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
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
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
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