Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Three Day Road, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Isolation vs. Community
Racism and Assimilation
Language and Storytelling
Nature, War, and Survival
Summary
Analysis
McCaan orders Elijah to take Thompson with him and Xavier when they go “to frisk” the sniper Xavier shot earlier in the day. Xavier knows Elijah doesn’t want to take Thompson—he doesn’t even want to take Xavier—but he must. Elijah prefers to patrol at night alone; however, if Breech finds out, he will surely court-martial him.
Elijah isolates himself by going out into the field alone, which makes it easier for the windigo to enter. The “frisking” of the sniper’s dead body is also evidence of the war’s disregard for human life. Xavier and Elijah aren’t ordered out to “no man’s land” to drag the sniper out because he deserves respect and a proper burial, they are ordered out to the body to “frisk” and rob it.
Themes
Thompson, Xavier, and Elijah cover their faces in charcoal as they always do before “going over the top.” Xavier calls it the “wemistikoshiw smudging ceremony,” but Elijah just laughs. “No Indian religion for him,” Xavier thinks. “The only Indian Elijah wants to be is the Indian that knows how to hide and hunt.”
Xavier superimposes a bit of his Native culture into what the army forces him to do, and it makes him feel connected to his Indigenous identity. Elijah isn’t interested in his Indigenous identity, he only wants to embody a stereotypical Indian, which Boyden argues doesn’t exist.
Themes
The men in the unit think that Elijah is “the resident expert,” but Xavier is “a fine shot too.” Xavier doesn’t “have the killing instinct for men,” and he knows that Elijah noticed him hesitate before he shot the sniper. As they crawl across ”no man’s land,” Xavier leads them in the direction of the sniper’s body, and Elijah and Thompson wait in a crater as he searches the corpse. He crawls back to the crater with the sniper’s gun, a Mauser with a scope, and Elijah is instantly jealous. It is the same rifle Elijah has “wanted for a long time.”
Xavier later has a flashback to when he and Elijah are children, and Elijah steals a rifle from a nun at the residential school. Young Xavier tells Elijah that he isn’t sure that taking something that isn’t his is the right thing to do, so it is interesting that Xavier takes a rifle from the German sniper’s body here. The Mauser is a much better weapon than his own rifle, but Xavier already has a rifle and certainly doesn’t need it. It seems that the more Xavier is forced to assimilate (he tries to resist but assimilation can’t be completely avoided), his integrity begins to suffer.
Themes
Elijah hears shoveling near the German trench line, and he slips out of the crater to listen more closely. As Elijah creeps across “no man’s land,” he “feels invincible” and “steady.” He has the “focus of an osprey” as he moves closer to the enemy line. The Germans are “digging a machine-gun placement,” and Elijah is tempted to sneak up on them and “club them like one would club martens caught in snares.” He closes his eyes and “drifts to them.” Elijah listens as they speak but doesn’t understand. He takes note of “weak points” in their wire and heads back to the crater.
Elijah imagines killing the Germans just like Xavier killed the marten in the beginning of the novel. Xavier, however, didn’t want to kill the marten and approached it with respect. By contrast, there is little respect in what Elijah wants to do to the Germans. Elijah’s desire to kill suggests he is going windigo and has a thirst for blood. Elijah is also very clearly on morphine despite claiming he only took it once. He “drifts” over to the Germans, which is something he is only able to do when he has taken the drug.
Themes
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The next day, Breech orders Elijah and Xavier to go on a raid with Thompson, Grey Eyes, and Gilberto. Thompson takes the men behind their lines where they practice the raid for hours. As night approaches, the men become restless sitting in a tiny dugout in the rain. Elijah’s leg bounces “up and down, up and down,” until Thompson can’t take it anymore. “Quit your shaking,” he says to Elijah. “You’re making me nervous.”
Elijah’s leg is bouncing “up and down, up and down” because he needs morphine and doesn’t have any. Elijah is addicted, and when he doesn’t constantly feed his body with the drug, he is twitchy and fidgety. All of the men are restless sitting in the dugout, but Elijah finds it impossible to sit still. The morphine heightens the already disturbing bloodlust and disregard for human life that Elijah is exhibiting.
Themes
“Dear Henry,” Elijah says to Grey Eyes in a British accent, “would you be a kind chap and make me a cup of tea?” “I’m afraid I’m out of tea, Elijah,” Grey Eyes says. Elijah leaves the small dugout and walks through the trenches looking for Driscoll, the medic. “Can you spare just the tiniest bit of M?” Elijah asks Driscoll when he finds him. Elijah complains of a broken toe, but Driscoll explains that supplies are short. “Just a little bit?” Elijah asks. “If I didn’t know better, I’d report to McCaan that you’re displaying symptoms,” Driscoll says. “But I know better, don’t I, Private?” “Yes, Corporal,” Elijah answers, “you do.”
Elijah’s use of a British accent, (which is evidence of his assimilation even though he considers it a joke) also suggests that Elijah is out of morphine. Elijah doesn’t use the accent when he is high on morphine, Xavier says later, and here Elijah is very clearly asking for morphine using the accent. Driscoll directly implies that Elijah is addicted, which also indicates that Elijah has been lying to Xavier all along.
Themes
