Three Day Road Character Analysis

There are both physical and emotional things that way people down in everyday life. In war there are even more responsibility that each person has to deal with. You have the physical responsibility of the men around you but also the emotional baggage that comes alone with that. In the story “The Things They Carried,” Lieutenant Jimmy Cross has the big responsibility of keeping his all his men safe, and he feels like Ted Lavenders death is his fault so the weight of these two things weighs him down a lot. Everyone has things that way them down, some more than others but that doesn’t mean that it effects everyone in the same way.

In the novel Three Day Road by Joseph Boyden, Elijah Weesageechak is a very brave character who repeatedly risks his life during the war. Elijah is also a very cruel character; Thai becomes increasingly evident throughout the novel. One example of Elijah being cruel is when he shoots a young girl hiding in a crumpling building. Another example of Elijah's cruelty is when he kills Grey Eyes and Lieutenant Breech so not to get in trouble for being addicted to morphine and for committing war crimes. But then one time that Elijah shows his bravery is when he volunteers to act as bait to draw sniper fire, allowing Xavier to find and kill the sniper.

In Three Day Road, Xavier voiced this by saying, “We all fight on two fronts, the one facing the enemy, the other facing what we do to the enemy” (Boyden, p.301). This quote poetically summarizes the emotional pain that soldiers are subject to. Service members become desensitized to the brutality of war. So even after a soldier leaves a battle without physical injury, he cannot escape the guilt and remorse of the violence he has committed.. Depression and anxiety disorders can lead to changes in personality and can make it very difficult for someone to complete basic tasks and take care of themselves.

The award-winning author, Luis Alberto Urrea, creator of The Hummingbird's Daughter, Into the Beautiful North, and The Devil's Highway, describes The Devil’s Highway which occurred in May of 2001, one of many that impacted the desert on undocumented immigrants. which is a desert located beyond Sonora, Mexico. It is a desert which few turn to in able to cross over. A group of illegal Mexican were left for dead after attempting to cross; they were left stranded after traveling for days in the wrong direction, through mountains, desert and only a small amount of water along with a few personal items. The Devil’s Highway name was set out to one’s belief “bad medicine” (5). Even though the desert is an obstacle itself, there are still other physical

This leads to him feeling demoralized and insignificant. Due to these factors and because he is victimized by the different people he encounters during the war, Xavier is ultimately overcome and emotionally defeated.

In the movie Cars, by John Lasseter, Lightning McQueen goes through a very large personal change or healing process throughout the movie. This movie is more of a healing myth because, In the beginning, he is a very stuck up and self centered character that only cares about winning. By the end, he has turned to a more humble character that has a better view on the truly important things in life. In other words, at the beginning he is broken and must go and truly see the finer things in life and find himself before he can succeed. There are a few different things that change his attitude. One thing is the people that he meets in Radiator Springs. Second, is the general life of the town that he has to accommodate to. Linda Seger describes a healing myth as one where “a character is ‘broken’ and must leave home to become whole again”. That statement describes this movie in so many ways. Lightning McQueen leaves his ”home” which is represented by his life on the racing circuit, and goes on a journey where he becomes whole again before he can return home.

In Joseph Boyden’s novel “Three day road” he managed to show that nothing is spared from the path of destruction war can bring, How it can manage to leave Earth drowned in so much blood that it can grow “Flowers redder than blood everywhere.. They even grew out rotting corpses” (Boyden 76) This can mentally change a man, and this is the theme Boyden betrayed as Elijah, and Xavier slowly start to deteriorate over the course the 20 year war to end all wars. To start, it has been shown multiple times that elijah was raised in a residential school, and was revolved around the idea that he was imperfect since birth. Despite this ideology he later grew up to be a charismatic and funny person in regard to Xavier who was quiet and secluded.

Elijah and Xavier bombed the German trench, killing the opposite team. After the raid, Corporal Thompson asked Elijah whether he enjoyed killing. “‘It’s in my blood,’ he finally says. ”(Boyden 75). The audience are given indirect hints of Elijah's altering personality as war becomes more catastrophic.

Xavier doesn’t know how to speak English and at times faces discrimination and racist acts because of his identity. Racist and discriminating comments are made against Xavier, but he doesn’t defend himself with words but with actions on the battlefield. Xavier had two challenges in the battlefield, one was how to survive death and the other was fighting discrimination and uncomfort. The military’s official language was English, Xavier’s struggle with himself is clearly stated here as his first language is not English. “Whiskeyjack is how they say his name, make it their own…what sounds to my ears like a longer word for bastard, making his name a name without a family,” explains Xavier Page 154. All of the Canadians are fighting with each other against a common enemy. The way Xavier deals with culture division, identifying it and holding on to his culture, and how Elijah handles it, by settling in the white culture. This shows how Xavier interprets culture clash. Xavier thinks when Elijah accepts the white pronunciation he is losing his identity through the culture clash in Xavier’s eyes. Xavier cooperates more with his culture which is why he sees the mispronunciation as a way of running away of his real identity, and Elijah does not see it the same way. Xavier is always seeking help from Elijah because Elijah was raised in an English speaking school which was also an advantage Elijah had over Xavier but unfortunately jealousy grew between them and

If just the thought of what the soldiers endure would cause anxiety, one could imagine how mentally draining war must be. An example of the draining nature of war is how after Paul attacked adversary soldier named Gérard Duval, he certainly comprehended how war had “taxed his brain beyond endurance,” (Remarque 225). So, there was a major convergence between the German and Indian soldiers due to the emotional trauma of war. But, while there are very strong connections between the Indian and German soldiers through their correlated mental and physical trauma along with their mass lack of awareness of the details of war prior to enlisting, there is some divergence in the experiences of the soldiers. One of the divergences is money, but this could just be a divergence between these specifically soldiers or it could be the differing point on why these ordinary characters decided to fight for their empires. The German soldiers in All Quiet on the Western Front are basically living in poverty when fighting in the

Xavier is a native who grow up peacefully in the bush with his aunt who taught him about the aboriginal

Salva the main character of “A Long Walk to Water” by Linda Sue Park was an 11-year old boy when his village was attacked. His teacher urged him to run away from the village and to run to the “bush.” After that attack, his life made a turn for the worse. With no family around him, he was completely lost. During his journey, he had some problems, but overcame

He essentially is the communication between battalions, and also maps some of the trenches along the way. He is stationed first at Voges, an overwatch position in the mountains where he feels severely defeated and depressed by the war. He no longer has any kind of self-esteem and is not capable of complex thought. Things do not get better when he is moved to Chemin des Dames where the commander barely does anything. After a couple weeks there, he then returns to Vosges for awhile, and then spends his last couple months at places called Champagne and Alsace.

The film portrays Kyle to be tormented and scarred from his work in the war. For example, Kyle's first killing was a mother and son and he is shown reacting in a very dramatic way. He looks resentful and traumatized from the experience, even articles and critics praised the film for “emotional torment of so many military men and women”. When in fact that total “traumatized” act from the

In Jack Kerouac’s novel On the Road, the main character, Sal, battles with his white identity. He spends most of his time on the road, traveling long distances across the United States and back and meeting different people from various backgrounds during his road trips. Throughout the course of his novel, he frequently takes on other forms of identities and appears to detach himself away from not only his own character, but from his own hometown and upbringing.