On October 3 2016, author Joseph Boyden was at Mount Allison as part of the President’s Speaker Series. The event took place in 3 acts, using each act as an opportunity to share a secret from his life and beginning each with a special musical interlude during which Boyden played on the jawharp and harmonica respectively. In act one, he shared that the act of creating and sitting down and writing scares him. In act two, he confessed to believing that hardly anyone would read his first novel, Three Day Road, and that in the process of creating he gave up many times. In the third and final act, he confessed to being a young rebel who always sets out to challenge other people’s expectations. Following his lecture, he held a question period during which many audience members asked for writing advice and probed further on some of the earlier themes. As emphasized throughout the lecture {insert word here}, or everybody counts and idea tied not only to our school, but also as a step towards reconciliation with First Nations peoples.…
The Three Day Road by Joseph Boyden starts off in a town called Moose Factory in Canada shortly after WW1. “Auntie” is waiting for the arrival of her nephew, Xavier‘s, friend Elijah. However, she is shocked to find that it is her nephew who returns. She had received a letter that said her nephew had died in the field of battle and that Elijah was wounded, and only had one leg. When her nephew steps off the steps she thinks he is a ghost until he falls to the ground, because he to is shocked for he had heard that she was dead. Then they start their journey down the river to their home in the bush. On this journey they both reminisce of the past from when Auntie was a young girl all the way up to the end of the war. Auntie believes that Xavier is struck with a sickness that the wemistikoshiw, white men, medicine has on him. She starts to tell him a story of when she was a little girl during a harsh winter that her tribe had to go through. In hope that the spirits of the story would scare the sickness out of him. As she tells this story Xavier starts thinking back of times in the war. Him and Elijah started off as just two ordinary privates in their platoon. Then sergeant McCaan realizes that they are great hunters and can move about in the trenches with out the enemy spotting them so he begins to train them to be snipers. Elijah being the shooter and Xavier as his spotter they become very famous during the war. The trauma of the war starts to get to both of them. Xavier begins to get home sick and just wants to go back to the bush, but Elijah gets blood drunk from all the people he has killed. During this time Auntie keeps telling more stories to Xavier from her childhood, to when Xavier meets Elijah, all the way up to when they went off to the war. Auntie had taken Xavier from the nuns in Moose Factory when he was a little boy, and they lived in the bush…
Setting plays a huge role in the novel “Three Day Road,” by Joseph Boyden. In the World War I, Xavier and Elijah face privation of war with the British. The two, friends go out to fight for survival and to protect one another. However, sadly in return no recognition was implied. Therefore, this novel revolves around the war, which showcases the war is an important factor of the plot development in this novel. While the setting does change back and forth, it creates a different aspect for the reader creating some flashbacks. The alters show two different settings throughout the story the bush (Setting #1) and the war (Setting #2). One on what war is like for the Aboriginals and what it was like before the war. Before the war the novel showcases,…
To be a successful soldier in war, one must endure extensive training in various situations, including but not limited to, medical practice, survival skills, and strategies. This is of utmost importance because without proper instruction or experience, a soldier could potentially die in crossfire. It can be challenged that in his historical short story The Sniper, Liam O’Flaherty utilizes characterization to imply that the Republican sniper has qualities of an experienced soldier in survival skills and combat training to show his successful survival and defeat of his enemy sniper.…
Throughout the book there are several variations of characters witnessing their acquaintances going through trauma & selfhood or in fact being the one under going these traits. For instance Xavier was the lead narrator for the story, he was also a cree soldier who fought for Canada during world war 1. Just like most soldiers after war, they need something to help them cope after witnessing all the gruesome experiences of war. Xavier used morphine to help him manage with killing elijah and life after war. The narration from the point of view from Xavier influences the themes of trauma and selfhood because we are able to view him from 2 perspectives, one being mental and one being physical. We see…
Laura Hillenbrand reveals the extremes of Louie’s life from 1918 to 1950 using historic details of the story. Hillenbrand writes using a third person narrator. This perspective is beneficial for writing a biography, allowing further information to be obtained from research. Third person is a…
-Xavier is the speaker in this chapter. He stays outside his aunt’s teepee, still basking in the warmth of his morphine, and begins telling his story of first arriving on the front lines in Flanders (near Saint-Eloi, probably in 1916). We meet members of his section, including Lieutenant Breech, Sergeant McCann, Fats, Sean Patrick and Grey Eyes.…
The book so far is based around the story of an Italian boy named Louie Zampernini and his family. Louie’s father and mother moved from Italy and brought themselves up in a half-acre field with a one-room shack. “If it was edible, Louie stole it.” This is an idea brought up constantly in these chapters about Louie’s daring and witty attempts and successes at stealing, fighting, and causing most other kinds of mischief. The book also says that “Confident that he was clever, resourceful and bold enough to escape any predicament, he was almost incapable of discouragement. When history carried him into the war, this resilient optimism would define him.” A foreshadowing of the next part of the book when he is brought into the Army Air Corps. As someone interested in the armed forces I can identify with that last quote because there are many occasions when I have seen people bring with themselves their outstanding qualities into the military, this is something that I hope I can do with traits that will better me in service.…
