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Archetypal Theory on Three Day Road

As I read through the novel “Three Day Road”, I noticed that many archetypal themes and characters were present. In order to find these archetypes, I had to dig a bit deeper into the text because these details were subtle. The characters that I found to have recurring archetypal types of personalities were: Xavier – the protagonist, Elijah – Xavier’s best friend, and Niska – Xavier’s aunt, also a protagonist.

From what I understood, Xavier portrays the characteristic of the outcast and some of the hero. Xavier’s character is very hard to analyze as he is one who doesn’t talk much, if at all. As the narrator, he mainly describes events rather than his feelings. I found that Xavier is similar to the Hero because he stands for what he believes for and displays acts of courage, but also differs because he doesn’t feel the need to earn the credit for doing good in the world. When Xavier overhears the other soldiers speaking, “’It’s Elijah that’s the killer,’ Grey Eyes says suddenly. ‘X just spots for him. Elijah told me how X threw up the first time he saw Elijah get a kill.’ …I leave without a sound so that they do not know I have been there, my ears hot” (Boyden 88), he doesn’t let them know that they are wrong, even if it affects his honour. This quote demonstrates how Xavier is confident in his convictions of doing the right thing by helping Elijah defeat Germans. Another aspect of Xavier that this quote demonstrates is that Xavier is not honour bound. He knows that what the soldiers are trying to say is that Xavier is useless and Elijah doesn’t need him, but he lets them believe what they want even if they do not know the truth that without Xavier Elijah would not be able to defeat Germans.

I believe that Elijah portrays the characteristics of the trickster. Xavier always describes Elijah as a trickster when he often deceives the English-speaking soldiers with his own accent, making it seem like he is one of them. The reason that causes me to think that Elijah is a trickster is by his actions in the residential school where he commonly got out of trouble by sweet-talking the nuns. Another common thing Elijah does is speak like the other soldiers in order to make them believe he is one of them. Elijah not only uses their accent, but also uses similar vocabulary, “’Dear Henry,’ Elijah says, using their code, ‘would you be a kind chap and make me a cup of tea?’” (Boyden 125). This quote signifies how much of a ‘fox’ Elijah becomes when speaking with Englishmen. When he speaks with Xavier, he is legitimate and truthful, but when speaking to Englishmen, it’s all lies.

According to her nurturing of Xavier and spiritual practices, I think that Niska portrays the characteristics of the archetypal magician and mentor. There were two quotes that really stuck to me when describing Niska’s character. The first quote is when Niska describes how she taught Xavier when he was a boy, “I taught you [Xavier] all I knew about the bush, the best way to snare rabbits and how to use their fur for protection against the cold… what plants and herbs were edible and which had healing properties” (Boyden 186). This quote signifies that all Xavier knows and does would not be possible without the knowledge that Niska provided him. Since Xavier’s mother was extremely depressed after her father’s death, she put Xavier in a residential school because she could not take care of him. Niska rescued him from the agony that the school gave him, and raised him to be the man he is. The second quote is from when Niska summons the spirits of the animals in her tent. She says, “I asked him [the spirit] to go out and find the source of my hurt an extinguish it” (Boyden 151). The source of her pain is the Frenchman that abused her, and after she requests the spirits to help her, the Frenchman suspiciously commits suicide. It is evident that Niska has the power to communicate with supernatural beings, relating her to the magician archetype.

The theme of ‘lost innocence’ is present throughout the whole book. The novel first describes how Elijah and Xavier were happy as boys, wandering in the bush, having fun and hunting. As the book progresses, Xavier becomes more depressed and addicted to morphine in order to reduce his pain. Elijah also becomes addicted to morphine and turns mad as he can’t stop his thirst for killing. Elijah goes as far as to scalp the men he kills in order to be recognized as the best sniper.


The archetypes in this book are very similar to those in “The Hunger Games”. Niska is similar to Haymitch because they are both mentors of the hero, and Xavier and Katniss because they are courageous and not honour bound. A common archetypal symbol in this book is the colour black and the number three. The colour black is used almost every other page when describing people, animals, and objects. It represents death when soldiers cover themselves in it for camouflage, and sorrow when Xavier stares into the trapped animal’s eyes (which are described as black). The number three is significant in this book not only because of the title, three-day road, but because of the amount of times it shows up in this novel. Three pages of the novel discuss the number three in order to present its significance in both the European-Canadians’ lives and the Cree’s. I cannot make any predictions as to what will happen to Xavier and Niska later in the book based on other journey archetypes because this novel is unique from others since the first chapter starts off by revealing the aftermath of the war. I know that Xavier returns and Elijah does not.

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