THREE DAY ROAD - NIPWIN/Dying page 335. The themes of survival identity, tradition, death & rebirth, land & environment are all factors in evidence in this rather short passage.
"I AM BESIDE A FIRE with Auntie when I awake. I know my pain was so great that I crawled into the canoe to escape it. Now I am here and she has been telling me the story of my childhood. Days before Elijah." Back on the battlefield . . . "I reach for the twine with it's ID's about my neck and rip it off. I am not a part of such a stupid army, I shout." Throwing it into the field. I leave the medicine bundle about my neck. "This is who I am." This was Xavier "X" speaking from the war zone. He has now returned from battle-a hero-but,a hero known as Elijah. Following their personal battle & Elijah's death Xavier tore off Elijah's medicine bag and his ID's and stuffed them into his own pocket. When he was rescued this was the only identity on Xavier & therefore he became Elijah to his rescuers.And so, Xavier lost a leg, lost and gained an identity and gained military stature because of the hero he now was. This inadverant identity confusion is what sent him home in style and with laurels-actually what probably sent him to be saved in totality. The themes of survival, identity, tradition and death are all contained in this passage. Xavier is with Auntie because she is his only relative and it was she who met him at the train - he,a seriously wounded soldier. One leg is gone and one spirit as well. Auntie is paddling them on this three day river journey and calling on all of her native wisdom to reach her nephew's spirit, which has flown away. He is beyond exhaustion and fatigue, filed with despair and morphine. Auntie has camped them and built a wigwam woven from willow branches. Her connection with the land, the environment, tradition and survival creates a safety net. However, she has concern regarding her ability to understand the condition nephew presents and her inability to match it with her herbs and roots and her knowledge - but, what we experience is Niska's innate wisdom and tradition. She is determined to free nephew from the death-state enveloping him. Rebirth is what she will accomplish. elizabeth keough

"The world is a different place in this century, Nephew. And we are a different people. My visions still come but no one listens any longer to what they tell us, what they warn us. I knew even as a young woman that destruction bred on the horizon. In my early visions, numbers of men, higher than any of us could count, were cut down. They lived in the mud like rats and lived only to think of new ways to kill one another. No one is safe in such times, not even the Cree of Mushkegowuk. War touches everyone, and windigos spring from the earth. (p. 45) Niska speaking to Xavier on the canoe, telling of the windigo her father banished and how dearly he paid for it. Some themes that are salient here are: Identity (this windigo-killing spirit lives in N and X's blood), Death and Rebirth, Cultural Clash, War, Land and Environment, and Survival. Niska seriously doubts the earth can tolerate much more degradation and misuse by humans, and fears that one day peoples' bonds with one another will break to such a point that cooperation and coexistence become impossible. Niska sees war as the enemy, but more to the point, she sees the division among humans as the enemy as well.

Page 343:
"I begin to struggle against her. I must get up and fix all of this. I'm not Elijah. I'm Xavier Bird. I see her call out. Another nurse rushes up with a syringe, puts it into my arm before I can stop her. I hear the warm river approaching, and softly, softly, I float onto it.
I come out of the blackness and the warmth more often, into the hurting grey. When I feel my body, I want to go back where I've emerged from. When my friends comes to me, I want to say I'm sorry. But instead I try desperately to crawl back into the darkness. The only thing that allows me this solace is the needle, their medicine. I find myself begging for it when I'm conscious enough to do so..."

This passage addresses several themes from the novel including identity, nature, death/rebirth, and culture clash/cultural identity.
We see Xavier struggling with his own identity, and especially against that of Elijah. He wants the nurse to know who he is and to fix the mix up but he cannot. Later he asks if this is some sort of joke - Elijah haunting him, or if perhaps it is for this best if he becomes Elijah. Throughout the novel, Xavier is hardly capable of surviving on his own - he often relies on Elijah for communicating and understanding, and he seems to just go with the flow in most situations (when Niska takes him from the school to live in the bush he just accepts it and becomes a part of it, he goes with Elijah to the army, etc.). Though as readers we can get inside of Xavier's head, it seems that to the outside world, he is barely an individual, merely a bush indian. Not only does he struggle with distinguishing himself from Elijah, he also has trouble finding individualism. We see Xavier turn to natural imagery as he is drugged, when he describes the river, the darkness, and the warmth. Though he is being injected with something manipulated by mankind, he still finds comfort in nature. There are notions of death/rebirth in his description of wanting to go back to where he emerged from, using very womblike imagery. He will later decide to live (and accept that they think he is Elijah), another sense of rebirth. Before this however it seems that his life is nearing end and we are reminded of death. The language he uses to describe the morphine - "their medicine" - recognizes a difference in culture. A large part of his identity struggle at this particular moment is that he cannot communicate with the nurses in English. He is at first unfamiliar with the notion of phantom pain until he realizes what it means. Not only does he struggle with language barriers and unfamiliar terms, he is also in a world that is just completely out of his element.

“Why does she call you Nephew and not your real name?” he asked.
“Nephew is my real name,” you answered. “I am her nephew.” (248).

