The novel I chose to read was “Three Day Road” by Joseph Boyden. When I finally finished the novel, I felt satisfied and thought the conclusion was appropriate and well though out. The idea to follow two storylines that relate to each other was an amazing idea by Boyden and allowed the story to cover material, not only from the Great War, but also other settings. Regardless of my small review, this novel is necessary to read because it brings to light certain subjects in our world that we seem to forget. Firstly, throughout the entirety of the novel we follow Aboriginal Canadians. Therefore, we’re allowed to see the Great War through their perspective and in turn, we see the discrimination they face. In addition, the novel involves two characters;
It is believed that the feeling of pain is felt at its strongest when it is inflicted by the ones that are cared for the most. In the novel Three Day Road, this statement comes to life as Joseph Borden presents the idea that although the act of betrayal may have a morally negative impact, the results can lead to strong personal development. The story is set during the times of the first World War following from the point of view of a Cree boy named Xavier. His journey is seen through the horrors of war while he is accompanied by his best friend, Elijah. Xavier is released from war as an amputee and addicted to morphine, struggling to survive the three day paddle home. The chapters are intertwined with the narration of xavier’s aunt
Given that this book is written similarly to how a story would be written, it is easy to become absorbed into its pages. I really appreciated that it was, for the most part, structured on a timeline. Russell does an outstanding job of conveying the hardships, dreams, and emotions of those she writes about. Following the lives of different families from the beginning of their misfortune until the very end of the war (for many, the end of their lives), it is incredibly effective in stirring up emotion in all but the most heartless of
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)
First published in 1977, Robert Day’s The Last Cattle Drive was an instant bestseller and Book of the Month Club selection. Currently, the novel is a Western classic. This rough and boisterous novel of a cattle drive by two older cowboys, seeking to relive a bygone era and prove themselves superior to the trucking industry, backed by Opal, the wife of Spangler, and a green horn school teacher in the modern age of the planes, trains, and trucks revived the genre of the cowboy. Moreover, the novel added its own special twists of relationships between the characters and the people along the way which captured the imagination of its audience, especially the author of this paper. The novel is full of relatable rural small
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.
An individual’s identity is an ever changing composition of a person’s aspirations, beliefs and morality. Identity change is often influenced by many aspects of an individual’s life, but individuals must always return to their roots in order to stay true to their morality. This internal struggle over one’s identity is successfully illustrated in the characters of Three Day Road. In the novel, Joseph Boyden vividly recounts the journey of two Native Canadian soldiers, Xavier and Elijah, who struggle with identity loss from the adversity of the Great War. Through their harrowing experiences from the battlefield, they experience a dissipation of morals which is only recovered in Xavier, the sole survivor, through Niska’s stories of her past, his own past, and of the
Joseph Boyden uses the story of the windigo as both a literal and figurative image of discord in his novel Three Day Road. Among the Native people living in the Great Lakes Region of Canada, the windigo is an evil spirit associated with death, cannibalism, and greed. According to legend, a windigo is born when a human eats another to satiate their hunger, usually in the peak of winter when food was scarce. Once the windigo develops a taste for killing, the craving spirals into an obsession that can only be cured through death. The windigo represents loss of respect for life and destructive change, which manifests itself in the European settlers, soldiers, and Elijah.
An anti-war novel often portrays many of the bad aspects and consequences of war. Erich Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front is a novel set in the First World War that is against war. Remarque describes the terrible reality of the war, focusing on the horrors and involved. The novel portrays an anti-war perspective as it brings up issues about the brutality of war, the narrator’s change of attitude towards war, the futility of war and the deaths of the narrator’s friends.
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?
An adult's growth is reflective on their background and childhood development leading up to adulthood. Some common questions that are often reflected on include "What did your childhood and background look like? Who influenced you the most? What are the events that shaped who you are? " These questions can be applied to the main character, Xavier from Joseph Boyden's novel "Three Day Road."
Freedom Road is book written by the renowned novelist Howard Fast. Fast has written many novels including Citizen Tom Paine, Spartacus and April Morning. Fast’s career was a bit controversial because of his affiliation with the Communist Party USA and his time spent incarcerated because of this affiliation. This did not deter Fast from utilizing his creative abilities in writing novels. He wrote his most famous novel Spartacus while incarcerated. Howard Fast died on March12, 2003.
In recent decades, Cormac McCarthy has staked his claim as one of the all-time titans of American literature through publishing masterpieces like Blood Meridian, Suttree, and The Road. In his works his advanced level of technical mastery becomes apparent through his expertly harmonized coordination of literary elements toward certain narrative ends, such as the generation of suspense. In this light, McCarthy’s literary style is a practical one, in that he organizes literary elements in his works toward actualizing particular goals. In The Road, for instance, McCarthy directs his style throughout the text so as to maximize the feeling of suspense that readers experience throughout the book. This kind of stylistic maneuvering is expressed on pages 105-110 and pages 118-123 of the the text. But, it must be noted here that the generation of suspense in these passages does not result from similar stylistic approaches. McCarthy uses style in differently in Passage A and Passage B but ultimately toward the same end, namely generating suspense for readers of The Road. Passage A relies on dialogue to develop its suspense, whereas the style of Passage B relies on narrative action for its suspense.
Cormac McCarthy’s The Road is his post-apocalyptic magnus opus which combines a riveting plot along with an unconventional prose style. Released in 2006, the novel has won awards such as the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award (Wilson). Oprah Winfrey also selected the book for her book club ("Cormac McCarthy”). The author, Cormac McCarthy, was born in 1933 in Rhode Island and is said to have wrote the novel because of his son and their relationship. The Road centers around a boy and his father while they try to survive after an unknown disaster occurs. While some people may argue that the unusual style takes away from the novel, it adds to the tone and meaning of the work.
Beautiful symbolism and imagery are found in the literature work On the Road by Langston Hughes. Langston Hughes offers a gift in this work which is to open the heart and life will provide unlimited abundance. During this literary analysis Langston Hughes uses nature to demonstrate his main character's unwillingness to participate in life. Another point that Hughes demonstrates is the use of anger and survival and how it can be used as a powerful force in breaking down racial barriers. One more impact Langston Hughes uses is Jesus Christ as a metaphor. Hughes uses this as how people experience life and how traditional church values contradict each other when it comes to the acceptance of human beings. Therefore after reading On the Road,