When Ledgends Die Essay Research Paper In

When Ledgends Die Essay, Research Paper

In the book When the Legends Die by Hal Borland, Tom is

influenced by many people and their ideas. As his settings change,

new things influence him to change his personality. The three

main influences on Tom are his mother Bessie, Red Dillon and

Mary Redmond.

His biggest influence out of everyone would be his mother

Bessie. She taught Tom about the old ways, how to fish, chant and

weave baskets. Basically she him everything he knows. As well as

teaching Tom all these things she taught him to be self sufficient.

Eventhough she had 13 years with her son, she gave him a belief

in his indian ways that would come back again later on in his life.

At the end of this novel when he goes back to the old ways, it’s

really a way for him to thank her for everything she provided him

with. He really found himself at the end of the novel and found his

purpose in life.

Red Dillon was the total opposite of Bessie. He made him

forget about where he was from and his goals for life. He pushed

Tom farther away from his history. He also got him to cheat and

drink. Tom knew these things were wrong but it stayed in his

routine. Red tested Tom to his fullest and pushed Tom to work

harder. Unfortunatley Red did not work quite as hard as Tom and

even got Tom to set a deadfall on one of his rides. When he was

living with the white man he was getting used to the white peoples

ways all the while losing site of his Ute history.

Mary Redmond who was another of Tom’s influences played

a big role in encouraging Toms to change his ideas about life in

general. She was the one looking over him wile he was staying in

the hospital. She was the only person that was in the hospital who

truly cared for him. He knew she meant well but he was scared to

ask her for help because he had been let down so many times

before in his life. She changed his thinking on what he was going

to do when he go out of the hospital. At first he wanted to go back

to riding but decided to take some time off.

In conclusion in the book When the Legends Die by Hal

Borland, the main character Tom was influenced by a lot of people

and had alot of choices that would change his life.. The three main

people were Bessie, Red Dillon and Mary Redmond. He was

influenced by them to make certain decisions and actions that

would affect him for the rest of his life.

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