Identity and culture clash and perhaps even death and rebirth are coming into play in this passage. This passage is particularly intriguing because it is narrated by Niska, and yet it is uniquely helpful in understanding the differences in the two boys backgrounds and world views, which ultimately defines their relationship and fates. It is a memory that she is telling Xavier about when Elijah first came to spend time with them in the bush. Identity is a prevalent theme here because of the naming aspect. Niska refers to Xavier as “Nephew” to Elijah as “your friend” not needing to name or identify these boys who she allowed to exist so freely. In contrast, Elijah who had been living with the nuns wants or maybe even needs to have those independent names, “Your Christian name is Xavier, [...] and mine is Elijah”. Perhaps this desire runs more deeply than a difference in naming traditions. It seems that this has a much more religious and cultural connotation that affects the very essence of what each culture believes identity is. For example, in Genesis, God creates the animals who inhabit the earth, but he grants Adam the power to name them, and thereby rule over them. In this sense, for the Christian nuns names are not only an identifier or a mark of independence, but they are also part of a hierarchical power structure. In contrast, as Niska does, distinguishing something in terms of its/their relationship to you indicates a much more balanced relationship. It does less to acknowledge the independence of the other person than it does to recognize the relationship that exists. In some ways, this allows for the flexibility for people to mean different things in different relationships.

When children were taken away from their families to the residential schools the nuns renamed them. Not only does this represent a domination, but in a way it also removed them from their previous relationships. It was a rebirth into a completely different and solitary world view. Xavier experienced this, and thus in a sense understands and sympathizes with Elijah. Elijah’s inability to recognize what he did not understand, and instead his drive to dominate it, (“Your Christian name is Xavier, [...] and mine is Elijah”) leads to his questionable sanity. Elijah’s innate inability to understand the difference between him and Xavier and his lack of flexibility in their relationship ultimately leads to his demise. This passage, which appears surprisingly late in the book continues to enlighten our understanding of Elijah and Xavier’s relationship by showing us again the differences their childhood circumstances made on their understanding of the world.

"I too have begun to see the world in threes. It was Elijah who taught me when sniping at night to look for the flare of the match in the Hun's trench. He showed me how to focus in on the match and to fire after slowly counting to three. The first soldier strikes the match to light his cigarette, and that is what we spot from our position. He then offers the match to his friend's cigarette, and that is when the sniper sights in on the flame with his rifle. When that soldier offers his match to his third friend, the sniper is given enough time to fire before that unlucky third soldier inhales the smoke." (227)
This is a good example of the culture clash theme we talked about in class. The concept of threes defining the lives of the English, even how they die. Elijah learns the sniper trick first, passing it on to Xavier, which is the way the two generally assume the English culture on the battleground. The theme of death and rebirth is present in the passage as well, Elijah and Xavier learn to treat death casually, and to expect more people to replace those that they have killed. There will always be a new set of enemy troops smoking cigarettes to snipe. And of course, the theme of war is present in the passage too. That's why I chose the passage, it's my favorite part of the book. I like to read war stories, things the soldiers did on a day to day basis, and this unlucky third man is really interesting. I wonder who's war diary Boyden picked this one up from.

I really enjoyed reading Three Day Road by Joseph Boyden and I found it particularly helpful to be able to hear him read his own work. With this being said I felt the most influential passage for me were the first 2 pages. Here, I think Boyden introduces the book in an interesting way. Here in less than 2 pages we are able to see a few themes develop right off the bat. One of those themes is nature. Elijah and Xavier are out hunting which represents a part of their culture as well as foreshadowing the importance that killing ends up having on the characters. Additionally, the 2 last lines of this opening passage represent the theme of friendship that is so essential in the impact of the novel. I think some of the reason I found this to be one of my favorite passages was how interesting it was that originally Boyden didn't have this included in the novel. I think it was an excellent addition and it was essential in setting up the novel for many of the other themes that are presented later on.

I would address the importance of names within a culture and when identifying aspects of who people are. The main passage I would use would be on page 142, the moment Elijah reveals why he won't share his name with the white soldiers, because the men will ruin it- they'll destroy the sacred nature of names. I think I might also look at the passage on page 87 and Niska's comment, "She is called Anne now." With that one line, Niska explains the meaning behind changing your name and therefore changing your identity. I think it's an interesting phenomenon- the act of changing who you are with the simple act of changing your name. Everything in life is named and defined by that name. How deeply ingrained is our definition of self by the names we don't choose?

Page 79 Paragraph 2. Thompson teaches Elijah and Xavier to be snipers. It is an explanation of the art of war and survival- two major themes we have talked about in class. The last lines of that paragraph I found the most intense and explained the idea of war/survival.
"It is just like hunting, I think. It is hunting."
I think this is the most interesting segment of the paragraph because it gives light to the true aspect of war. In that line Boyden induces fear and strength side by side. It shows the idea of being hunted and being the hunter.

