In Alison Gordon's book "Prairie Hardball," the character Kate Henry, a woman who was born and raised on the prairies, now lives in Toronto. The Saskatchewan culture she grew up with and thought of as being normal, she now sees as being boring and unsophisticated, yet something inside her still loves the laid-back prairie attitude.
When she arrives at the induction dinner, she is immediately critical of the "pathetic decorations"(69) that look as if a child could have made them. Kate also overhears the jokes the women are telling that were "corny the first time around, fifty years before."(69) The dinner was a typical Saskatchewan party, it was "un-cool, un-hip, un-chic,"(69) nothing like you would see in Toronto. .
As Kate looks around the room, wishing she wasn't embarrassed to be one of these people, she sees the things she remembers from her childhood, the things she can be proud of and love about Saskatchewan. The little things, that seem so normal to a person from Saskatchewan, such as the gathering of decent people who are "genuinely warm and friendly,"(69) are so rare to Toronto. These simple, yet important characteristics are something you have to experience to understand and truly appreciate.
In Alison Gordon's book "Prairie Hardball," Kate Henry sees the induction dinner in two ways. A person not from Saskatchewan would see the party as being boring and unsophisticated, yet a person from Saskatchewan would have seen it as being a perfectly planned party where everyone had fun. This is because of the diversity of cultures from one place to another. Saskatchewan may seem like a bunch of hicks who are boring and unsophisticated to someone from Toronto, but if a Saskatchewan person went to Toronto they would see a bunch of inconsiderate people only concerned about the well-being of themselves. .
