The short story "Borders" by Thomas King from the book Language & Writing 11 and "Brooms for Sale" by Thomas Raddall from Imprints 11 reveal that one must not give up and must stand still
Challenges are faced every step of the way, but it is a person with pride and courage who accepts it readily. The short story “Borders” by Thomas King from the book Language & Writing 11 and “Brooms for Sale” by Thomas Raddall from Imprints 11 reveal that one must not give up and must stand still to what they believe in and what they want to achieve in life. Some of the aspects of the two short stories that are comparable are that both of the main characters face challenges/conflicts, both don’t give up in any situation, they both accomplish what they wanted although differ since they have different ways of achieving their goal ( one with pride & the other with courage).
In each of the short stories, the main characters are single mothers who face challenges which reveal their character. In “Borders,” Laetitia’s mother faces a challenge of hanging on to her identity of being a Blackfoot. This is shown when she reaches the border and is being asked questions by the border guard. ‘“Citizenship?” “Blackfoot,” my mother told him. “Ma’am?” “Blackfoot,” my mother repeated. “Canadian?” “Blackfoot”’ (24). Listening to this answer, the guard doesn’t let her cross the border. Similarly, in “Brooms for Sale,” Greta – a single mother who is poor, also faces a huge challenge. This is shown when Greta is heading back home after selling the brooms she made. During her journey, she faces a blizzard which gives her a difficult time since she can’t clearly see the way and ends up getting lost. Even though Greta was half frozen due to the harsh storm, she courageously moved on. “She led Judy along inside the fence, wading through the drifts until she came to a gate and saw light” (122). This tells us that even though her condition at the moment was awful, she didn’t give up and managed to save herself and Judy (the horse) from the terrible storm. Both works therefore prove to be similar in terms of how they both faced challenges.
