Language, Identity and Social Acceptance in Hal Borland’s Novel, When the Legends Die :: When Legends Die

Language as the Key to identicalness and Social Acceptance in Hal Borlands Novel, When the Legends DieIn the founding today, mankindy people are identified by the fashion they envision or act they are to a fault accepted into society establish on this criteria. However, in literature, one cannot be identified or judged on these aspects, these observations must be created solely from the way the function speaks. This shows that James Baldwin was good in his 1979 essay when he stated that language is a chance on to identity and loving acceptance. This observation can be seen in the new When the Legends Die by Hal Borland.When the Legends Die is a novel about a boy, Thomas, growing into a man. There are a variety of characters in this novel and without their different styles of speaking, the reader would not be able to enunciate them apart. One fount of identifying a character by what they say is a man named Blue Elk. Blue Elk was an extremely greedy Ute Indian. He would do a nything, including sending other Native Americans to live on reservations, where they were miserable, to gather in easy money. So, in When the Legends Die when a reader sees a character talking about how much money he made, or who he has conned lately he or she knows that the character is Blue Elk. Another example of recognizing a character by their speaking style is a man named Meo. Meo was a bronco rider when he was younger and now he helps in training Thomas to become a champion rider. Meo also grows beans and loves making chili. He is always talking about the old age before his injury that ended his riding career, and how to make the perfect chili. So, one time again, it is easy for the reader to recognize who is speaking by what he or she is talking about.Social acceptance is also a large demo made in the novel. Thomas grew up as a Ute Indian and eventually became a bronco rider in rodeos. It is obvious that social acceptance is dependent on language because Thomas much in terchange everything about himself to be accepted by the white riders. He was have to speak differently and he could not express his feelings in the way he was brought up. Thomas could not express himself freely because he had giving up singing traditional Ute hymns with his mother to show their feeling, and he was not allowed to do that anymore.