Summary
A relatively quiet winter passes in the trenches near Lens. Elijah and Grey Eyes continue to share morphine with each other, and Elijah continues to make daring moves to kill Germans. One night, a five-man trench raid party, consisting of Elijah, Xavier, McCaan, Thompson, and a new solider, is sent out to do as much damage as they can to the German trenches. However, earlier in the day the Canadians had sent heavy artillery onto the section of trench where the raid is focused, which gave away their plan and allowed the Germans to prepare. Once reaching the trench, the five men quickly find themselves under heavy fire. Xavier sees the new soldier die in a bomb explosion and is unable to pull a wounded McCaan away before a group of Germans shoot and kill him. Xavier is the only one to make it back to the Canadian trench.
Later that night, Xavier wakes up to see what he thinks is Elijah’s ghost, then realizes it is Elijah himself. Elijah says that he waited in a dugout near the German trench all day and dragged a badly injured Thompson back to the Canadian lines once darkness fell. The next day, Xavier receives Joseph Netmaker’s letter. He asks Fat to read it to him, afraid that Elijah might lie about or make a joke out of its contents. Netmaker’s English is not as good as he promised Niska; the letter says that Xavier is the last of his family, making it appear that Niska has died. It also says that God understands if he has to kill Elijah. Xavier is hopelessly saddened and confused by the letter’s contents.
Elijah takes Xavier to a copse of trees near the battlefield, where they build a fire together. Elijah procures the bone of a German soldier and asks Xavier to divine where other Germans are, the way he was able to divine where moose were back home in the bush. Xavier is sickened when Elijah explains that he has found his true talent—killing men. He points to the German trenches to mockingly divine where the Germans are, then walks away.
When the troops are sent back to the reserve, Xavier makes a sweat lodge and crawls inside. He inhales the steam in an attempt to release the many prayers crowding inside his head. He prays until he envisions himself floating high above the German troops. Exiting the sweat lodge, Xavier feels as if he still has no answers. He returns to the soldiers’ tent and crouches by a sleeping Elijah. Wanting to feel what Elijah feels, Xavier takes the morphine-loaded needle from his medicine kit and begins to push it into his skin. Before he can inject the drug, though, he decides to give it to Elijah instead. As he sticks the needle into Elijah’s arm, Elijah wakes up and asks Xavier what he is doing. Xavier says that he is giving Elijah medicine; Elijah replies that he doesn’t need more right now. They stare at each other for a long moment before Xavier takes the needle out and leaves the tent.
In the next section, "Piminaawin: Flying," Xavier is back in the canoe with Niska. It is now the third day of their journey. Xavier administers the last full needle of morphine he has, telling Niska that there is now no medicine left. He lies back in the canoe and thinks of the war. Even after Elijah caught Xavier trying to give him morphine, and after Xavier tells Elijah that he doesn’t want to talk to him anymore, Elijah still talks to him incessantly. Grey Eyes has disappeared; no one knows whether he is alive or dead. A military official comes to give Elijah a medal in front of all the troops, even as Elijah sweats and sways, having given himself too much morphine that morning.
Elijah begins spending long hours sniping on his own. After he kills many officers from one section of the trench, the soldiers tell him to move on because he is attracting too much return fire. He sets up a new nest in a part of the line that the troops assume is dead. From there, he sees a well-fed cat moving around on the trench, and reasons that an officer with the luxury of keeping a pet is nearby. During the night, he sneaks up to the trench and finds a meeting of four officers inside. He kills all four, then takes their scalps, the insignias from their uniforms, and a satchel full of papers and maps, to silence anyone who questions if he actually killed the officers. He returns to the nest and curls up inside; the cat visits him there and sleeps next to him.
In mid-summer, the men are sent back to a farm to rest. Breech announces that Thompson died from the wounds he received during the last trench raid. Elijah is fascinated by the military planes taking off from a nearby airfield. On the last day of their rest, he is offered the chance to fly in one of the planes and excitedly accepts. Later, he describes to Xavier how he was badly frightened by the experience and feels, for the first time, afraid of death.
