Essay on Difference

Understanding Differences

Difference, “The difference between genius and stupidity is; genius has its limits”-Albert Einstein. As in these three short stories from Sighlines10, “Borders” by Thomas King, “My body is my own business” by Sultana Yusufali and “Lysandra’s Poem” by Budge Wilson, are stories with factors of difference and its tolerance that can clearly be seen. In “Borders”, we can see that native people don’t really get treated fairly around places like borders. Secondly in “My body is my own business”, Sultana Yusufali addresses the audience about the hijab controversy and that hijabs are banned from being worn due to the ignorance of today’s society .Lastly in “Lysandra’s Poem”, Lysandra deals with things differently after losing something that meant a great deal to her and she found that losing the contest was a very big put down. People do not want to understand differences which then lead to tolerance.

Firstly, native people don’t really get treated fairly around places like borders, which can be identified in the short story “Borders”. ‘“I know … and I’d be proud to be Blackfoot if I were Blackfoot. But you have to be American or Canadian”’ (King 84). The Blackfoot woman in the short story does not want to identify her citizenship as American or Canadian but by Blackfoot because she believes that that is what she is. The woman has to tolerate being interviewed and questioned by costume officers and guards just because she was different. This story also shows that natives are not treated fairly and do not have their own privileges even though they have a high status in our history. Lastly the women tolerated the hardship to go see her daughter, and did not give up. She finally got the right to pass the border. This indicates that not understanding differences leads to tolerance.

Secondly, Sultana Yusufali addresses the audience about the hijab controversy and that hijabs are banned from being worn due to the ignorance of today’s civilisation in her essay “My body is my own business”. “I am not under duress or a male-worshipping female captive form those barbarous Arabic deserts. I’ve been liberated” (Yusufali 53). Some people believe that Muslim women are forced to wear the hijab, but Yusufali believes that wearing the hijab makes her feel proud. Sultana tolerates how people look at her and think about her when she walks around in a hijab, only showing her face and hands. She also says that some Muslim fundamentalists might think she is carrying and Uzi underneath her religious clothing. But she is just different from the western world and she also believes that because of how women have been showed in sexual ways through movies and the media, men begin to lose respect for women and judge them based on what is seen or heard. Sultana has to tolerate this because the western world lacks in understanding the differences.

Lastly, Lysandra in “Lysandra’s Poem” deals with things differently after losing something that meant a great deal to her and she found that losing the contest was a very big put down. “I’ll die if the house burns down…I remember thinking, I hope I never love or want anything that hard” (Wilson 129). In this short story Lysandra could not tolerate the difference of losing the poetry contest, so she broke her friendship with her best friend. This designates a strong message that understanding differences which Lysandra could not do, results in tolerance as Elaine had to do. Later on in the two’s broken friendship, Lysandra tries to take revenge on Elaine by stealing her boyfriend. When Lysandra grew older she became a famous writer but her writing and poetry contained bitterness that Elaine had to tolerate. Elaine had to tolerate this because Lysandra did not want to understand the differences.

In conclusion, people do not want to understand differences which then lead to tolerance. As specified in the short story written by Thomas King “Borders”, we can see that the native people do not get treated fairly especially around places like borders. Secondly, in the essay written by Sultana Yusufali “My body is my own business”, Sultana addresses the audience about the hijab controversy and that hijabs are banned from being worn due to the ignorance of today’s society. Lastly, in the short story “Lysandra’s Poem” by Budge Wilson, Lysandra deals with things differently after losing something that meant a great deal to her and she found that losing the contest was a very big put down. Overall, it is necessary to understand differences to be able to acknowledge its tolerance.