Three Day Road Analysis

While Niska tells Xavier her stories throughout Three Day Road, it helps the two quickly change as characters right before our eyes. While she tells these stories to an unconscious, traumatized Xavier, she grows, and becomes more comfortable with him, and more comfortable sharing the stories. They also they seep into Xavier’s subconscious while he is drifting and help guide him through the hardships he has faced and the ones he is about to go through. When Niska tells Xavier the tails of her life, and Xavier’s upbringing, it brings back old memories of when he and Elijah were young. These memories help pull Xavier through his injury, addiction, and memories he just cannot forget. Niska ultimately gains confidence in telling her nephew these
While Niska tells him about the windigo, the bush native life, and her love stories, it gives him something to live for. Both nephew and Aunt are windigo killers but they did it in much different context. Xavier kills Elijah on the battlefield, far away, with a long struggle, where as Niska had the man under control and pinned down much closer to home. Even though there is a huge difference between the two situations, it brings them both together, as something that they both share and have experienced. Niska describes to Xavier his upbringing in a residential school, and then his life with Niska as a bush native. While Xavier listens closely to these stories, it brings back repressed memories of the terrible residential school, and his life before he joined the war. Throughout the whole battle, all he could think about was home, and now that he is home, he can barely believe it. It’s like he has rediscovered himself and soon he will find he is back into his old ways, even though he must deal with injuries, physically, mentally and spiritually. He loves Niska too much to die in her arms. Because of his mentally strong aunt, Xavier’s life is spared even though he will never be the same person. The war has changed him; he has killed, and seen his best friends be killed, but far worse, he has killed his best friend, something I’m sure he didn’t have in mind when he joined up with Elijah. Niska also describes to him her love story with the Frenchman which strongly relates to Xavier. A person who you thought you were in love with, that turned out to be false and fake. . “I paid a lot of money for her time with you. If I knew you were going to fall in love like a fool, I wouldn’t have done it.” (257) This once again helps heal Xavier, because it makes him realize, he is not the only one who has dreamed about a lover, when they didn’t think or feel the slightest amount of love