Of all the themes evident throughout Three Day Road, I found the constant effect of culture clash to be most apparent. Xavier and Elijah have assimilated somewhat into the white culture that steadily encroaches upon their heritage, but Niska--having both rejected and been rejected by her white neighbors--remains a solitary pillar of their people's history. In both cases, however, their culture asserts itself most strongly in matters of death and the value of human life. Xavier and Elijah's military comrades, though engaged in ruthless and grotesque warfare, have generally been raised with the Western belief that nothing is so important as human life, particular that of one's countrymen. Elijah and Xavier, by contrast, come from a people who will kill their own brethren if they have strayed over the line and become a predatory danger not only to the people but to the values at the heart of their culture. This concept is introduced fairly early in the text, at the end of Niska's chapted entitled Noohtaawiy (My Father), in which she tells of her father's arrest and incarceration by white settlers after he dispatches a woman and her baby who have eaten her husband's dead flesh. On page 45 she says "The Cree are a generous people. Like forest ticks the wemistikoshaw grabbed onto us, growing fatter by the season, until the day came when suddenly it was we who answered to them......No one is safe in such times, not even the Cree of Mushkegowuk. War touches everyone, and windigos spring from the earth." This passage accentuates the severe culture clash suffered by her nephew and his friend and foreshadows the later conflict that will impact Elijah and alter the course of Xavier's role in life.

"'I'm an Indian,' Elijah says. 'From the North. This one too, but he doesn't speak much English.'
'Does he speak French?' the man asks.
Elijah shakes his head. 'He is a heathen, speaks his own tongue fluently, nothing else.'" (187)

In this scene Elijah and Xavier are out drinking. They are ignored by the men in the room until a French soldier comes to speak to Elijah about his rumored sniping abilities. This passage addresses the themes of assimilation as a means to survival and the way in which Elijah and Xavier deal with the clash of cultures.
Elijah and Xavier adopt two different strategies in order to survive in a world that is mostly foreign to them. Xavier chooses to stay silent most of the time. He does not want to bring trouble to himself, so instead he lets his actions speak for him. He works hard and keeps a low profile. While Xavier does not so much outwardly display his process of assimilating, he is learning the ways of the Western world.
Elijah approaches assimilation with a very different perspective. He learns the ways of white people quickly, changing his voice and mannerisms. Instead of remaining below the radar, as Xavier does, Elijah wins friends quickly by displaying his talents at war as well as his sense of humor. Elijah simultaneously throws away his Native American culture while adopting the stereotyped fragments of what it is to be an "Indian". He calls Xavier a heathen in order to put the other man at ease showing him that he, Elijah, can joke around about Indians too. When Elijah calls Xavier a heathen he destroys respect for his native culture and perpetuates the stereotypes of the insolent, silent Indian.
Elijah and Xavier represent two paths that it seems many minorities have had to choose between: whether to fully assimilate, to the point where one mocks one's own original culture, or to reject all parts of one's new culture.

pg 117. Elijah is trying out so many new voices like the British accent, mixed with the cree, and he tries to pick up what other soldiers are speaking. He has no real voice anymore, i
it reminds me the 3rd culture kids. They are kids who have been moved around so much in their lives that they dont actually associate with one country especially their native country. however, Xavier seems to have trouble in the real world and although he knows his home, he cant interact with others when he is fighting in the war.

The passage I chose comes from the last paragraph on page 21 to the end of page 23. Xavier is waved over into a conversation among three people who have apparently been fighting the war for some time. Two are more talkative and ask Xavier questions and explain things to him. The third does not say much until the end of this passage, but his words are the most powerful. When Xavier comments that he does not know much English, the third man, Smithy, responds, "You don't need to know much for the job you been sent here to do."
This passage touches on a couple of themes that persisted throughout the novel. One is the differences and similarities between Indian soldiers and the other white soldiers. The soldiers who are inquiring into Xavier's life are easily able to infer that he is an Indian because of where he says he is from and presumably the way he looks. When he comments that he doesn't know English and is told that out there it doesn't matter you can see that despite the many differences between the Indians and 'wemistikoshiw' that out there on the battle field they are all the same, just men fighting for survival. The segregation and poor treatment that the Indians receive back in Canada is lost here in this place so surrounded by death, where each man's ultimate mortality is thrown right into his face.
Another theme touched upon here is the affect that killing has on the human condition. While two of the men that Xavier converses with seem relatively friendly and even somewhat upbeat, their friend who is a famous sniper is very quiet and reserved. He carries a stern demeanor that begins to reflect the demeanor that Elijah takes on when his focus is required for him to become the hunter/killer that he develops into. Xavier sees what is happening to Elijah throughout the novel, and this type of affect is previewed in this passage from the novel.

Page 265. Elijah and Xavier are at a pub getting drunk and conversation rolls around to how many men Elijah has killed. Elijah brags about killing 194 men to the corporal. He is so proud of killing so many men and impressing the corporal. The two themes at work here are war and culture clash. While Elijah is proud of taking the lives of other humans, Xavier keeps quiet and doesn't brag about killing like Elijah does. Elijah has definitely assimilated to the white culture, and even bashes his own culture by taking on stereotypical Indian characteristics. Xavier absorbs the western culture too because he has to in the time of war, but also keeps his values as much as he can. This is evident when he is against scalping enemies after killing them. It is against his Cree culture to disrespect the dead.

