Three Day Road
Wandering
Windigo of the Wemistikoshiw The novel Three Day Road can be viewed as an explicit indicator as to the importance of sustaining cultural identity, and the consequences associated with its absence from any aspect of human life. The tale provides a salient setting through which this spiritual malfeasance is brought about, with much of its content consisting of the supremacy of the wemistikoshiw, or white man, over the Aboriginals in World
War 1. The novel’s European setting manifests the primary cause for the spiritual bankruptcy of Elijah Weesacheejak, one of the story’s central figures and the novel’s primary thematic microcosm. Influenced deeply by
Western ideals, he is said to be a windigo which, as explained by the aboriginal bushmaster, Niska, is characterized by: “…sadness so pure that it [shrivels] the human heart and [lets] something else grow in its place”
(Boyden 261). A polar opposite to Elijah, Niska recognizes the necessity of spirituality rooted in tradition, and is able to identify the Windigo as a logical product of wemistikoshiw influence. Her nephew, Xavier, is defiantly against European conformity in much the same way, sacrificing physical well-being for the sake of the Cree culture which he cherishes and to which he hopes to return in the wake of the war. It is clear that each of these three characters is negatively affected by the widespread influence of the whites, albeit to different degrees. Each character’s amount of exposure to wemistikoshiw culture corresponds proportionately to both their bodily state by the novel’s end, and their specific levels of windigo-ism. Joseph Boyden’s Three Day Road illuminates the Windigo’s corruption of identity through the personalities of Xavier, Niska and
Elijah via their cultural adherence, contrasting health, and dynamic relationships. Much like two sides of the same coin, Western and Aboriginal societies share a structural essence, but vary wildly in their fundamental ideals and respective
Windigo of the Wemistikoshiw The novel Three Day Road can be viewed as an explicit indicator as to the importance of sustaining cultural identity, and the consequences associated with its absence from any aspect of human life. The tale provides a salient setting through which this spiritual malfeasance is brought about, with much of its content consisting of the supremacy of the wemistikoshiw, or white man, over the Aboriginals in World
War 1. The novel’s European setting manifests the primary cause for the spiritual bankruptcy of Elijah Weesacheejak, one of the story’s central figures and the novel’s primary thematic microcosm. Influenced deeply by
Western ideals, he is said to be a windigo which, as explained by the aboriginal bushmaster, Niska, is characterized by: “…sadness so pure that it [shrivels] the human heart and [lets] something else grow in its place”
(Boyden 261). A polar opposite to Elijah, Niska recognizes the necessity of spirituality rooted in tradition, and is able to identify the Windigo as a logical product of wemistikoshiw influence. Her nephew, Xavier, is defiantly against European conformity in much the same way, sacrificing physical well-being for the sake of the Cree culture which he cherishes and to which he hopes to return in the wake of the war. It is clear that each of these three characters is negatively affected by the widespread influence of the whites, albeit to different degrees. Each character’s amount of exposure to wemistikoshiw culture corresponds proportionately to both their bodily state by the novel’s end, and their specific levels of windigo-ism. Joseph Boyden’s Three Day Road illuminates the Windigo’s corruption of identity through the personalities of Xavier, Niska and
Elijah via their cultural adherence, contrasting health, and dynamic relationships. Much like two sides of the same coin, Western and Aboriginal societies share a structural essence, but vary wildly in their fundamental ideals and respective