Discussion Topic
Summary and Ending of Bearstone by Will Hobbs
Summary:
Bearstone by Will Hobbs follows the story of Cloyd, a troubled teenager who finds purpose and growth through his relationship with an elderly rancher named Walter. Together, they face various challenges, including the threat of mining to the land. In the end, Cloyd learns important life lessons about responsibility, respect, and the significance of preserving nature, leading to his personal transformation.
What is the book Bearstone about?
Bearstone, written by Will Hobbs in 1989, tells the story of Cloyd Atcitty, a fourteen-year-old Ute Native American. This coming of age story touches on themes of courage, loyalty, and trust as Cloyd tries to discover himself and his heritage. Cloyd is a troubled youth who regularly skips school and runs away from the group home where he lives. As a result, the housemother of the group home sends him to spend the summer with her old friend, an elderly rancher who lives in Colorado.
While hiking around the cliffs above the ranch, Cloyd finds a turquoise carving of a bear in a cave. He knows that bears are important to the Ute people and keeps it, hoping that it will give him strength. He works hard on the ranch, but when he sees a trophy hunter come back with a dead bear, his anger takes over, and he...
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cuts down some of Walter’s prized peach trees, as well as the fence posts that he helped Walter place.
Walter then takes Cloyd into the mountains to reopen an abandoned gold mine. While Walter is working with the dynamite to open the mine, Cloyd climbs to the top of the mountain, where he finally feels at peace. While on his way back to the mine, he sees a grizzly bear and then finds the trophy hunter stalking it. He tries to warn the bear by yelling loudly, but the hunter still kills it. Cloyd returns to the mine to find Walter badly injured. The story wraps up with Cloyd and Walter returning to the ranch, where they care for one another and take care of the land together.
What is the ending of the book Bearstone by Will Hobbs?
After Cloyd finds Walter trapped and gravely injured by an explosion at the mine, he manages to free him and carry him back to camp. Knowing that the old man will die if he doesn't get medical attention soon, he embarks on a dangerous journey by horseback to a spot where he knows a helicopter will be coming to pick up the remains of the grizzly illegally shot by Rusty. Cloyd arrives just in time to intercept the helicopter, and as the crew flies to rescue Walter, Cloyd has a chance to expose Rusty's treachery, but, having had enough of the "poison" of "revenge", he decides to remain silent (Ch.20).
As Walter recuperates in the hospital, Cloyd returns to school, having decided to apply himself this time. Cloyd visits Walter regularly, giving him the bearstone, his most prized possession. When the old man's improvement suddently ceases when he learns he will have to go to a nursing home because he cannot afford the help he will need to stay on the ranch, Cloyd decides to live with him to provide the help he needs. Cloyd's decision is difficult, because his social worker has told him things have improved enough with his own family to allow him to return home, which is what he has always wanted, but the boy chooses to remain loyal to the old man who was like a father to him instead (Ch.21).
Cloyd helps Walter on the ranch as he recovers, and in a final act of reparation, saves up and buys twenty-two peach seedlings to replace the ones he ruined previously in a rage (Ch.22).