Like the novel itself, which lacks any defining boundaries between the tangled stories of Niska, Xavier, and Elijah, the themes present in the novel overlap and play off one another to create a complex and interesting story. One passage I found very elemental to the story itself occurred on page 323 when Elijah tells Xavier he wants to be a chief when they return to Canada. Xavier of course has just confronted him about his belief that Elijah ate the soldier he shot the other day.
First I would say this quote is very basic in the discussion of tradition. Elijah, misinterpreting the culture he has been removed from (by being in the residency), he still holds on to the things he learned from the nuns about his own culture. Though he has spent time with Niska and Xavier he still doesn’t understand the respect Native cultures have for every life. He still believes that scalping and being a great warrior, and eating your enemy, will make you a Chief and is at a loss to understand it any other way. This quote is so key to this theme because it finally culminates to explain why Elijah has behaved as he has during the war, and also the way in which the residency has distorted the concept of Tradition.
Along with this image of Tradition I would like to talk about culture clash. Again, Elijah’s desire to become a great chief through war is descriptive of his misunderstanding and the resulting clash from the Residency, but also shows that he has turned to a war that is not apart of his realm of existence to prove himself. Throughout the novel Elijah shows himself able to adapt to each new culture, and this adaptation is frighteningly effective. Thus the culture clash exists more subtly: Elijah, believing this to be the way of his ancestors slaughters by the hundreds is induced to kill by the violence of WWI, and the result is he is neither Native nor White because his actions are too blood-thirsty.
I think this quote also fits in well with the theme of differing concepts of Masculinity. The epitome of masculinity for Elijah is to be a chief, for Xavier masculinity is a commune with nature. In this passage Elijah shows his misunderstanding of masculinity by expressing it in terms of death and it’s suggested, cannibalism. Xavier’s concept of masculinity differs, and although it is never clearly stated in the text, Niska’s father and Niska are respected members of their communities for their ability to be Windigo killers. Thus Elijah is even further from the respected title that he yearns for, and also his masculinity because when it comes down to it Xavier is closer to achieving Elijah’s wish to be chief than Elijah ever was.
Finally I think this quote goes along with the theme of Simulcra. Elijah believes the stories he has heard about his culture from the residency and tries to mimic them by being a great killer and by scalping his foes. Xavier knows that this is not apart of the Native culture he practices but cannot express this to Elijah who is seemingly doing a better job at becoming a “chief” than he is. This quote is a turning point for this concept because it is the final point where the reader has to realize that Elijah’s concept of masculinity and chiefdom is not right and although he was doing a great job at pretending we need to recognize that the real he perceives is far from the truth.

"I went through the Indian part of Moose Factory first, looking for faces that I knew...most of it from the hides of animals." (155)
This passage describes how a younger Niska ventured into Moose Factory in search of the Frenchman who she had been seeing. She recognizes many of the faces from her term at the residential school, however she realizes that she bears no personal or cultural ties to any of the people they belong to. Niska describes how an invisible wall had constructed itself between her and the Indians who grew up in the Residential schools. This passage clearly illuminates how the residential schools caused a cultural conflict, not only between whites and native peoples, but also between the assimilated Indians and those who adhered to their cultural traditions. Niska arrives at the town only to find that the white man's influence has effectively erased her heritage. Communication across the cultural boundary is impossible, even for Indians of the same heritage, because the residential schools have so ingrained a sense of self-hatred into the first nations children. For an assimilated Indian to open relations with a "bush-Indian" would mark that person as a traitor to the 'civilized' world. Though this is exactly what takes place between Elijah and Xavier, throughout the novel we witness the tension that arises from the differences in their upbringings. Elijah often betrays embarrassment at Xavier's lack of knowledge about the Western way of doing things, and conversely we see how Xavier disapproves of Elijah's efforts to act like a white person.

Page 287: "When Elijah comes back a couple of days later, he tells me of finding some of the Frenchmen who'd taught him to scalp his enemies last year. He has brought some meat with him, a gift from the Frenchmen, he says. We sit a long way behind the line and Elijah cuts the meat into thin strips, fries it up in his tin cup, and passes me pieces on the tip of his trench knife as soon as they are cooked. I try not to think of what the knife has done. This is the first hot meal I've had in weeks. Elijah explains how he found the Frenchmen, that they let him know where to look for them, but I do not inquire further.
'If they did not know last Christmas that I am a hunter to contend with, they do now,' Elijah says. 'All they did was stare when I showed them my trophies.' He smiles at the memory. 'They acted nervously around me after that. My reputation is sealed, I think.'"

For me, this passage reflects the themes of culture clash, war, and death and rebirth. Xavier is obviously uncomfortable around Elijah's knife, knowing the things Elijah has used it for in war. Elijah sees his skinning as part of the grand hunt that is the war, and the death of the soldiers he kills brings life to his reputation and his perceived self worth. Elijah's own words tell that he feels the scalps are all he has prove himself, and he desperately needs that validation. However, when he seeks it from the Frenchmen by showing them his "trophies," they are obviously uncomfortable, as if their comment about scalping were only a joke. The Frenchmen saw scalping as a stereotype, something only a crazy Indian would do. Elijah, however, saw it as something required of him as an Indian. The obvious clash and misunderstanding produces great discomfort on the part of the Frenchmen. Elijah takes it as a sign of fearful respect.

