Story follows two story lines, flipping between them:
- story of mother and son trying to cross the border
- story of Laetitia and her decision to move to Salt Lake City
-- induces a sense of interweaving of the proudly static (mother) and the proudly dynamic (Laetitia)
-- the flipping between reflects King's belief that past and present are inseparable; helps us to get to know characters, but not their inner world
-- each time feels like the present, as though we are there in that time
-- told from child's viewpoint, shows lack of understanding of events and of the larger picture; but leaving out name of this character helps to generalize, a moment that could happen any day; Newscast demonstrates realism
-- characters' back and forth conversations, but often not talking about the same things; son seems uninvolved in mother's battle to be recognized as Blackfoot; this seems to suggest that the son is losing his inheritance
-- contrasts modernity of Salt Lake City, Laetitia moving, etc., to preservation of Blackfoot, mother's stories about the stars, broken down museum
-- identity: "I'd be proud of being a Blackfoot if I were Blackfoot .. . But you have to be American or Canadian"
-- note influence of media on characters: Laetitia's boyfriend has seen brochures that convince Laetitia of the wonders of Salt Lake City; in presence of media the border guard immediately folds and allows mother and son to cross the border
-- not postmodern, rather its oral qualities make it a tale, out of native tradition; story can be told in one sitting; but also has a real historical context -- aboriginals' problem in being accepted as a "worthy" culture; lack of standard identity a problem in our modern world
Document prepared March 31st 2001