Three Day Road
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I completely agree with what you've said; really difficult in specific areas and extremely depressing at times. I think what I'm finding most difficult might just be how unfair everything is. I know that probably seems vague, but really the fact that life is so unfair. Xavier is such a strong character, so smart and caring, humble, brave and talented that I'm finding it a) difficult to see him receive absolutely no credit for his efforts and b) be brought down in almost every way by Elijah.
Now specifically about Elijah. How corrupted he's become (possibly not the correct word choice, but I'm hoping you know what I mean). How he's completely given over to the morphine, blood lust and cruelties of war. How everyone thinks he's such a fantastic person when he really isn't. How he can get away with anything. I just find it incredibly frustrating.
The biggest thing I think I'm having with this book though is how realistic it is. Every now and then I feel myself panicking with thoughts that people actually experienced what Elijah and Xavier did. How people watched their friends die in horrifying way right in front of their eyes, completely unable to do anything. How soldiers lost themselves to morphine because they had to continue fighting in so much physical pain or because they experienced so much emotional trauma. And the fact that it's all still happening today.

I completely agree with what you've said; really difficult in specific areas and extremely depressing at times. I think what I'm finding most diffic..."
That's true, it did happen and still does go on. But luckily, things have progressed since WWI in a lot of ways. That's one thing I find astounding about the whole thing. Here were guys who lived in dugouts, permeated by mud, lice, rats, dead bodies, and had to deal with constant exposure. And the death toll was catastrophic compared to today.
And yet, from all that came a new awareness about war and terrible scourges of it. People didn't doubt the validity of war trauma after that, or question the intentions of conscientious objectors. And they made sure that nothing of the sort, i.e. terrible stalemates, would ever happen again.
I don't want to give you any spoilers so I won't tell you what happens with the two men. How far along are you in it?

I knew I'd forgotten to mention something in my rambling message. I've just started the chapter "The Letter" (which I'm incredibly nervous about reading given something Xavier said about it previously). They've either just left or are about to leave Passchendaele. I believe that Xavier has now run out or is about to run out of morphine in "present day".


Interesting. What's that one about? My wife and I both read Three Day Road and I'm thinking of passing it on to my father, as he is a total war buff.


Still a very active pressure on indigenous people today throughout the world. IMHO, Cal

Maybe the original poster lives in a town where he can visit a veteran's center to see first hand what combat does to people. If he lives in the US he can find one easily enough.
Personally I enjoyed the book. I thought it to be a good account of the "hero's journey", a going out, meeting unbelievable challenges, and returning home,
transformed.

Maybe the original poster lives in a tow..."
The "original poster" is a woman. And what this talk about visiting a veteran center? Is that a friendly suggestion or are you saying they need an eye-opener or something?


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Gillian, I'm not sure what it is about Elijah you're wondering about. I've taught this book for several years now to my juniors. Teaching a book forces the reader to look deeper and below the surface. I believe the key to this book is the whole windigo theme that recurs throughout. In many respects, Three Day Road is similar to Greek tragedy. Most Greek tragedies deal with the idea of fate, and how a person can escape his destiny. It seems that Xavier is fated to become a hookimaw (windigo-killer) and Elijah must be fated to become a windigo. Of course, the war is what brings these terrible qualities in Elijah. Personally, in addition to examining Native American culture, I also believe that Joseph Boyden might be suggesting that war makes windigos of many who are part of war's horrors. Elijah's biggest flaw, I believe is his own hubris (another major theme in Greek tragedy). He loses touch with his Cree culture, and this is one of the factors that leads to his destruction. Contrast this with Xavier, who remains strongly tied to his culture, even in the killing fields of the Western Front. I think this is what saves Xavier, although he emerges from the war shattered and with a very uncertain future. If you get some time, do a little research on the archetypal Trickster in myth and literature, and you'll see that this is what Joseph Boyden has created through his character, Elijah. There's a line spoken to Niska by an old grandmother about midway through the book. The old woman says, "You are a hookimaw. Happiness is not yours to have." That line is, in my view, the key to understanding the essence of Three Day Road.
I hope this gives you some insight.




M.A.Pigeon, author of Strange Things Done, coming out in 2014, Freisen Press... Another Indigenous Story! HO!!!

Windigo are "made" by cannibalism....so the comment about war "making" people windigo is so apt. Of course, it did not do that to Xavier. As someone (Don?) pointed out, he was grounded in his culture, and so in his sense of self, of who he was, walking the earth, even the devastated earth of No Man's Land.
My grandfather & great-uncle fought in the US infantry in WWI. Reading this book, I understood why they never spoke of their experiences.
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