Summary Of Three Day Road

The road written by Cormac Mccarthy; one of the most praised contemporary novels. The road tells the story of a man and a boy traveling in a post apocalyptic world. “Nights dark beyond darkness and the days more gray each one than what had gone before. Like the onset of some cold glaucoma dimming away the world”(Mccarthy1). The world is now filled with ash and inhabited by cannibals and bandits. The boy and man’s goal is to get to the south as they think it’ll be warmer there. The novel’s grammer is abstract as they’re barely any periods written as they talk. This style is used to make the reader pay attention as one can easily lose who’s talking. One of the biggest themes in the novel is the fire in all to live and stay alive; Survival. Cormac Mccarthy’s biggest critique on this novel was that the ending was too hopeful and positive, opposed to Mccarthy and the entire style of the book. The book is entirely filled with grave feelings pondering suicide and a feeling of nothing ever getting better. In the end the man dies but the boy is picked up by another man and women who seem nice. People 's opinion of the Road differ within the last pages. Though the ending might seem hopeful, it has two different interpretations, and Cormac has shown that he’s not a happy ending kind of guy.

The protagonist of Three Day Road comes in the form of Xavier Bird, a taciturn and humble young Cree man who finds himself tossed into the chaos of the Great War; a global phenomenon that turned men into monsters and the land into a place suitable for no man. Through his devotion to his spirituality, refusal to conform to wemistikoshiw ways, and steadfast sense of morality, Xavier manages to maintain his identity throughout the novel.

In a world where survival is your only concern, what would you do to stay alive? This is one of many thought-provoking questions that Cormac McCarthy encourages in his book, The Road. McCarthy, a Rhode Island native is a seasoned author, with more than 14 other works in his portfolio. McCarthy is a very private man, and there isn’t a lot known about him. The lack of information on McCarthy does not reflect his writing abilities, which are very strong and not lacking at all.

The novel Three Day Road, by Joseph Boyden, is, in my opinion, an accurate representation of some of the many problems that First Nations service members faced during the first world war: First Nations soldiers battled not only the Triple Entente but also discrimination, bigotry, and closed-mindedness. Every soldier had to cope during, and after, their service with the psychological and physical traumas of war, isolation, guilt, and even shame. All those factors, coupled with the instinct survive, are enough to drive anyone to seek something to help them deal with or numb their pain, whether emotional or physical.

-There is a focus on storytelling as a means of healing: "It is the story of my childhood. Now I tell it to you, Xavier, to keep you alive."(35)

Boyden: “I wanted her to be a strong woman who was doing this [being a

The two main characters in the novel “Three Day Road” by Joseph Boyden; Xavier Bird and Elijah Weesageechack, have many key differences that are illustrated throughout the novel. Xavier is reserved and visceral, while Elijah is self-assured and talkative. Xavier was raised by his Aunt Niska for the Majority of his childhood, opposed to how Elijah was raised in Moose Factory by nuns at a residential school. These factors hold an important responsibility on their personalities and the way that they think and make decisions. The three key differences between them that are paramount to the story and the themes of the novel are; firstly their respect for their Oji-Cree culture, secondly their respect and love for human life, and lastly their

No matter where we live, it is no wonder that different people experience different levels of achievements and relatively different kinds of evaluation by other people in every area in life. Most people want the evaluation towards themselves to be more favorable than the one towards others. In most cases, these values in the process of evaluation are viewed in a more honorable manner. On the contrary, these values can be hated by others, which defines as jealousy as a feeling of being fearful of being displaced by a rival. The book, “Three Day Road” by Joseph Boyden, manifests a great theme of jealousy between both protagonists, Xavier and Elijah, who play their roles as the snipers during the First World War. The story demonstrates a bitter act of jealousy by whom the spotlight shines upon; jealousy of fame. As many would agree, based on the evidence from the story, jealousy is a harmful act which has negative influences on human relationships, emotional stability, and human nature.

“Identity is not inherent. It is shaped by circumstance and sensitivity and resistance to self pity,” (Dorothy West). Joseph Boyden’s Three Day Road paints a clear picture of the shaping of the three main characters identity in result of their environment and experiences. Xavier Bird, Elijah Weesageechak and Niska each fight a battle within, alongside the conflict that society brings upon them. With each turn of the page the readers are taken through the agonizing aspects of war, the demoralizing events of Residential Schools and the discouraging experiences of racial discrimination. Countless tales are told within the novel allowing one to fully immerse themself into the excruciating experiences the

Three Day Road, by Joseph Boyden, is a novel that tells the tales of two Indigenous Canadian soldiers who serve in the Great War as they succumb to the pressures of colonization. According to the Oxford Dictionary, colonization is “the action or process of settling among and establishing control over the indigenous people of an area”. The author is able to illustrate the troubles that the indigenous characters have in maintaining their roots. In the novel, Joseph Boyden demonstrates that the colonization of a group of people can cause them to become detached from their origins. This struggle to maintain culture is evident in the characters of Xavier, Niska, and Elijah.

Why do you think McCarthy has chosen not to give his characters names? How do the generic labels of “the man” and “the boy” affect the way you /readers relate to them?

Many Aboriginal populations have been using storytelling as a way of communication for centuries. Storytelling is used on a day to day basis whether it be reading a story to kids or telling friends about an experience. The importance of storytelling is highlighted constantly throughout the book Three Day Road by Joseph Boyden and the entire story itself is a recollection of memories. Niska tells stories of her past to warn and teach Xavier. Xavier tells stories of his haunting and innocence shattering experience at war to help him heal. Elijah tells stories about his life before and during the war as an attempt to maintain what is left of his aboriginal culture and to heal himself by reminding himself of his achievements and what he has proudly accomplished . Storytelling plays a significant role in the novel by teaching and helping to heal the characters.

The Effect of Rituals on Identity Rituals, in Joseph Boyden’s Three Day Road, can bring back one’s former identity after a traumatic event due to the spiritual connection it creates with one’s sense of self and the role rituals have in actualizing strong beliefs. In the second paragraph of the passage, Niska lays out food on three separate rocks without a thought to what she is doing. Niska’s faith in her culture allows her to prepare the food by placing salted fish on one rock, “on another some moosemeat and on a third, blueberries picked fresh from the bush” (Boyden 9). The way Niska prepares the food highlights the number three as a symbol, which is used to represent the relationship between life and death. In Cree culture, the number three signifies the three day journey a soul

War can be a stressful and an intimidating experience that in one way or another ultimately changes one’s life and behavior negatively. In the novel, “Three Day Road”, by Joseph Boyden, he shows readers the destruction of the war in reference to the main characters, Xavier and Elijah. Joseph Boyden effectively illustrates the journey one goes through and the changes they encounter both physically and spiritually during the duration of the war. War changes everyone physically as well as internally and especially Elijah who within himself is pressured to change his identity, develop an unstoppable obsession with killing, and get absorbed by a drug called morphine. Elijah undergoes many changes at a fast rate that quickly transforms into

The Road is a story where is set in a post-apocalyptic world, where the date and location is unnamed. The author of the novel Cormac McCarthy doesn 't describe why or how the disaster has demolish the earth. But after reading the novel, I can sense that the author wanted to present a case of mystery and fear to the unknown to the reader. By the author 's exclusion I think that the story gains a better understanding of what the author wanted to express to the reader. An expression of a man and his son surviving in a post-apocalyptic setting.