Short History Of Indians In Canada By Thomas King Summary

Thomas King uses Satire in his short story,“A Short History Of Indians In Canada ” to convey the theme of dehumanization of Aboriginal people in Canada, by depicting them as animals that are reliant on white people, while it may be a creative for king to express his arguments through, it’s an inappropriate to use humor, and parody depicting aboriginal people while knowing the treatment they have endured by European settlers, King ideas would have been presented more powerful than satire, because there would not be a need to depict the Aboriginal people as birds by their culture and identity, convey the voices of Aboriginal people rather than White people, and explain discrimination against Aboriginal rather than describing them as animals that need to be helped
One of the noticeable aspects from the short story is that king depicts Aboriginals as migrating birds, in which he uses parody to find humor their culture and identity, one example from the short story is that feathers are used to identify the aboriginal tribes. “Amazing, says Bob. How can you tell? By their feathers, says Bill. We got a book” (King page 204) through this satire, it belittles Aboriginal culture and identity through reducing their its significance by identifying their culture through the feathers of birds. By finding humor in down playing the identity and culture of one group, even after knowing that idenginous people have been terrorized by white settlements makes this short story less impactful when king is supposed to convey his arguments. Through out the short story the majority of the dialogue is spoken by White characters consiting of Bob, Rudy, and Bill, however no dialogue is given to the Aboriginal people except the sounds of “Whup! Whup!