because the Canadian government either doesn’t bother to enforce the security in the Indigenous community, or that they aren’t educating the First Nations in health and well-being, even though the government is making the “citizens” of Canada, their top priority. Throughout the Vicelands Cut-off, many of Indigenous people from the community, where Justin Trudeau was visiting kept on questioning the actions of the Liberal government, which emphasizes the fact that they either did not vote for the party, or the elected government wasn’t fulfilling the needs of the people. In particular, there was an old Aboriginal woman who didn’t know who Justin Trudeau even was, emphasizing that she had absolutely no hope in the democratic system. This

Thomas King wrote an essay titled “Not the Indian I had in Mind”. The title for King’s essay contains meaning and really gives the reader an idea of what the essay will discuss. In this essay King writes about his experiences of being an Indian and tells various stories that he experienced in his life that involve people of non-Indian descent providing him with details of what they think he should look like as an aboriginal person. Most of which are likely derived from stereotypes and mass media representations of Indian people and what we see and hear in pop

In Thomas King 's autobiographical novel, The Truth About Stories takes a narrative approach in telling the story of the Native American, as well as Thomas King 's. The stories within the book root from the obstacles that the Thomas King had to face during his years in high school and his post-university life. These stories are told in a matter that uses rhetorical devices such as personal anecdotes & comparisons. "You 'll Never Believe What Happened" Is Always a Great Way to Start is about the importance, potential, and dangers of stories, specifically those of creation stories and how they can shape a culture, with the aim to share King 's urgency for social change with his readers King 's informal tone, lighthearted jokes, and effort to make his writing follow the style of native oral tradition as closely as possible, all help the reader understand the type of narrative he believes would be most beneficial for the foundation of a society. His unique style allows for the use of personal anecdotes and requires that he breaks the proverbial fourth wall to communicate with the reader directly, to create the conversational feel of the oral tradition.

Introduction The Sapphires illustrates the ways in which the stolen generation continues to have repercussions against the indigenous community. The stolen generation was a period of time where children were violently snatched from their families and forced into houses and institutions that lied, abused, and humiliated them. When the children were taken away, relationships were ripped to shreds as the children lost their sense of belonging alongside their beliefs. This loss in connection left unresolved conflicts and impaired relationships that by the time they reunited years later, the resentment towards each other had built and the argument was brutal enough for the relationship to become inrepairable.

Laetitia appears to be struggling with the issue of identity. Her brother is equally confused about their history and was surprises to find out that “we got Blackfeet on the American side and the Canadians got Blackfeet on their side” too. This is because Blackfoot is an Indian tribe located on the 49th Parallel. It is a line of latitude that forms the western part of the border between Canada and the USA.

Though, this piece could not be published as it is deemed controversial. But for Cheryl, she knows it by heart, and it outlines the problem both the Metis and Indian people are going through. On the other hand, April despises her Metis culture and heritage. “‘… so anything to do with the Indians, I despised’” (40). April dreams of living similarly to a white person.