Borders

“Borders” addresses the themes of Indigenous identity, status, and citizenship, which are core elements of most of King’s work. The story’s character development and literary devices focus on power, pride, connections between generations, and the concept of citizenship. To address these issues, the story uses allegory, simile, and subtext. The story also uses conflict as a plot device and as a mechanism for character development, especially for Laetitia and the mother.

This text serves as a commentary on one of King’s deep interests—the overlap between individual experience and social institutions. The story offers a sociohistorical perspective on the intersection between personal identity and institutional identity. The clash between the personal and the institutional demonstrates the struggle of Indigenous communities to reconcile with colonialism and its legacy.

The use of allegory, simile, and subtext support the larger themes of identity, pride, and exploration of the outside world. These literary devices often juxtapose an intangible idea, such as the romanticized idea of the Old West, with real threats such as violence from the border patrol officers. King analyzes these themes against the backdrop of his criticism of institutional blindness. Moreover, the themes are ambiguous; for example, we are not certain how the events in this text will affect the identity and perspectives of the young narrator.

The story employs two narratives, which allows for twice the conflict to build over the course of the text. From the beginning of the story, the reader senses the tension between Laetitia and her mother, and the conflict intensifies in both narratives. The use of two storylines allows for two points of conflict to be explored, and these dual narratives allow for deeper character development throughout the story. This style of two intertwined storylines is reminiscent of oral tradition, in which the information is the most important part of the story, and the chronology can be molded to fit the content.

Despite the media’s late appearance in the narrative, they have an important effect on the story. It is not stated who contacted the media and why, but their presence changes the prospects for the narrator and his mother. At first, it appears that the border patrol officers are the most powerful characters in the story, but the text demonstrates that media attention has a unique ability to bend the will of institutions to meet public demand. In a world where law disregards individual identity and lived experience, media and technology can spread the news of injustice and bias on a large scale and force meaningful change.