Three Day Road Windigo Analysis

English 1110-03
Aug 3, 2011 Monkey Beach’s Sasquatch and Three Day Road’s Windigo! Both Monkey Beach and Three Day Road are Native American literature. Each author has his own unique way of inserting a presence of a mythical spirit or being into their stories to give the reader a feel for the supernatural. In doing so, the authors are successful at intensifying the experience for the reader. These supernatural characters play a significant role in the plot, and interactions between characters and their communities. This essay will describe, depict, and define these mythical creatures themselves as well as discuss the function they have in the two novels. The windigo was a tribally specific monster, a supernatural spirit particularly
The element of windigo in Boyden’s story brings forward many character traits; these traits would not be present in the story without the use of the windigo. Using the windigo gives Boyden the ability to develop depth within the main characters Xavier and Elijah. The two friends are affected by the windigo as they fight in the trenches in WW1. Most significantly to the plot, Gore explains “Xavier believes that Elijah has slowly turned into a windigo during the course of the war”(23). Xavier becomes disturbed about how Elijah’s hunger for killing increases and how he develops a love for killing rather than killing to survive. This creates a good versus evil theme that has an impact on their friendship throughout the story. Niska, the last known windigo killer, sends her nephew Xavier a letter which “he interprets this message as an affirmation of Elijah’s windigo status and his own duties as a windigo killer”(Gore 24). Gore’s interpretation of the novel also discusses how Xavier is to sacrifice Elijah and become the remaining and final windigo killer in the family. Boyden’s use of windigo in his story takes two friends and makes legends out of both characters. One character is converted into a windigo killer and one is consumed by and turned into a
B 'gwus is the Haisla name for a Sasquatch, a creature that looks like a "large hairy monkey" or as Appleford explains, “Wildman of the woods”(88). This creature is known to inhabit the forest of North America’s Western Coast. In the beginning of the novel, Robinson describes the Sasquatch when Lisamarie see it as a “tall man covered in brown fur… with many teeth that were all pointed”(16). Appleford talk about how Robinson uses the Sasquatch in her novel as both traditional and popular culture. Although Robinson explains that the Sasquatch can sometimes be called Bigfoot, Yeti, Abdominal Snowman, or Loch Ness monster (317), he is also “associated with Haisla cultural values, spiritual power, and real terror”(Appleford 89). In the story Monkey Beach, the use of this creature, weather used in reality, in a dream, or in a vision, is used to enhance the main