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
In the following days, rumors hit the soldiers that a sentry had fallen asleep while on duty the night of the raid. He was taken behind the line and shot by a firing squad. Rumors also spread about new German weapons “filled with poison gas that fall like a plague from the heavens.” Xavier, Elijah, and the others are forced to work long hours wearing gas hoods over their faces. The hoods are soaked in chemicals to “neutralize the gas,” and it gives Xavier a headache. He feels like the hood will “smother” him.
This passage establishes the punishment handed down to soldiers who do not follow orders. The sentry who fell asleep was likely exhausted and didn’t mean to do it. Surely, he doesn’t deserve to die for it, which is interesting when thought of in context with Niska’s father. The wemistikoshiw consider him a “murderer” for killing windigos, yet it is perfectly acceptable for them to execute a tired man for sleeping.
Themes
After Xavier and Elijah’s “first round in the line,” they are sent to reserve to rest. Thompson says the round was relatively “quiet”—only seven casualties. Xavier wonders if the executed sentry is counted in that number, but he doesn’t ask. They are billeted with Grey Eyes, who “is a prisoner of the medicine they call morphine,” and Elijah is “fascinated” by his addiction. The others in the unit “are drawn to Elijah” and “his endless stories,” but Xavier is “a brown ghost.”
The other soldiers being “drawn to Elijah” and his stories underscores the power of storytelling. Elijah’s stories bring the men together for a bit of entertainment and distraction during difficult times, energizing them and enriching their comradery. Xavier’s existence as “a brown ghost” speaks to his erasure as an Indian. Elijah has assimilated to wemistikoshiw ways, but Xavier hasn’t. Thus, the other men ignore Xavier.
Themes
Back on the line, Elijah and Xavier are given sentry duty the first night. Xavier watches as the sun rises over ”no man’s land.” The ground is charred and blown to pieces and “so empty of vegetation” that it is “impossible to imagine anything once grew.” The next night, Thompson wakes Elijah and Xavier in their hole. “Let’s go,” he says, leading them into a trench where McCaan and Graves wait.
The charred battlefields are a stark contrast to the dense woods Xavier comes from. To him, it seems as if nothing will ever grow again, but Xavier later learns he’s wrong when blood red flowers begin to grow from skulls and corpses. Nature continues regardless of the carnage, and it cares very little how many men are killed.
Themes
Thompson says little and expects them to follow his lead. He “is very much an Indian this way,” Xavier thinks. He blackens his face with charcoal and leads them out of the trench. Everyone knows a group of soldiers went into “no man’s land” yesterday and never returned. “We’re going over the top,” Elijah says excitedly in Cree. “We’re going Fritz hunting in the craters.”
Elijah begins going windigo very early in the war. He relishes the chance to kill and looks forward to it. He refers to the Germans as “Fritz,” and he has very little regard or respect for the lives he takes. This lack of respect, Boyden argues, is the major difference between the bush and the war.
Themes
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They move across ”no man’s land,” jumping from crater to crater, when a flare lights up the sky. Xavier can make out the color of Canadian uniforms in a nearby crater. The men are injured, and Sean Patrick and McCaan help the men get back to the trenches. Suddenly, the gunfire and bombing intensify. “They’ve got us just about pinned,” Thompson says. “Got to get out of here.” They run for another crater and hide among the dead bodies. The gunfire soon lets up. “The good news, as you can tell, gentlemen,” Thompson says, “is that the bombardment is done […]. I vote that we find more agreeable accommodations before it’s too late.”
Hiding among rotting corpses to escape intense bombing and gunfire is absolutely unimaginable, but it is the kind of thing Xavier and Elijah are forced to do to survive the war. Surely, Thompson did not kill all of the men in the crater (if any), but he shows very little respect for the human corpses they hide in. He is casual and talks of “good news.” Boyden implies that there is very little “good news” to be found in a crater full of human bodies.
Themes
Xavier, Elijah, and Thompson find a crater that does not contain corpses, and they “lie still beside one another.” An airplane flies above; it is a Canadian observation plane. Once it is dark, Thompson leads them out of the crater and back toward the trenches. “I’ve got a feeling they’ll be coming this way soon enough to look around,” Thompson says as he stops. “If you hear them scrounging about,” he says to Xavier and Elijah as he hands them two Mills bombs, “pull the pins and throw these in.”
Thompson doesn’t have to stop and kill more men. They could just as easily continue back to their trenches since they have completed their objective (they helped get the wounded soldiers back), but Thompson orders them to linger and wait for more men to kill. He is completely casual about killing when he tells Elijah and Xavier to just lob bombs at other men, again showing little respect for the lives he takes.
Themes
Xavier, Elijah, and Thompson hide for nearly a half hour before the Germans approach. They throw the bombs together and the ground shakes. “Let’s go boys,” Thompson says. “He kills with such ease,” Xavier thinks. As Xavier heads back to his hole to rest, he thinks about how he has changed. “I have killed someone now,” he says to himself. The next day, Thompson finds Elijah and Xavier in their hole. “What do you think of the last days, Whiskeyjack?” Thompson asks Elijah. “It’s in my blood,” Elijah answers.
Elijah implies that because he is an Indian, he is innately suited to kill, but Xavier, the true “bush Indian,” can’t sleep because he is responsible for taking a life now. Elijah isn’t a true Indian in the same way Xavier is. Elijah believes being an Indian means upholding many of the racist assumptions of the wemistikoshiw, but Xavier does not live up to these same stereotypes.
Themes