The themes I found to go together best were Culture Clash and Identity. It seems that these are things that both Xavier and Elijah struggle with. Unfortunately, however, it is Elijah who suffers in the end.
Both Elijah and Xavier try hard to make sense of their new environment in the army, but I think it is because of Elijah's time in the residential schools that he is better able to fit in. Throughout the novel, we are bombarded with examples of how Xavier's more solid upbringing allows him to have a stronger sense of self. Without that inner idea of identity, Elijah continually fights a battle with himself as to who and what he should be.
The passage I chose is from page 285. On this page, Xavier is talking about a Christmas celebration and how long he has spent at war. Towards the bottom of the page, he mentions how Elijah has started saving the scalps of those he's killed as trophies and how he now has a whole pack full of them. By the bottom of the page, Xavier says, "He is someone I no longer know." This seems like a simple statement, but honestly I think it holds quite a bit of weight. Elijah, in his attempts to become an integrated part of his idea of white culture, is conforming to whatever these men ask of him. Unfortunately for Elijah, the only way these white men see him is as a red indian. And so, the more Elijah conforms to their idea of him, the more he becomes the stereotypical indian, for that is the only way in which the white soldiers can have him fit in. Xavier sees this happening and realizes, that the more Elijah tries to fit in with the English, the more he becomes like those infected with windigo. Therefore, it is almost necessary for Xavier to kill him.
It is unfortunate, because Elijah is so lost between the two cultures in his attempts at solidifying his identity that he ends up alienating himself from both worlds. He becomes the savage indian to the English, and to Xavier he becomes a blood thirsty monster. It is almost ironic that in Elijah's quest for his identity, he loses himself completely.

“That was their phantom sniper,” Elijah says with awe. “The one who killed Sean Patrick. He was hunting us too.” I see that Elijah can’t speak with his British accent when he speaks in Cree. “Can you imagine?” Elijah asks, beginning to laugh. “The intensity of such a man? He could lie there for hours among the dead and the rotting. He lay there in the stink of death like death itself. But we got him.” Page 119.
This is when Elijah wants to “check the accuracy” of his rifle and decides to shoot at a horse. Xavier asks Elijah if that was wise because it will give off their hiding spot due to the smoke. After Elijah shoots the horse a man who Elijah calls the sniper peers out and takes aim on Xavier and Elijah. Xavier luckily hunts down the man first and they are both safe. This passage I believe identifies the themes War and Culture clash. I feel like it is a part of war because Elijah who wants to be remembered for being a great soldier does a foolish thing by wanting to test his gun out when really I believe that he just has gotten himself addicted to killing. Elijah blows the horse away and is excited about the death where as Xavier looks away and feels the opposite about it. Throughout the book we see Elijah become more and more sunk into being a soldier and war and he takes pride in killing as long as he is remembered. This also reminds me of culture clash going back to what we talked to in class about how Xavier mentions that Elijah can’t speak in a British accent when he speaks in Cree. This reminds me of culture clash because although Xavier and Elijah are not British at all, Elijah wants to fit in and act more like a soldier which brings on his fake accent. Xavier realizes everything Elijah does to try and act like a great soldier but always stays very humble about it. This entire passage and much of the book can be related to these two themes because Elijah is always trying to prove himself and becoming a great soldier.

“I figure it’s safe enough to light a cigarette. No one will notice it in the sunlight. I started smoking to fit in. now I like it. Sometimes I send up prayers on the smoke” (p. 67). This passage refers to some of the themes that we discussed in class. Importantly it shows a culture clash of Xavier wanting to continue to smoke because he did it to fit in. Xavier is from a place where smoking isn’t apart of them and now he wants to do it just to fit in. another theme that this quote fits into is identity. We see here that Xavier is attempting to associate, and even change his identity to more of an English way of life. He seems to enjoy fitting in with the English people and doesn’t all mind adopting some of their interests.

"In the long hours of hunting Elijah tries to understand what is growing in him. He talks to me about this through the nights we spend out in the damp and the mud. Mist rises from the craters and swirls in the stink. In the end, the answer that come is simple. Elijah has learned to take pleasure in killing.
Elijah says that something in me has hardened in the past few months."(262)
I see this passage as indicative of war figured as a kind of sickness- the kind of sickness where men become windigo and eat each other. Xavier's hardening after he and Elijah start to figure out what is happening to Elijah is interesting. Xavier must have had an awareness that he would carry on the family responsibility after Niska of windigo killing. The horrific descriptions of WW1 reflect the idea that our colonial societies are destructive in the world, rather than productive. The Elie Wiesel quote holds true in this context- war as failure of the imagination.

