Customer Reviews

When the Legends Die

5 star:		(27)
4 star:		(20)
3 star:		(25)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(24)

 

 

Legends is one of the most important books I ever read in my life. It is not only a touching, gripping novel but also a symbolic story about the life between two worlds Native Americans have to deal with until today. I found this book under rather special circumstances: A German writer, Liselotte Welskopf-Henrich, uses this novel in her own book in a scene where a young Native teacher has to try and explain to 18 year old Lakota students on Pine Ridge Reservation why they should be interested in (European) literature... I thought that this novel was fictional, but later, just before my English exam, I found out differently. I used the book for my diploma and even though my English was average, I got the best possible grades! The teacher felt how much I loved that book. I urge you to read it, it's a masterpeace. And it also features some really good rodeo action! The end is not as sad as it would probably be in real life, but what the heck, I think it's great that the author gave his hero a chance to change his life and get back in touch with his past and the way of life his parents tought him.

This book, I have a hard time even describing. I picked it up for the first time in high school, for a book report. I was completely mesmerized by the story. Maybe not even the story, but the feeling the book gives off. Intense sadness, isolation by choice, integration by force....then there's the way it's brought into the beautiful, painful scenery. It's been a couple of years since I've read this, so I'm not going to quote exact details. However, it's a rare book that I can look back on, and set myself into, because I remembered the way scenes felt. That's not just good writing. That's fantastic writing, in my opinion. If you want a book that will stick with you, long after you've finished it, try this one. I don't think you'll be dissapointed.

When the Legends Die is a compelling novel about the struggle of a Native American in a white man's world. Thomas Black Bull searches for his identity and place in life through many hardships and disappointments. Effective for young adult readers, the novel brings up questions about culture, identity, and tradition vs. change. The book is both provocative and easy to read at the same time. I definitely recommend this novel to all ages, but especially high school age students. It challenges one's beliefs and ideas about culture and "living."

This book is one of the best I have read. People that are dissing it are thick-headed and criticize the book because the deeper meanings fly over their head. I believe everyone can relate to Tom in at least one way or the other. You don't have to be older to get this book! The young can read this, I am only in eighth grade! Read it for yourself; don't skip this classic because of what the unintellectual mass that have attempted (or not attempted) to understand this book have said about it. I believe you will enjoy it.

A common nation, the Indian nation, in 1912 was struggling to assimilate. After a repeated robbery one Indian man, Jim Black Bull, set out to kill this robber and fellow Indian. He knew he had to flee civilization due to the white mans laws so he took his wife and son into the mountains to live the old way. After only a year the father died and it was up to the young boy, Bears Brother, and his mother to survive. The mother survived for only another three years before she died of a common flu. It was then up to the boy to use what he had learned from his parents to survive. He lived for several years in the mountains until an old family friend set out to find Bears Brother, which he eventually did. This new learning and living environment was new and scary. He had to adjust to his new life; his new name which was Thomas and his new religion, Christianity. He had such a hard time assimilating he went to live with a sheepherder to help care for sheep. All though he did well at this he did not like it and when a man asked him if he wanted to be a bronco rider he quickly accepted. He had found his calling as Devil Tom the bronco rider who rode horses to the death. For many years he won just enough to live comfortably and he quickly became a legend. He eventually would go back to the mountains to rediscover whom he really was inside. When The Legends Die opens the reads' eyes to see what it was like to be an Indian at the turn of the century. It shows the hardships that they had to bear due to the white men. The descriptions in the book are so vivid that you feel like you are there experiencing it for yourself. This bold book is exciting, thought provoking and at times quiet humorous. This book makes you laugh, frown, gasp, and cheer out loud.

When the Legends Die is a heart-wrenching tale of a turn of the century Ute boy who becomes orphaned, then is taken advantage of by one person after another - Native and Euro-American - until he grows up and finds himself. Excellent incorporation of N.A. spirituality into an action-backed rodeo rouser! May be problematic with "reluctant" or below grade level readers because it starts out at a young adult vocabulary level, then abruptly shifts to a more mature level. With a vocabulary key for Chapters 21 on, this can be overcome.

