The Importance of Stories in Borders by Thomas King Essay example --

In Thomas King's short story "Borders," a Blackfoot mother struggles with maintaining her cultural heritage under the pressure of two dominating nations. Storytelling is important, both for the mother and for the dominant White society. Stories are used to maintain and pass on cultural information and customs from one generation to another. Furthermore, stories can be used both positively and negatively. They can trap individuals into certain ways of thinking, but they can also act as catalysts that drive social change within society. Stories are a means of passing on information, acting as a medium to transport cultural heritage and customs forward into the future. In his essay titled "You'll Never Believe What Happened," King says that, "The truth about stories is that that's all we are† (King Essay 2). Contained within this statement is a powerful truth: without stories, a society transcending the limitations of time could not exist. Cultures might appear, but they would inevitably die away without a means of preservation. Subsequent generations would be tasked with creating language, customs, and moral laws, all from scratch. In a way, stories form the core of society's existence. Humans are the containers for stories, responsible for ensuring that many centuries worth of accumulated knowledge does not dissapear. However, the very fact that stories live on in humans can be problematic. If, for example, there are only five people in the world that knew English, and these people died without having taught anyone else the language, then English would dissapear with them; this is the dilemma the Blackfoot mother faces. Right before Laetitia leaves for Salt Lake City, she is talking with the mother. Although the mother is speak... ... perceptions their ancestors held centuries earlier. Stories are not set in stone, and this means that all stories - even the most powerful - can be altered. The Blackfoot mother refuses to accept the prevailing stories pushed onto her by society and, as a result, her access through the border is restricted. But in persisting for a third, viable alternative, the mother is able to shape the dominating assumptions of society. She tells her own counter-narratives, introducing an "alternative to the narratives of the nations [she] refuses to acknowledge" (Andrews and Walton 609). She presents a story that is capable of altering the metanarrative that governs that governs Canada and America; the mother succeeds in changing the fundamental beliefs held by both societies, and she is able to free the Canadians and Americans from the restrictive, dichotomous way of thinking.