Hart has degrees in English literature and creative writing and writes primarily on literary themes. In this essay, Hart examines the mother figure in Borland's novel as portrayed by his four female characters.

Borland's When the Legends Die is mostly a man's story, in that the main focus of the novel is on the development of a young boy into manhood, and, in the process of his growth, the main voices heard are masculine. However, there are minor female characters. The least significant of these female roles are the flirtatious young women or prostitutes who are used mainly to indicate to Thomas that he has emerged from puberty. More noteworthy are four more prominent women who represent various aspects of mother figures. Each of these four women appears in a well-defined and separate time frame and reflects the various stages of maturity as the protagonist Thomas Black...