The book Three Day Road has a lot of interesting themes that we have looked at in class. There are many different situations in which we see a culture clash and war between Elijah and Xavier. Throughout the book we see a general movement of Elijah from his Native American roots to becoming a killing machine for the Canadian army. Through his language and his will to become one of the best soldiers Elijah loses himself as his friend Xavier watches on; still fighting the war but sticking to his Native American heritage and ideas. "Thompson, Elijah and I sit together, away from other, and charcoal our faces. It's our ritual. It's what I call a wemistikoshiw smudging ceremony. Elijah laughs at me. No Indian religion for him. The only Indian Elijah wants to be is the Indian that knows how to hide and hunt. (127)" In this quote it is easy to see how Elijah distances himself from some parts of his heritage while being an "indian that can hide and hunt." Xavier displays a small amount of dislike for Elijah by again pointing out his flaws as a fake Indian. In the book there are many examples where Elijah drifts farther and farther away from his own culture in the war.

"Why did you kill that man, Auntie?"..."sometimes one must be sacrificed if all are to survive"(245).

In this passage, Niska explains to Xavier why it was necessary to travel and kill a Windigo in a far-off village. This scene occurs fairly early in Xavier's education on the ways of Cree life in the bush, and Niska is careful to phrase her answer in terms that allow the young X to appreciate the importance of their native way of life, as well as the Windigo-killing power of Niska's bloodline. This section furthers the novel's themes of death and rebirth, as well as the hierarchies present or absent in first nation and wemistikoshiw culture.

This scene gives Xavier his first of many firsthand glimpses of death, despite the fact that Niska had not intended for him to witness the murder/cleansing. While Xavier is too young to appreciate all the implications of his Aunt's power, Niska attempts to explain to him that this death had to take place in order for that Cree community to resume life in accordance with their laws and traditions. One windigo loses his life, and the rest of the village is reborn. It is only later that Xavier identifies this same power within himself and reluctantly utilizes it to sacrifice the life of Elijah for the good of non-Windigos, following the tradition passed down to him years before.

Additionally, this passage calls attention to the hierarchies (or lack thereof) implicit in both Cree and wemistikoshiw culture. Niska is not held in any higher regard than her fellow natives for her power, but she is respected for it and called upon when a situation requires it, just as an adept hunter or cook would be required to offer their services for the good of the village. This circular non-hierarchy stands in direct contrast to the militarized social ladder of wemistikoshiw death-bringers, in which those who kill the most (such as Elijah) command the most respect and free cigarettes from their fellow soldiers. While both Elijah and Niska kill out of necessity, the Elijah does so to gain respect and ascend in military stature, whereas the Niska, and later Xavier, do so regrettably, and take no pride in their ability to end the life of another.

On the theme of identity, Elijah’s character descriptions are quite fruitful in showing the range of who he is as a person and how his personal self is perceived. In particular, the passages on pg. 287 and on pg. 311 demonstrate Elijah’s identity. In the former, Elijah is feeding Xavier meat, which he claims to be derived from humans, though he may or may not be acting facetious. Later on in this passage, he is described as having “a wicked little-boy smile”. Similarly, in the latter passage, Elijah is feeding his drug habit by shooting up with morphine, and, again, is described with a child-like description – as a “pesky child”. Here, in these two passages, we can see how Elijah’s identity within the novel is how he is the nexus of the adult sphere and the child sphere; he is not fully connected to either world, though his identity is contingent on both.

The scene that really gets me is when Xavier is forced to kill Elijah, because he realizes that his friend has become a monster throughout the war, that he has become the Windigo, a man who consumes flesh. This concept of Culture seems to be particularly prevalent here, because Xavier still clings to his heritage, and struggles to fit in to their unit, whereas Elijah is welcomed, because he doesn't just merely adapt, but changes who he is, until it seems that he doesn't even know. As he is strangling Elijah with the rifle, he says "You have gone mad. There is no coming back from where you've traveled." This sense of Culture, of remember who Xavier descended from, we come to the realization that he is continuing what his grandfather and Niska used to have to do. He is killing the Windigo, putting down a man that has become a monster.

Also, the theme of War is involved in this scene as well, because of the atrocities they have to commit, as in Xavier's case, or the fact that they enjoy killing, such as Elijah scalping the men he kills. The fact they they are in a crater, with shells crashing all around them, just speaks to the tumult that war is, and that the devastation of it effects us all in different ways. It seems to drive Elijah over the edge, even though he's good at it. He's good but he enjoys it, and that is the difference between him and Xavier, who is good but hates that he has to kill.

An interesting quote which focuses on the theme "War" occurs when Xavier says, "It appears the only structure left standing in the whole town. Elijah and I drop down behind a shattered wagon. The shots were very close to my head."

What stands out in this quote is the simplicity and casual nature with which language describing a near death situation is used. First, this implies that the boys have normalized war. One would expect a narrator to put forth quite the exclamation if a bullet flew past his or her head, but for Xavier and Elijah this becomes as normal as eating breakfast in the morning. This is an effective method for evoking sympathy. Normalization of war, especially in a child, is tragic. The simplicity of the language, specifically the verbs, gives a feel to the book as though the boys are operating on basic animal instincts. In an environment of war, soldiers don't have the luxury to speak on a complex, intellectual level. They simply duck, run, shoot, and survive.

