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
Niska drags what she needs out of the bush and “panics” when she does not see Xavier. She finds him in the canoe, “sweating” and “shaking without control.” She leaves him and builds a fire and begins to “construct a frame” out of willow wood. Once Xavier is calmer, she drags him near the fire. Niska thinks of her own father and how he would tell her stories when she was “scared” or “hurt.” Niska has “no medicine” to help Xavier, but she will “finds something” in her “memories.”
Niska is constructing a sweat lodge to purify Xavier and bring his body, mind, and soul back into balance. He is in acute withdrawal now, and there is little she can do to help him. Again, Niska only has her stories to heal Xavier, to which she attributes healing and restorative qualities.
Themes
“I cannot let him go without telling him his story,” Niska thinks as she sits next to Xavier and pulls him close. She places her mouth close to his ear and begins to speak. “Nephew,” she says, “before I ever knew you, I had dreams of you.” He struggles against her a bit, and she holds him closer. “And this story that I tell you is the story of you,” she says softly.
Niska knows that Xavier can be saved with the story of his identity. He has lost his identity throughout the course of the war, and if Xavier is ever to recover, he will have to return to his Native culture and traditions.
Themes
Niska begins to tell Xavier of their first winter together, when they had tracked a big bull moose all day. Niska walked ahead, and soon she was out of Xavier’s sight. He had never been alone before, and he began to look uncomfortable, but Niska still had clear sight of him. “I’d warned you before of panic’s danger,” Niska says. “It comes quick like an accident does, out of nowhere. Even then you knew not to let it take you.”
Xavier is a young boy here, but he is at the age where he is expected to beginning hunting so that he can sustain life in the bush, and Niska gives him some space so he can do it on his own. Xavier never does panic, not in the bush and not during the war.
Themes
Xavier continued to track the moose, figuring he would find Niska on the way. He came across the huge animal up the way a bit, but it spooked and ran. “If only you had a rifle, you thought to yourself,” Niska whispers to Xavier. He came across a group of grouse, “dancing side by side,” Niska continues, and spotted “a straggler,” a female. Xavier drew back his bow and the grouse dropped from a branch. He quickly went to work removing the breast meat and roasted it. “It smells good,” Niska said coming out of the bush. “Will you share with me?”
Xavier initially assumes that he needs a rifle to survive—a wemistikoshiw invention—but he is able to provide for himself without it. He is, after all, a true “bush Indian.” This also highlights Xavier’s Native connection to nature, and to birds specifically. The first kill is an important one in Native culture, and Xavier carries this connection with him for the rest of his life.
Themes
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On the way back to their lodge, Niska and Xavier came upon the bull moose, and Xavier took their “prize” with Niska’s old rifle. At the lodge, all the awawatuk feasted on the moose and asked Xavier of his big hunt. He told them of the grouse. The hunters laughed. “From now on we call you Little Bird Dancer,” they said.
