Borders is an in between story, the majority of which is spent at the Canada-United states border. Thomas King deals with identity, and going against the grain of society. The narrator's mother, the main character, is told to make the choice of whether she's American or Canadian, refusing to state any other citizenship than “Blackfoot” (King 135). When they first try to cross over into the States at Coutts, the guard is “an old guy” and asks pretty typical questions of a border guard (134). However, when he arrives to the topic of citizenship, an impasse begins:
“'Citizenship?'
'Blackfoot,' my mother told him.
'Ma'am?'
'Blackfoot,' my mother repeated
'Canadian?'
'Blackfoot.'” (135 The narrator even claims: “it would have been easier if my mother had just said 'Canadian' and been done with it” (135). After refusing to say whether she is American or Canadian, the mother and son deal with more guards, and eventually drive to the Canadian border crossing, which has a female guard. The guard tries to empathize with the mother by saying that she would “be proud of being Blackfoot if [she] were Blackfoot. But you have to be American or Canadian.” (138). The son tells the guard that they are Blackfoot and Canadian, but he's a minor so it doesn't count.…show more content… [wandering] around” (140). They wait by the duty-free store for 2 days, and then the cameras and news teams show up. As the narrator was not around the mother when she, assumingly, contacted them, the motivations behind this part remain foggy. This could have been the whole point of the trip, or it could have just been a bridge to get across the border. All we see is that when there are cameras around the border guard he's “all smiles” (143) and with her citizenship of “Blackfoot” there is no problem and she crosses the border, news teams in the dust of the highway