The book Three Day Road had tons of themes that all worked themselves together and connected to each other in very complex ways. One of the ways these themes all connected to each other was through story telling. Story telling was a way for Niska to try to save X, and ways X and Elijah kept each other alive and in company together. The idea of storytelling connects to other themes with use of language, culture and tradition. The passage I am going to look at for this assignment is on page 169 and it is when Elijah and X are out in the fields and Elijah asks X to tell him a story.
“A long time passes before a memory comes to me from somewhere in the night. It is not a pappy memory, or a welcome one, but Elijah asks again for me to speak and so I give in. It’s a memory he already knows, but one that I know he likes. And so I tell it to him as we wait for morning.”
X narrates the story of the ship ride over to the war, and the horses that live below deck. This story introduces us to how closely tied X is to land, animals, and ultimately his previous life, “I’ve taken the horses as my own responsibility. But down here is far worse, the bottom of waves bounding, horses panicked and kicking stalls. Elijah visits me and sees that I am so sick I can barely stand, but still I stay with the wretched animals, trying to calm them. He knows me. I feel comfort with animals. They make me feel closer to land.”
These close connections to land and animals are ones that show the roots that X has been able to maintain thanks to Niska saving him from the residential schools early on in his life and how Elijah doesn’t always have so strong of connections to animals or land as he does to people because his history was so screwed up by living so long in the residential schools. All of these themes lace in and out of each other.

As X continues to tell this particular story to Elijah in the night two of the horses break their legs and Elijah has to go tell the officers that they need to be put down. As a story within a story X tells the reader, but not Elijah, “I have heard Elijah tell this next part of the story to others in our battalion. He tells them how he remembers the shaking and slapping that woke him. His eyes are glued shut, and when he manages to open them, he sees me slapping him, my face ashen. I did not know then that he had tried the morphine only the evening before.” We are shown here within X’s story which part of this story that Elijah values. He is put in charge of telling the officers and captain that two of the horses have broken legs. The officers need to be told 6 times that the horses have broken legs before Elijah manages to get through to them. Several points in this story explain why Elijah would like to re-tell this story, they compliment him on his shooting and also on his language abilities, also when the officers get below deck the reader is told, “Breech is the only one to slip, banging his knee hard and cursing. Elijah smiles.”
This section of X’s story is filled with Elijah’s voice that X wasn’t even around to see. It is an interesting mix of narrations that is used frequently in Three Day Road to show effective storytelling and how important parts of stories are experienced by others but still necessary to the bigger picture.

This section shows the importance of story telling, Culture, Respect to the land and animals, perspective and it touches briefly on drug use which will become more and more important as the book draws to a close.

There were a few key passages for me that really developed the themes of Identity and Culture Clash simultaneously. The first was the passage in which Xavier asks Lt. Breech for permission to sleep outside using Elijah's improvised English. Part of Elijah's identity is being stripped away; being forced to live like a soldier instead of a Native American hunter clearly makes him feel confined and uncomfortable. That is also an example of the culture clash he is experiencing, as is the difficulty he faces when trying to communicate in English. This passage is just one of many instances in which Xavier's difficulty assimilating into the army and the Caucasian society as a whole results in pretty substantial culture clash. Another example of this is on page 175. Xavier kills two horses with broken legs and, even though what he did was the most intelligent course of action, would have been brought up on charges if not for the intervention of some superior officers.

"To know that you have desecrated the ones you love, that you have done something so damning out of a greed for life that you have been exiled from your people forever is a hard meal to swallow, much harder to swallow than that first bite of human flesh" (242).

This passage is towards the end of the book. Niska is the speaker here, and she is telling of a time when she had to kill the nephew who went crazy. Though this quote specifically relates to Niska having to carry out the duties of her ancestors, this can also be applied to Elijah's life as a soldier overseas. In a way, Elijah has desecrated the ones he loves by going against his Native ways and turning against those who have loved & supported him (i.e. calling Niska a "heathen" repeatedly, embracing "white" culture, etc.). The passage also speaks about doing a damning deed out of greed for life, which can be applied to Elijah. He becomes barbaric while in the army, skinning heads and killing for the sake of simply killing, which is clearly wrong. Yet, the reader can read into this to see that what Elijah is doing is trying to survive. Perhaps for him, life means being "white" and abandoning all Native past that might be within you. If this is the case, then there is a greed that lies within Elijah that makes him do unbearable things so that he might live as he sees fit.

All of this connects to the larger theme of the desperate need to fit in, as felt mainly by Elijah (but also by Xavier in a way, since he smokes to fit in and wishes to speak better English so that he may be able to participate more). Elijah is like Niska in a certain way: just as Niska held the responsibility to hold onto her ancestors' gifts and carry out what had to be done at all costs, Elijah feels that he has the responsibility to advance his people, which had to be done at all costs. Unfortunately for Elijah, this was not necessarily true, and his ultimate fate was a result of his ludicrous and mad behavior.

