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Summary: AJ's thoughts on this book....
Review: Well the book was very easy to read and even easier to follow. When you first start to read it you realize that the author is very into Native American Culture. The plot of the story is about a young boy's life, how he grows from a child to a man. The first chapter is him growing up with his mother and her man, about the strugggles they have living in the old ways. The book then follows the boy through school and on to the rodeo, where he makes a name for himself, and then back to the woods and the old ways. The author pays great attention to the details of the how the indians live during this time. It was hard not to stay up all night to read the book it was captivating and intertaining. The reading was easy, much like a Junior High School level of reading. Other than this fact I thought that it was a wonderful book that most people should readby the time they get into high school.
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Summary: A Well Fought Struggle
Review: 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.
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Summary: Intriguing and Profound!
Review: 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 novel's 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 today's 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. Borland's writing compels the reader to imagine one's 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.
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Summary: Bookworm Says: good story with bad character
Review: The book is fairly well-written; it is easy to read and has a good amount of description. It explores some very serious topics about the world of Native Americans. Overall a recommendable novel except for one flaw. The main character, Thomos Black Bull. (I know that's not even a complete sentence but hear me out.) Being a Native American, he is a very withdrawn character. However, this prevents the reader from understanding the person and sympathizing with them. Reading about a character that expresses little inside feelings to the reader makes the experience hollow. But what really causes me dislike towards him has nothing to do with that. You see, Thomas goes through his early life without much control, always ordered about by various people. So he has feelings of anger and bitter resentment towards those around him. This is understandable. But Thomas vents this stong hatred on the broncs he rides at rodeos, sometimes riding them even to death. Eventually Thomas finds peace with himself and all of nature, but never does he repent for his cruelty on the horses he rode. Reading this made me turn away from Thomas almost in disgust. I praise Borland for giving his main character traits which are not the typical, admireable qualities of most book heroes; but in doing so the author must be careful not to make the reader completely dislike the character. Sadly, this was not attained in the book, I found Thomas Black Bull more of a villian than a hero.
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Summary: Powerful, honest, and provocative. It will challenge you.
Review: 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."
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Summary: Legends do die
Review: I was forced to read this book for a highschool English class during the 90's, but it wasn't bad. I recently cleaned out a bookcase and discovered the book again. I read it once more and it was lots better than I had remembered. It was a great book about finding yourself, hardship and loss. This is not my typical genre of book and yet I still enjoyed it. I would recommend this book as a adequate read, but not something that keeps you at the edge of your seat.
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Summary: Search For Identity , 3.5 stars
Review: When the Legends Die follows the story of Thomas Black Bull, a Native American from the Ute society, and his struggle to keep his roots within another's society. After his parents' untimely deaths, adapts to sufficing for himself in the wilderness. He becomes one with Nature, meeting a family of bears in the area, and renames himself "Bear's Brother" because he feels a closeness to one of the bears in the family. Eventually he is taken to the white man's world and put through a school, but finds school tiresome and boring. After trying to return to his place, he is once again found and brought back. Consequently, he begins to live in a world that he does not want to adopt, and forms a bitterness that carries into his adulthood. At the very core of this novel is the effort to return to one's origin. Tom Black Bull takes on several names (Bear's Brother, Devil Tom Black), and this signifies his lack of identity. He ultimately finds his identity only through the trials of controlling people and an abusive world. He takes his anger out when he becomes a bronco rider, attempting to abolish his memories with rebellious riding and attitude toward people. This book has a simple narrative, but the message is certainly deeper than it looks. The euphoric revelation for the individual is finding out who he is and what is significant in life's journey. This is what Tom must discover through the many setbacks. Although the book can be a bit tedious and repetitive, it has a beneficial message to those who read it.
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Summary: Tragic Story
Review: This is a very tragic story of an indian boy who had a run of very hard luck as a child and became what I felt was a very disfunctional adult. After the death of his parents Thomas struggles to survive as his people did in the past. Living off the the land, and avoiding the white man and his world. This was a very well written book, and enjoyable, but I spent much of my time wondering what the main character Thomas Black Bull was hoping to accomplish. Regardless, it is a story I would recommend to anyone as it gives a peak into a different culture, and exhibits the importance of obeserving a heritage, but also of the human ability to adapt to circumstance.
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Summary: A memorable read.
Review: I read this book, like many others, as a prerequisite for minority literature class and it definitely made an impression on me. I was just searching for it to put on my historical list when I read other reviews on it. Yes it's sad, depressing and downright unhappy. It's not going to give you that warm fuzzy feeling inside. It makes you think about conditions Native Americans lived in and, in some cases, thrived in. It's a reality check.
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Summary: awful
Review: I found that this book, When the Legends Die, is probably one of the worst books I have ever read. Personally, I feel that the writing was choppy, the storyline made no sense, and the topics were everywhere. Buy this book if you want to, but dont make a fuss about how you had to read 216 pages about a boy that goes crazy and talks to a bear
-bk03
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