Short History Of Indians In Canada By Thomas King Summary

Thomas King uses Satire in his short story,“A Short History Of Indians In Canada ” to convey the theme of dehumanization of Aboriginal people in Canada, by depicting them as animals that are reliant on white people, while it may be a creative for king to express his arguments through, it’s an inappropriate to use humor, and parody depicting aboriginal people while knowing the treatment they have endured by European settlers, King ideas would have been presented more powerful than satire, because there would not be a need to depict the Aboriginal people as birds by their culture and identity, convey the voices of Aboriginal people rather than White people, and explain discrimination against Aboriginal rather than describing them as animals that need to be helped
by White people.
One of the noticeable aspects from the short story is that king depicts Aboriginals as migrating birds, in which he uses parody to find humor their culture and identity, one example from the short story is that feathers are used to identify the aboriginal tribes. “Amazing, says Bob. How can you tell? By their feathers, says Bill. We got a book” (King page 204) through this satire, it belittles Aboriginal culture and identity through reducing their its significance by identifying their culture through the feathers of birds. By finding humor in down playing the identity and culture of one group, even after knowing that idenginous people have been terrorized by white settlements makes this short story less impactful when king is supposed to convey his arguments. Through out the short story the majority of the dialogue is spoken by White characters consiting of Bob, Rudy, and Bill, however no dialogue is given to the Aboriginal people except the sounds of “Whup! Whup!
Whup!”. One could argue that because the aboriginals are being portrayed as birds, they do not require any dialogue, however the short story tries to display the declining populations of aboriginals, but it’s significance is masked through the characters who have dialogue and have no first hand informaation about the declining populations of aborignals that have happened because of white settlement. Through Satire in this story we are not given any perspective or views from an aboriginal stand point, instead we have chracters who have limited information, yet we have no perspective of how and why the population of aboriginal people are declining. Through an essay, King would have first hand information and perspectives of the aboriginals and therefore leading to an impactful message. Lastly, biggest flaw with satire in “A Short History Of Indians in Canada” is that there is barley a clear description of of discrimination that Aboriginals have faced. Just like how the white characters are given the most dialogue, they are depicted as hero’s through the satire written by King. This is problematic, because it contradicts his arguments. Through the short story white people are portrayed as heroic figures who save the Aboriginal people, trying to restore their populations by nursing them to health and relasing them back into the wild as if aboriginals were like animals. “The lives ones we tag, says Bill. Take them to the shelter. Nurse them back in the Wild” (King page 205). Through an essay, King would not have used white people as “Heros” to convey his arguments, instead he could argue about the discrimination that aboriginals have received, and make an impact with his arguments rather than satire which King used for his arguments.

In conclusion, Satire is not an appropraite medium to express King’s arguments about Aborigian people. An essay would have a strongful impact, because it does not require portraying Aboriginal people as birds to mock their identity and culture, it would allow to convey the voice of Aboriginal Peope instead of white people and lastly it would allow to describe the discrimnation against white people rather than describing them as animals that need to be helped by White people.