ENG4U1 | English | Three Day Road By Joseph Boyden

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READING REPORT-NOVEL ONE 1
Three Day Road
By Joseph Boyden
Introduction
Joseph Boyden is one of the Canadian short story writers and novelists who grew up
in Willowdale, Ontario and studied in the Jesuit-run Brebeuf College School. His novel,
Three Day Road surrounds scenario during World War I, amidst nature and culture,
civilization and madness, human and beyond humanism. The novel itself is a powerful tale
that illustrates a deep friendship or bond between two Cree snipers, Elijah and Xavier who
are leapt in the horrors of the war and Xaviers home-coming after the war who is
accompanied by Oji-Cree healer and his aunt, Niska.
Character
Niska raised Xavier in the bush whereas Elijah was sent to Canada based English
speaking boarding school. Xavier and Niska together save Elijah from the school and the two
boys grew up in the bush together as best friends. While Xavier hardly spoke English and is
reserved most of the tines, Elijah speaks good English due to his schooling and amuses other
people with his short stories about his merciless kills. Here, it can be noted that Joseph
Boyden to some extent displayed his storytelling quality through Elijah's role. The theme
again represents racism in which white armies take over both of them. They are forced to
compete with each other while attempting to kill one after the other. However, Elijah takes
credit most of the time even for Xavier's kills and shows anxious behaviour to prove himself
similar to that of white military personnel.

READING REPORT-NOVEL ONE 2
Niska’s character is more like a windigo-killer and a soothsayer who is well aware
that the only way through which the world can be protected is by killing the evil spirits of
windigo: an act which is regarded as murder as per European values and ethics. When she
returned to her lodge with her baby and a pack of meat, she offered the meat to tribal people
but they showed suspicion and started interrogating her. Niska says: "At nightmare, her voice
went hoarse so that she sounded like some monster growling in a language we did not
understand. Micha and the baby were turning windigo.” (Boyden 44). Niska not only
embodies a feminine source of mother nature but also threatens parental authority which is
symbolized in the form of church and school. As a healer, windigo killer and visionary
woman, she is resembled by the author as a sacred person who rules symbolic law and
authority.
Setting
The theme of the novel revolves around First Nations people who are constantly
forced and dictated in the novel besides revealing the life of Cree characters. Niska’s father
who is a Cree is arrested by the white military who did not hesitate once in arresting and
listening about Cree culture or reasons why he murdered cannibalistic women. When they
pass through severe times in the bush, Niska says, “sometimes his stories were all that we had
to keep us alive.” (Boyden 33). Elijah, throughout the battlefield, narrates stories on how he
exploited the battlefield but Xavier has no intention to listen to him. Two people are used as
narrators, Niska and Xavier. Although they narrate the story and events, much of their
narration is the author's reflection.
The power of words and language is exhibited especially at the beginning of the war
which separates Xavier from other fellow soldiers, contributing themselves to “Grave Death”.
When Niska was a child and watches her father killing a cannibal woman or a windigo,