Three Day Road Essay Questions

How does Xavier and Elijah’s First Nations heritage affect their experiences in the war?

Xavier and Elijah’s heritage brings them many negative experiences from the racist soldiers around them. Both men note that they are viewed as “dumb bush Indians” by the officers and must strive to prove their merit—in a way that white soldiers don’t have to—through battlefield success and exemplary marksmanship. Lieutenant Breech, in particular, shows an intense and racist dislike of Xavier and Elijah as well as a complete disrespect for their culture; he mocks Elijah by asking how many “canoe lengths” he was from his target and he grows angry when Xavier asks to sleep outside. At the same time, Xavier’s upbringing serves him well on the battlefield, as he uses his innate and learned hunting skills to become an extremely successful soldier.

What role does jealousy play in the novel?

Xavier and Elijah’s friendship is tainted by jealousy. Xavier is frequently envious of the fact that Elijah gets more recognition than he does for similar accomplishments. Elijah cultivates a status as a war hero that Xavier doesn’t share; this difference is facilitated by the fact that Elijah is more outgoing and reckless than Xavier is. Although Xavier is often jealous, this ultimately doesn’t seem to impact the deep sense of caring he has for his friend; his strangulation of Elijah is more of act of responsibility than it is of envy. In addition, the jealous officers, such as Breech, doubt Elijah’s accomplishments. They mock and belittle him in part to protect their own egos.

How does Xavier and Elijah’s relationship change throughout the book?

In many ways, Xavier and Elijah’s relationship completely transforms as it is pushed to the breaking point by the horrors of war and Elijah’s spiral out of control. In other ways, their relationship stays the same, as they rely on each other throughout the war in the same way they did when they were younger. From practicing shooting with the nun’s stolen rifle to encountering the forest fire to battles throughout the war, Elijah shows a fascination with the power of killing that Xavier does not feel. However, just as Xavier is the one to kill the marten at the beginning of the book, the novel’s climax features a murder by Xavier too: this time, he strangles his friend after telling him that he “has gone mad.” Elijah’s passive acceptance of his fate seems to indicate that he acknowledges his loss of control, but Xavier still feels intense guilt and horror after the act.

What is the role of family in the novel?

All three of the main characters—Xavier, Niska, and Elijah—face family struggles growing up. Xavier’s mother gives him up after descending into alcoholism; Elijah doesn’t remember his parents and endured an abusive childhood in the residential school; Niska’s father dies while she is young. This is reflective of the fact that residential schools, in addition to hard times caused by a reduction of game by the fur industry, broke up many First Nations families and communities throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It also emphasizes how important nontraditional families can be; Niska blends traditional maternal and paternal roles as she raises Xavier and Elijah, and McCaan and Thompson act as father figures at times.

How does language help the characters in Three Day Road? How does it hurt them?

Language—in particular, storytelling—helps Niska to save Xavier, as she “feeds” him with stories from her life. In addition, Elijah seems to use storytelling compulsively, as he recounts his battlefield exploits to Xavier even when Xavier doesn’t want to hear what he’s saying. Language hurts the characters when translation fails—when Cree and English mingle with disastrous consequences. For example, Elijah’s shouted command in Cree instead of English confuses Graves, leading to his death. Joseph Netmaker’s letter botches an English translation of Niska’s Cree message, sending Xavier into a desperate sadness when he thinks that Niska has died. Both the negative and positive consequences of language illustrate the power that words wield, capable as they are of ending lives as well as saving them.

What is the effect of the book’s circular narrative?

Boyden has stated that the book’s circularity is meant to imitate Cree storytelling, which is not as linear or chronological as traditional Western modes of story and literature. One effect of the structure is to heighten the ending’s emotional power, by drawing a direct connection between the contentment of Xavier and Elijah’s early friendship in the prologue to the sadness of their relationship’s destructive end near the end of the novel. In addition, the slow revelation of information about how Xavier and Elijah met, and what Elijah was like when he was young, allowing readers to make connections between Elijah’s wartime behavior, the trauma of his past, and his underlying personality.

According to Three Day Road, what makes a good soldier?

The definition of a good soldier is largely elusive in the novel. For example, Elijah could be seen as an excellent soldier because of his effectiveness at killing Germans. He does receive several honors because of his battlefield prowess, as well as his acts of bravery and his rescue of Thompson. However, when Breech learns that Elijah has been scalping his victims, it’s clear that he has crossed some kind of line because Breech is more than ready to court-martial him. Where to draw the line between effectiveness and brutality is not entirely clear, as soldiers are encouraged to bayonet each other to the death. In addition, the death by firing squad of a soldier who falls asleep during guard duty makes it clear that the Canadian army places an emphasis on fulfillment of duty as the definition of a good soldier. Xavier can also be seen as a good soldier because he kills Elijah in part to prevent him from killing more Canadians or civilians, which are both examples of the kind of battlefield atrocities that turn an officer against his own men.

How does addiction function in different ways throughout the novel?

Elijah uses morphine to increase his effectiveness on the battlefield. Since the drug gives him the power of an out-of-body experience—enabling him to vividly see in his mind’s eye the battlefield from above—he uses it to give him an advantage when it comes to killing Germans. In contrast, Xavier uses morphine not to enhance sharpen his sense of reality but to dull it. Suffering from the physical pain of his wounded leg and the emotional pain of knowing he killed his best friend, Xavier continuously returns to the “sunlit river” that will allow him to feel more content. Niska mentions that Xavier’s mother, Rabbit, became entangled in addiction as well; her alcoholism forced her to give up Xavier to the residential school. Addiction has highly negative effects on all of these characters; because of their physical withdrawal systems, their drug use is self-perpetuating as it makes it more difficult to live in reality. These drastic effects threaten to consume Xavier the way they consumed his mother and friend.

How do Niska’s spiritual powers contribute to her status as an outcast?

When Niska was a child, her father’s powers of divination and his ability to commune with spirits made him a community leader. As Niska grows older and the bush community becomes mostly dissolved, her powers—the same as her father’s—turn her into an outcast in many ways. Foreshadowing of Niska’s life alone is found in the way that the other children used to avoid her because of her convulsions and visions, which marked her as different. As an adult, Niska estranges her French lover because he is intimidated by her position of power in the scattered awawatuk community. Niska thinks that she cannot be a member of any society that isn’t similar to the one she grew up in, because her spiritual powers have, for better or worse, marked her as essentially different from others. However, Niska’s abilities give her agency and recognition as a leader among the awawtuk; she is called upon to divine where game could be and to kill windigos.

What is the effect of the dual narrative?

Boyden’s decision to alternate between Xavier’s and Niska’s viewpoints allow readers to delve into two different worlds: the trenches of war-torn Europe and the bush of Northern Ontario. The complex interplay between Xavier and Niska’s stories reveals a fascinating intergenerational component in the novel: readers see the overlap of Niska and Xavier’s experiences with windigos and witness Xavier’s upbringing from both a child’s and parent’s perspectives. In addition, the double narrative paints a more complete picture of oppression of First Nations people in two very different contexts: their dissolution and assimilation into white culture in the places where they traditionally lived, and their mistreatment in the Canadian army as far off as Europe. Xavier and Niska both provide different takes on Elijah. Niska notes Elijah’s gravitational quality: everyone, even Niska herself, wants to impress him. Xavier provides a more nuanced portrayal of Elijah’s descent into insanity.