Reading Borders Essay

Reading Borders reminded me of an experience I’ve had a short time ago. My parents invited some of our family friends and their children to dinner, and by no coincidence, they are all Chinese families. While the parents are socializing, we high school students talked about our lives. Soon I realized that I was looking at something that makes me curious: the ways children with multiple identities identify themselves. The friends I was talking to have significant differences in identifying themselves, ranging from completely Asian to completely Western. Most of us stayed between the two. After reading Borders, the reason why we are all so different became clear to me: we all have different values and experiences.
In Borders, the three members of the family are significantly different when identifying themselves. The mother strongly identifies as Blackfoot, and refuses to identify as Canadian, because in her opinion, being Blackfoot means that she is not Canadian; she belongs to the Blackfoot community, be them Canadian or American. She thinks that the border is arbitrary; she feels that she does not have to choose and declare her nationality. Meanwhile, Laetitia is strongly leaning towards Western culture; she moved off the reserve, even leaving Canada.
The lives they lived, the way the want to live, and the things that they value changes identity. We identify with things we find appealing and convincing, and we feel close to the things that we value and believe. None of the characters in Borders made a wrong decision about their identity; the same can be said for all people with multiple identities. The mother should be respected for identifying as Blackfoot, Laetitia have the right to embrace Western city life and culture if she wants to identify with them, and the boy can be both if he wants to. There is no “right identity”, there is only identities that people feel comfortable with and