The few passages on pages 344-345 address themes of identity, culture clash, death and rebirth, and lastly, survival.
Xavier's identity is literally mixed up in this passage by the English speaking nurse aiding him; the nurse thinks that Xavier is Elijah. Xavier addresses his confusion when he says, "I do not know how to make them understand who I am. To them I am Elijah Whiskeyjack, sniper and scout. Hero." Xavier however, does not attempt to correct the problem. Instead, "[he] allows [himself] to believe that [he] is Elijah. In that way he is still alive." Xavier relies on Elijah's identity rather than his own.
There is also an obvious theme of culture clash here through language. "One morning [Xavier] awakes and [the nurse] holds a board to [his] face, English words written on it. [Xavier] shakes his head and looks instead at her eyes... 'Can't,' [he] whispers." Xavier can not communicate to the nurse as well as others around him because of the cultural difference in language.
Death and rebirth is present in this section of "Three Day Road" when Xavier says, "I've made the decision to live". He is on the brink of death at the end of the novel, but is somewhat reborn when he decides to fight for life. However, the reader is still presented with death with the constant reminder of Elijah's death.
Lastly, the theme of survival is extremely relevant in these passages. Xavier is in constant pain; "I'm awake one night, sweating. I've not called out for medicine for a whole day. My body radiates pain... I try to sit up. The pain shoots through me. I try again, and then again." Through all of his agony however, Xavier fights to survive and day by day gains strength. The reader watches him finally walk when Xavier states that, "A long time has passed. Many days...I've made the decision to love, and each morning crawl out of my bed and pick up the crutches beside it. I am able to hobble down the hall now."
Themes of identity, culture clash, death & rebirth, and survival all are exemplified within this passage.

Throughout the novel, it is apparent that Xavier feels somewhat overlooked due to Elijah’s attention-grabbing actions. Although Elijah learned how to hunt and be a successful tracker from Xavier, he is often perceived as the more talented one. This is partly because of his outgoing nature, but also supplemented by his need for verification from his peers and superiors. This lack of recognition is frustrating to Xavier, and he finds passive aggressive ways to overcome his language barrier and his quiet nature to subtly prove himself as the more adept marksman. There are two passages in which he clearly outshines Elijah and gains recognition and respect from the other soldiers. The first is during a contest to find the most accurate sniper. Xavier proves himself to be the only soldier that can light a match with his rifle. “It strikes me then. None of these who are here today can call me a useless bush Indian ever again. They might not say it out loud, but they know now that I have something special (100).” This is a monumental alteration in how Xavier is perceived. A second, small victory of his is when Elijah attempts to shoot a duck, yet misses. Xavier shoots it in one try, and then walks away without speaking. In these ways he is able to make a name for himself and gain the respect of older soldiers such as McCaan and Thompson.

All throughout Three Day Road there is a continual transgression which is seen in Elijah, as he goes from human to animal. All throughout the story both the main characters witness war and death, yet their attitudes towards such greatly vary. On one hand Xavier becomes sick and lost in the battlefield, whereas Elijah becomes more alert and settled with his surroundings.

One quote which perfectly demonstrates such is found on page 283: "a rifle shot explodes and the child goes still, a red hole punched in her chest by the bullet." Having followed Xavier's accidental murder of an innocent mother Elijah claims to have been protecting his close friend from danger. Xavier cannot live with himself, Elijah is indifferent.

This quote goes along with themes of war and death, not only of the girl but of Elijah's soul. His entire person has become consumed by warfare, what he lives and breathes for. No need for food, just the smooth rush of morphine, the quick trajectory of a bullet.

In the end only Xavier could put an end to the madness, just as his ancestors before him had puruged the souls of the windigo. Even in the first passage of the book is a foreshadowing of such an event, where Xavier must finish what Elijah had started. "Elijah swings again...I pick up a heavier piece of wood...It doesn't move. I club its head once more" (pg. 2). And so as Elijah had begun his spiral downward into insanity, so was Xavier ever ready to deliver him from evil, amen.

The quote that I really liked in the story was on page 127 when Xavier is talking about something Elijah said when they were in a trench. "Elijah complains that his sight's a little blurry fron the dirt spray of the bullet so close to his head, but it's dark out anyway, and he likes to rely on the other senses at night. Elijah claims that he can smell Fritz from a long way off, swears that Fritz smells differently than an Englishman or a Frenchman of a Canadian. Elijah says he picks up a vinegar smell when one's close. He always knows." There are a lot of themes that resonate through this quote. The first that I can think of is one connection to nature. Elijah and Xavier both have a strong connection to nature. They can tune in other senses from more accurately because they used to use them when they would go out hunting when they were younger. It is apparent in this quote because Xavier talks about Elijah's sense of smell. Another theme that sticks out in this quote is the theme of clash of cultures. There are many different cultures working together and against each other through this story that it is interesting when Elijah says he can smell the differences. I also think it is important to look at how Xavier says he always knows when he smells something threatening because later he becomes addicted to morphine and loses his sense of smell and gets jittery and nervous becuase of his dependence on the drug.