When the Legends Die
When Thomas Black Bull was found, eleven years old and living alone in the wilderness, his entire life was flipped upside down. In the book When the Legends Die, the young boy was forced to convert to new ways and new identities, unfamiliar and new to him. His past, origins, and true identities were chopped off, and chained to the bottom of the forgotten sea in his mind. In the process he lost a companion, the bear, and himself, as he was shuffled and controlled throughout his life. People covered and masked his true innerself and not until later in his life did he find it again. Hal Borland uses the symbols of the bear, horses, and names, to show how society disguises, effaces, erases, annihilates, and destroys true identities. The horses symbolize all the people of society who have shoved aside Thomas identity. For example, he begins to take revenge for himself on the horses: He wasnt riding a bronco. He was riding a hurt, a hate (121). In this case these animals represent all the people in his life who have taken advantage of him and cut off his identity. Benny Grayback, Blue Elk, Red Dillon and others are what Tom sees himself riding as he tortures, maims, and kills the broncos, all representatives of society taking over a
The many names given to Thomas are another example of how the community tries to destroy his identity. In this instance not only is Thomas not allowed to have the cub chained near by, he must push him away into the mountains. I have no brother! I have no friends! (73). This quote illustrates the symbol of the horse as society shoving aside a persons identity. In addition, as soon as he steps in the door of the reservation the agent explains, Tell him his name from now on is Thomas Black Bull. The cub was a part of Bears Brothers roots which started at the core of his innerself, in the days when he first met the she-bear while Bessie was alive. This appellation stems from his origins as an Ute, and shows a part of himself. The community has almost completely cut the ties of the boy to his inner-self, as the cub wanders, dumbfounded, to the wilderness. This proves how groups of people classify others in to groups, give them new identities, and slap on a fitting name. The bear, horses, and names were used as symbols in When the Legends Die to show how society annihilates and destroys identities. The community brushes over his origins and symbols to convert him to their identities, the right identities, the new ways. He was a devil killer, and nobody worried or wondered who was the real devil he was trying to kill (148).
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Acceptance Essays
