Breaking Down Constructss Summary

Breaking Down Constructs: The Path from Resistance to Reconciliation
What is the purpose of a border? Is it more than a line that separates two things? In an interview, American-Canadian author Thomas King explains how “borders are these very artificial and subjective barriers that we throw up around our lives in all sort of ways. National borders are just indicative of the kinds of borders we build around ourselves” (qtd. In Andrews, 172). His short story Borders documents the journey of a Blackfoot woman and her son, attempting to visit her daughter in Salt Lake City. However, her refusal to declare their citizenship results in them being stuck between the Canadian and American borders. Although the title Borders is a reflection of the setting, it is also a
To present day, the history and culture of indigenous communities are often sugar-coated till the significance is lost. Through stereotypes of appearance and spirituality, a boundary is created to isolate these marginalized people from the rest of society -- this is all due to the colonialist mindset. To clarify, this mindset entails the feeling of inferiority or oppression by a group of people who never reciprocate respect, as a result of colonization (d’Errico). Peter d’Errico, a central figure in the litigation of indigenous peoples’ issues, states that the term colonialism “is a bad word” and it is now “fashionable to say we live in a ‘post-colonial’ world” (d’Errico). It is through analytical stories such as Borders where this mindset is addressed and illustrated through the recognizable experience of border crossings. The imagery of guns is a metaphor that further expands on the power and control that the border guards hold over people passing through. The son describes the weapons in detail: “Her gun was silver. There were several chips in the wood handle and the name ‘Stella’ was scratched into the butt” (King, 138). In a