Elijah’s mother died from illness when he was young, and he wouldn’t accept her death; he pretended to speak to his mother so often that the residential school nuns whipped him for it. Xavier thinks about how Elijah stopped talking to his dead mother on the day that he met Niska. It’s summer during the war, and Elijah tells Xavier that when he returns home, he will be chief and miss the battlefield. Their company is sent east of Amiens, where they begin an offensive on the German front just before dawn. The effort is successful, and the Canadians push ten miles into German territory.
After the offensive, Elijah disappears for two days. When he comes back, the official sent to replace McCaan—Colquhoun—tells Elijah that he will put him up on charges if he doesn’t have a good explanation for his absence. Xavier believes this act stems from the officers’ jealousy that Elijah has been awarded citations. Later, Elijah tells Xavier that he lost the section after going on a killing spree, sniping over twenty Germans who were trying to escape across an open plain. He finds a Canadian camp and discovers that it belongs to the 48th Highlanders, the company that his own section had a shooting competition with. The men tell him that the sniper who represented their company had over one hundred kills when he himself was shot; Elijah shares that he now has 365 kills. He walks to the medic tent and steals handfuls of morphine syringes. Then he approaches a soldier who lies dying from a stomach injury and injects him with morphine until he dies.
The men are moved to Canal du Nord to continue battle. One evening, Xavier and Elijah are told to report to Breech’s dugout. Inside, they find Grey Eyes, who deserted weeks ago and has now been captured. Grey Eyes accuses Elijah of being a morphine addict and committing the atrocity of scalping. Elijah accuses Grey Eyes and Breech of acting out of jealousy. He points his gun at Grey Eyes, but before he shoots a bomb explodes the dugout. Xavier pulls Elijah from the rubble, and Elijah uses a piece of wood to batter Grey Eyes and Breech to death. Afterwards, he says that his actions were necessary to keep him from going to prison, and that his constant headache has left him.
Over the next few days, Elijah talks to Xavier at night, telling him of memories from his past. He recalls the time that Xavier and Elijah went hunting, and Elijah revealed that Sister Magdalene used to sexually abuse him while bathing him in the residential school. Xavier doesn't respond.
The new lieutenant sent to replace Breech is more respectful of Xavier and Elijah. The men are given a break from the next battle and sit around the campfire talking. Elijah says that he and Xavier will return as heroes. Xavier doesn’t answer at first, then tells Elijah that Niska is dead.
In "Weesageechak: Hero," Xavier is back in the canoe with Niska. Out of morphine, he suffers from sweating, cramping, and diarrhea. Niska builds a fire, determined to help Xavier through his withdrawals. He looks into the woods and the sight transports him into a memory of walking with his company through the misty woods in France. Fat keeps tripping, and Xavier wonders how he is the only soldier still alive from his original company, other than Elijah and himself. Xavier’s hearing is almost entirely gone. The company attacks a group of Germans, killing all but five. Elijah says that they do not have time for prisoners, then sends Xavier and Fat to walk the Germans back behind the lines. Xavier contemplates asking Elijah to wound him badly enough that he can return home, but thinks that Elijah would end up killing him from bloodlust.
When the men reach Cambrai, the officers plan an offensive move to take the city. Elijah and Xavier are sent ahead as advance scouts. They find the city utterly deserted, and Elijah resents that there will be no battle. The men are relieved in order to recuperate and prepare for further pursuit of the Germans. Xavier hears that the Germans can continue the war for months, and contemplates telling an officer about Elijah’s murder of Breech and Grey Eyes. He thinks that Elijah has gone mad and wonders if he has a responsibility to stop him. One morning, when he and Elijah move ahead for advance scouting, they separate so that Elijah can search for Germans and Xavier can cover him. Soon, Xavier hears a gun shot and runs to Elijah, finding him stabbing a German soldier, then smearing the man’s blood on his own face.
