Poppy S.

asked • 04/28/21

In the story "Borders" by Thomas King:


  1. What is implied by the one border guard's claim that "you have to be American or Canadian"?
  2. Explain how the following two quotes are related:


"You would expect Sweetgrass, which is a nice name and sounds like it is related to other places such as Medicine Hat and Moose Jaw and Kicking Horse Pass, would be on the Canadian side, and that Coutts, which sounds abrupt and rude would be on the American side. But this was not the case."


"I know that we got Blackfeet on the American side and the Canadians got Blackfeet on their side. Just so we keep our records straight, what side do you come from?"

Alison R.

For the first question, the guard is making assumptions on the sounds of names to determine the country of origin. It's a common assumption that Americans are abrupt and rude, while Canadians are nice. You can also assume that the guard is neither American nor Canadian, as he refers to them as separate from himself. The two quotes are related in that the guard is trying to determine where the person he is speaking to, a member of the Blackfeet tribe, comes from. He isn't able to use the name to determine where this person is from using his ideas of people from America and Canada--this can assume that "Blackfeet" has shown themselves to being either nice or rude yet to the guard.
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05/19/21

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