When The Legends Die is the kind of story that will grab and hold your enthusiasm. This story starts off with a young boy named Tom Black Bear being left in the wilderness alone, after his parents both die of sickness and injury. Tom is the member of the Ute tribe, and in an effort to revive his traditions, he moves into town. Tom gets tricked into going to school, but he later escapes to become a bronco rider. Tom meets many characters on his quest to find inner peace, and most of these people take advantage of him. When Tom's friends die, he takes his life to the mountain that he was raised on. Tom lives with his grief until he lets go of all the pain he has suffered. The story ends with Tom reaching complete happiness in his home on top of Granite Mountain.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book because the author, Hal Borland paints a very precise image in your mind. He mixes Tom's delicate emotions with the enormous strength that Tom possesses very well. This story can relate to almost anyone he has ever fought for something, because that is what the core of this story is about. Tom struggles to survive the hardships of life, and the decision to live or die is his alone. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys an exciting book that makes you feel like you have accomplished something when you finish reading it.

"When the Legends Die" is a well-written novel by Hal Borland which covers how one young Indian attempts to find balance between the "white man's world" and the world of his native ancestors. As he struggles to keep old traditions in the modern world, his life becomes montony, an endless circle that leads nowhere but is always changing the young man's character. He must decide whether the "new way" or the "old way" is the way for him.

Thomas Black Bull is a young Indian boy who lives on a reservation with his mother and father. The people of the reservation have been cheated by Blue Elk, one of their own people, into becoming nearly slaves, working for next to nothing for promises left unkept. However, when Thomas' father kills another Indian for stealing from him, the family must flee into the wilderness, and live off the land. All goes well, until one day the father is killed in an avalanche. Later, Tom's mother gets sick and dies. All alone, Tom vows to alienate himself from the world that condemned his parents and his people.

A major theme of this novel is the circle. Tom goes on a wild ride through the rodeo circuit, through many towns and villages, only to gain nothing out of it all. However, Tom's character truly changes, even as he steadfastly hates the white men. This is a beautiful novel, a true journey to find oneself.

This is a book I hold close to my heart, I love it. I've read it 3 times in the past 5 years. As a 19 year old girl I never thought I would like books such as this, but it's incredible. The ratings this book has recieved certainly doesn't give it justice enough. It's terrific and sad, I just treasure this book as if it were a Ernest Hemingway novel. Try this book it's spectacular.

Many words can describe this book, but I personally would choose two: intriguing and profound. I believe Hal Borland has written a classic, in When the Legends Die. Though it may lack the action and suspense characterized by many fiction works about the American Indian, this novels message holds a much stronger feeling that not many other forms of entertainment can arouse. This story takes you through an emotional rollercoaster from start to end. One can only imagine the pain and suffering that the protagonist, Thomas Black Bull, had to endure. It makes you ponder the question of how far you would go to perpetuate your culture.
When the Legends Die is the story of a Ute Indian, by the name of Thomas Black Bull, whose life is constantly under a tug of war between the new, the western way, and the old, the Ute way. When he is still very young his father murders a fellow Ute, and they are forced to move into the wild to live on their own. Within a few months of settling in their new home, both his father and mother die, and Thomas is left to fend for himself in the wilderness. As he grows older he becomes very in tune with nature, and lives in harmony on his own. It is then that he is forced into school to become more westernized. He struggles to hold onto his culture, but eventually it is lost. He gives in to the constant attempts by the white men to assimilate the young Ute boy into the Western culture. Years pass and the boy becomes a man. His culture is in the past and has long been forgotten. As a professional bronco rider, he becomes a famous, yet bitter man. All of his pain and anger towards life is taken out on each bronco he rides. This is until one day, when his riding career was ended by a tragic, nearly fatal accident. It took him to be nearly killed, recover, and return to his hometown for him to finally realize the truth- in spite of how hard he tried to forget his past and his culture, it was always a part of him, and it would never change. When he finally returned to his place of birth, he reconciled with his past, ancestry, and culture. It was a major turning point in his life that brought the cycle to an end. As his mother spoke of in the beginning of this story, life is a circle- and now his circle had finally completed. He was back to where he had started. A simple man, living off the land and the lifestyle he knew best. He had overcome the struggle. He had overcome the odds.
It is this compelling story that portrays a message of cultural value and belonging. In todays society, many of us struggle with our past and our future. The truth is that we can live in harmony with both. Without our past we would never have a future. I would recommend this book to anyone who values their culture and heritage. Borlands writing compels the reader to imagine ones self in the position of the protagonist. How would you react to his problems? How far would you have gone to perpetuate your culture? Its message is truly profound, and once you are done you will be left with a yearning for more.