The Importance of Stories in Borders by Thomas King Essay example --

In Thomas Kings short story Borders, a Blackfoot overprotect struggles with nurseing her cultural heritage under the pressure of two peremptory nations. Storytelling is important, both for the mother and for the dominant White society. Stories ar used to maintain and pass on cultural information and customs from one contemporaries to another. Furthermore, stories can be used both positively and negatively. They can bound individuals into certain ways of thinking, but they can also act as catalysts that drive social change within society.Stories are a marrow of passing on information, acting as a medium to fascinate cultural heritage and customs forward into the future. In his essay name Youll Never Believe What Happened, King says that, The truth about stories is that thats exclusively we are (King Essay 2). Contained within this statement is a powerful truth without stories, a society transcending the limitations of time could not exist. Cultures might appear, but they wou ld inevitably fatigue away without a message of preservation. Subsequent generations would be tasked with creating language, customs, and moral laws, all from scratch. In a way, stories form the core of societys existence. Humans are the containers for stories, creditworthy for ensuring that many centuries worth of accumulated knowledge does not dissapear. However, the very particular that stories live on in humans can be problematic. If, for example, in that location are only five mickle in the world that knew English, and these people died without having taught anyone else the language, then English would dissapear with them this is the dilemma the Blackfoot mother faces. Right before Laetitia leaves for table salt Lake City, she is talking with the mother. Although the mother is speak... ... perceptions their ancestors held centuries earlier. Stories are not set in stone, and this means that all stories - even the most powerful - can be altered. The Blackfoot mother refuse s to accept the prevailing stories pushed onto her by society and, as a result, her find through the border is restricted. But in persisting for a third, viable alternative, the mother is able to shape the dominating assumptions of society. She tells her own counter-narratives, introducing an alternative to the narratives of the nations she refuses to certify (Andrews and Walton 609). She presents a story that is capable of altering the metanarrative that governs that governs Canada and America the mother succeeds in changing the fundamental beliefs held by both societies, and she is able to free the Canadians and Americans from the restrictive, dichotomous way of thinking.