Analysis Of When The Legends Die By Hal Borland

The story When the Legends Die by Hal Borland follows a young boy, named Thomas, through his life of change. He starts not knowing only the old ways, then a strange man, named Blue Elk, brings him to a school to learn the new ways which Thomas obstinately refuses to learn, until he learns his lodge is destroyed, and he has nothing. When Thomas is in town to sell the wool from his sheepherding, Red offers him a job as a rodeoer. Thomas accepts and rides broncs for many years, but a horse falls on him requiring Thomas to stay in the hospital for six weeks. After he goes back to Pagosa to rest and ends up herding sheep for the summer, but when the summer was nearing its close, a bear attacked and killed one of the sheep. He sets out to kill the bear, but ends up adopting the old ways again. Thomas goes from being a follower of the old ways to completely rejecting them and back again.

A clout Indian?” (200), but by the end of these parts, Thomas is the complete opposite because he is trying to follow the white man’s way before he leaves for rodeoing, and at the end of the book, “he whispered the chant to the evening. It was an old chant, a very old one, and he sang it not to the evening but to himself, to be sure he would never again forget” (216). When he arrives at the school, the agent there immediately tries to get rid of Thomas’ bear, but Thomas, being his stubborn boy self, refuses until Blue Elk tricks him