I think this is important because it is the first time Xavier expresses his hatred and desire to be violent towards Elijah, to the reader. To me, it becomes evident that Xavier number one priority is no longer to try and protect Elijah. This is another incident that builds up Xavier’s hatred towards Elijah.…
This book embodies all of the facets that go along with love and death, during a volatile time of war. O 'Brien captures the theme of emotional conflict and how strongly it affects soldiers in a brilliant way. By correlating mundane goods with intangibles like feelings and emotion, he successfully points out all of the angles of war that the lay person generally cannot comprehend. He compels the reader to understand not just the daily grind of war, but how the little things can bring important things in life into perspective. He digs under the surface of the tangible items to demonstrate a much greater meaning to these mens lives. In essence, the soldiers are defined by the things they…
The main character of this book is Henry Fleming, mostly referred to as The Youth or Youth. The Youth has dark, curly brown hair also; he is a young teenager and is average height when compared to the Tall Soldier. Henry is insecure because he is going through a difficult stage between being a "man" and being a "boy". Henry can't wait to get to war when he signs up but during the book Henry learns that war has a lot of affects on people emotionally and physically. Henry's flaw is that he is afraid of making himself look bad and he is worried that he is going to be a coward and run away from battle. Henry really wants to be a "man" and be courageous. I once heard a swim coach give an extremely good definition of courage. He said "To me courage is not to be unafraid but it is to be afraid but one does it anyways and doesn't worry about being afraid. I think Henry thought of courageous as fearless and that is also part of his flaw.…
To take the life of another man is considered to be a great sin, however when placed in a war setting, the inverse is true. When one thinks of a hero, they imagine a man of distinguished courage or ability, admired for his brave deeds and noble qualities. In the eyes of a country during war, these deeds and noble qualities relate directly to the amount of enemy kills a man acquires. War evokes the cruelty and immorality within a man and his country causing the definition of hero to be altered. Although upon their return, soldiers are placed on a pedestal, they are continuously reminded of the pain and suffering that they condemned their enemy to during combat. The novel Three Day Road by Joseph Boyden, is a haunting tale of how different people cope with the horrors of war and how this diversity can drive them apart. The two main characters Elijah Weesageechack (Whiskeyjack) and Xavier Bird, young Cree Indian men, leave their home in the bush to defend their country’s honour. In this story, the reader is able to see how Elijah’s personality evolves from a respectful bush Indian who lives off the land, into a cold-blooded killer. As the novel progresses, it becomes evident to a great extent that the qualities which make Elijah heroic in the eyes of his country, are also the cause of his suffering and destruction. These qualities include his ability to kill, his need for inclusion by his peers, and his addiction to morphine. Had it not been for these qualities, Elijah might have been able to survive the war and remain true to himself maintaining his morals.…
This meant that even though they were required to carry the physical load and bear the emotional consequences, they still had to “fight” for survival. Every characteristic or thought was taken in a positive manner and helped them develop confidence and motivation that lead them to overcome the devastation of war. For example there was an epiphany for Jimmy Cross at the end of the story when he realized the predicament of not being focused in war. This lead him to burn the letters, which shows a great deal of confidence and motivation, developed during war. The act of him burning the letter made sure that he was willing to forget the fantasies about his girlfriend Martha and become focused in war. He had managed to acquire the courage by simply an incident that could have potentially proven to be fatal. Therefore this helped in developing confidence and the ability to be focused while also motivating him to be alert in war. Therefore this gives us insight that the author provides details about the consequences of war faced by the soldiers not only physically but also mentally such as fear, love and grief. The ability or mental strength required to overcome the atrocities of war is immense and this is intensified by gravity of the precarious situation. “They carried their reputation.” Thereby leading to this conclusion that war has many social and personal consequences that are reluctantly compelled onto a soldier but it undeniably lead to the development of confidence and…
This piece of writing is an informative essay with the intention of influencing the reader to agree with the prompt “dealing with conflict can give rise to heroic qualities in an individual”. The essay is written in a formal language which is best suited for year 12 VCE students, teachers and educated citizens who are interested in the topic discussed; the heroic qualities presented by the “candy bomber” Gail Halverson, the outspoken and independent Nancy Wake and the two characters from the movie Paradise Road, who present great heroic qualities when placed in a dreadful conflict of world war two.…
In dehumanizing the soldiers, the reader gets a sense of violence and masculinity involved in the animal kingdom. Unfortunately, Cummings and Croft are also the novel's principal…