As Ontarians,
we are taught the history of our country. Although the wars that Canada has
taken part in are significant, the First Nations that lived on this land before
European Canadians colonized are as significant when talking about Canada’s
history. As we know, First Nations were mistreated and were abused in many
ways. The novel Three Day Road is
about the story of two Cree (a group of First Nations) males in the beginning
of the twentieth century during the first world war. This novel, written by
Joseph Boyden, is specific when it gets to how the Cree lived during that era
of time, especially when it involves interactions between First Nations and the
colonists. There are three main characters: Xavier, Niska, and Elijah. Xavier
and Elijah are the men who participate in the war, and Niska is Xavier’s aunt
who also took care of Elijah. The book is written from either Xavier’s or Niska’s
perspective (Niska did not take part in the war).
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| The renowned sniper Francis Pegahmahabow |
A reader-response criticism is
focused on the reader. It is the reader’s job to create the meaning from the
text by using past experience and knowledge. As the reader, I believe that the novel
is trying to give us a better understanding of what the world was like during
the first world war but from the
perspective of First Nations. It is showing us
how horrible the first world war was, while simultaneously showing us how
difficult it was to live as a First Nations people.
Upon
reading about the author, Joseph Boyden, I learned that he is of Irish and
Scottish ancestry, but was adopted as a sibling to an Ojibwe sister. He was
inspired to write Three Day Road by the
renowned World War I Ojibwe sniper, Francis Pegahmagabow, who earned 378
confirmed kills and more than 300 German soldiers captured. After learning
about the author, it is apparent that the novel is focused on two things: First
Nations during the twentieth century and World War I. I think that Boyden targeted
his book towards Canadians and anyone interested in war and history because the
novel contains a lot of war-specific quotes such as particular weapon and ammunition
names, as well as it contains historically accurate information such as the
residential schools.
The
setting of the novel is mostly centered in the battles of the war. It involves
mostly death of people, but also interactions between Xavier, Elijah, and the other
soldiers. Xavier returned from the war drastically different. Once he comes
back, Xavier is missing a leg and has a completely different personality, one
that resembles fear and depression. One quote that remained in my head while I
read the book was, “He sleeps, but his sleep is not restful. He twitches and
his hands shake. He calls out and this wakes him up” (Boyden 16). Xavier
clearly has PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder), which is a common mental
health condition that is experienced by modern infantry. There are many videos
and articles that I have seen describing how painful this condition is to the
person experiencing it and to their families.
The
exploitation of First Nation peoples is deeply explored in this novel. In
history classes, we were told about the residential schools and what they did
to First Nations people. They were completely stripped of their background. Xavier
narrates many flashbacks of his life during the battles. One important quote
during these flashbacks says, “’The old Cree are heathen and anger god.’ she [a
Sister in the residential school] says. ‘The Cree are a backwards people and
God’s displeasure is shown in that He makes your rivers run backwards, to the
north instead of to the south like in the civilized world.’ She smacks my desk
with a ruler and sparks fly from it, a thin tree on fire” (Boyden 55). This
quote, from a Sister, represents the horrific ways of the residential schools.
The First Nations that got taken away to these schools were abused verbally and
physically until the point where they completely forgot about their background.
Luckily for Xavier, his mother, and his aunt, they were rescued from the school
(by Cree) before anything major occurred. Elijah, however, stayed long enough
to learn English until he was rescued.
When
reading this novel, it is important to use common sense and knowledge to fill
in gaps. When reading, the setting and the person narrating change but are not explicitly
stated. For example, on page nineteen to twenty, Xavier switches settings while
he narrates his feeling when he injects morphine just after he arrives back to
Canada. The book does not explicitly state that the setting is changed, which
can be confusing since he begins talking about guns echoing in the distance
right after his drug experience. The reader must use mental images to realize
what the setting is. For example, if Xavier is talking about the canoe in the
water and then suddenly starts talking about broken buildings that he is hiding
behind, the setting is changed.
Works Cited:
"Way of the warrior." Quill and Quire. N.p., 07 Apr. 2015. Web. 14 Mar. 2017.
Boyden, Joseph. Three
Day Road: A Novel. Toronto: Penguin Canada, 2006.
"Welcome to the Purdue OWL." Purdue OWL: Literary Theory and Schools of Criticism. N.p., n.d.
Web. 14 Mar. 2017.
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