At the camp that night, Xavier sits with the horses of a nearby cavalry company. Elijah suggests to Xavier that the medic can send him home for his deafness. He says that the war is madness and that he only wishes to survive, but Xavier tells him that he moved beyond killing for survival. Elijah replies that he wants to return home a hero and will not let Xavier or anyone else take this dream away from him.
Analysis
These sections focus on Elijah, as his growing proclivity for violence manifests itself on and off the battlefield. Elijah’s belief that murder is his calling disturbs Xavier, who turns to a sweat lodge to find answers to the increasingly pressing problem of stopping Elijah. Irony arises as it becomes clear that Elijah’s determination to kill, which began as a way to earn respect from army officials, has clouded his ability to appreciate the recognition he does receive. Even as he receives a medal commending his bravery, Elijah is barely able to comprehend what is happening. His use of morphine dulls his ability to function outside of the trenches while increasing his lethality within them, thus feeding a cycle of drug use and murder that keeps Elijah fixated on the battlefield.
Xavier’s mental state suffers in these sections as well, as a function of the war in addition to his concerns over Elijah. Visions return as an important theme, this time affecting Xavier instead of Elijah and Niska. In addition, the tense scene where Xavier almost kills Elijah is a charged, strained moment that demonstrates how warped their relationship has become. At the heart of Xavier’s actions, there is caring: he prays fervently all day long, seeking for a way to stop his friend from being consumed by war. His impulse to kill Elijah with morphine is laced with pity and distorted good intentions, as he knows Elijah is dependent on having the drug in his vein—hence his use of the healing, kinder term “medicine.” Still, his action is undeniably one of betrayal, carrying enormous weight, and it puts further strain onto their friendship.
Elijah’s experience in the military plane complicates his descent into madness by introducing elements of sanity, fear, and regret. He has reiterated a desire to fly throughout the novel, usually countered by Xavier’s preference to stay on the ground. His visceral reaction to flying is therefore surprising, countering not only his stated preferences but also his demonstrated fascination with danger and freedom. In addition, Elijah’s confession that he is now afraid to die stands in contrast with his previous behavior on the battlefield, which was so fearless that it bordered on reckless. The shifts in Elijah’s character lend a feeling of instability to the end of "Piminaawin: Flying," because they demonstrate both the understandable human fear and the inhuman capability for violence that mingle in Elijah’s mind.
In these sections, it’s made clear that Elijah’s original goal in killing soldiers—to become a war hero—has been superseded by a general desire to kill. Through a wide range of actions, from sniping many retreating soldiers to smearing blood on his own face to killing soldiers on his own side, Elijah demonstrates that his newfound fear of death has done little to stop the succession of murderous acts that he performs. His increased depravity is mirrored by Xavier’s increased concern about him. Xavier seems to recognize that Elijah has descended into madness and feels the weight of responsibility for stopping his friend’s inhumane acts.
Elijah’s murder of Grey Eyes and Breech is a significant turning point in the novel. The act represents Elijah’s triumph over the racist, oppressive force that Breech embodied, but it also establishes his defeat by an internal bloodlust that overrides his sense of decency. In addition, a growing sense of urgency develops for both Xavier and Elijah in these sections. Elijah’s insistence that there is no time to take prisoners points to his belief that his acts of killing and destruction must be completed quickly. Xavier, too, feels the pressure of time as Elijah’s potential for ruthlessness seems to increase exponentially.
Xavier also appears to be feeling increasingly desperate. He contemplates drastic means of getting out of the war, such as wounding himself badly enough to be exempt from further service. In the end, though, Xavier seems to recognize the need to stay with Elijah, assuming the responsibility for bringing an end to Xavier’s long string of murders and atrocious acts. This is evidenced by his refusal to use deafness as a reason to go home. At the same time, even Xavier seems to exhibit moments of self-awareness. He notes that he can see he traveled far into a “dangerous place,” and asks whether this means something. Although Xavier is not sure of how to answer this, it is at least clear that Elijah’s journey into this dangerous place has pushed his friendship with Xavier to the breaking point.
