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
Rain falls as Xavier sits by the fire. Like Niska, he does not sleep. “Dead friends” Xavier doesn’t “want to see come to visit” in his sleep. When sleep does come, the dead accuse Xavier of “acts [he] did not perform” and “some that [he] did.” Everyone “over there” behaved “in ways it is best not to speak of. Especially Elijah.” Elijah is “truly skilled,” Xavier thinks. “But at one time I was the better marksman. No one remembers that.”
Xavier’s constant war flashbacks are evidence of his guilt over the unspeakable acts he was forced to commit during the war in order to survive. Xavier speaks of Elijah here in the present tense, as if Elijah is still alive, but he isn’t. Xavier had to kill him, an example of the unspeakable acts he was forced to commit to survive, and he is so traumatized that he seems to have blocked it out.
Themes
“Where is [Elijah]?” Xavier wonders. They were together the entire war until the last days. Xavier had taken some shell fire and was thrown into the air like a “bird.” When he “came down,” his left leg was gone. “I’ve always known men aren’t meant to fly,” Xavier says. But he was given medicine for the pain and learned “to fly in a new way.” Now, the medicine is nearly gone, and Xavier “will not be able to live without it.”
Xavier’s comment that “men aren’t meant to fly” harkens to Elijah’s bad experience in the airplane. To Elijah, birds are symbolic of freedom, and he dreams of going up in an airplane—the closest he will ever get to flying. But he is terrified up in the air because, as Xavier says, “men aren’t meant to fly.”
Themes
Nothing “makes any sense” to Xavier. Niska is alive, and Elijah is “missing.” Xavier “shivers in the cold rain” and stares at the fire. “Oh, this medicine is good,” he thinks. Xavier closes his eyes and can see “broken buildings” lining the edge of a town. He can hear the “big guns” in the distance and knows that he will be in the trenches by the next day. Rifle fire erupts nearby. “Are those our fucking signal flares?” Sergeant McCaan yells. “Can somebody tell me? Are they?”
Xavier’s flashbacks are a form of storytelling, which ties into Boyden’s argument of the power of storytelling to preserve Indigenous life and culture. If Xavier is to live, he must make it back to his Native lands and embrace his Cree culture, but he can’t do that without first telling his story. While Xavier’s story takes place in the past, his vivid war flashbacks make his stories seem as if they are unfolding in the present.
Themes
The company has been in Flanders, Belgium for weeks. Xavier keeps mostly to himself around the other soldiers, but he listens carefully for “jokes and insults.” The others think Xavier is “something less,” but he will “show them what [he is] made of when it is time to kill.”
As a Cree Indian, Xavier is a perpetual outsider in the predominately white European army. The other soldiers frequently refer to him as a “heathen” because he speaks a different language and observes a different culture. But Xavier is a keen and talented hunter, and he believes this will make him a good soldier, which is sure to win their favor.
Themes
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The next morning, Xavier stands at attention next to Elijah. Elijah fidgets and shuffles his feet and McCaan yells at him to stand still. Xavier can tell that McCaan doesn’t want to yell, but Lieutenant Breech, whom the men call “Bastard Breech,” stands watching. Breech gives the order, and the men begin to march. The men sing as they march but Xavier doesn’t join in. “Me, I won’t sing their songs,” Xavier says. “I have my own songs.”
Elijah’s fidgety behavior is likely morphine withdrawal. It is later revealed that Elijah begins taking morphine on the ship to Europe, and by this time he is probably already very deep into his habit. Xavier’s refusal to sing the soldier’s song reflects his resistance to assimilation, and his determination to speak his own language.
Themes
Without warning, Xavier is thrown into the air by “thunder and a wave of heat.” He lands hard on the ground and is hit with “raining rock” and “globs of red dirt” that he realizes is “the flesh and guts of men.” He tries to move but can’t. Elijah appears and drags him to an upturned wagon. Elijah quickly crawls back through the “flying metal” and returns with Grey Eyes and Sean Patrick, two men from their unit.
Elijah’s actions here speak to his bravery during the war. He is the one to drag Xavier and the others safety. Elijah is fearless. He doesn’t begin to think of dying as a possibility until after he flies in the plane, and since this is early in the war, Elijah repeatedly puts himself in danger to save others because he thinks he is invincible.
Themes
Once the shelling stops and the dead and wounded are carted off by stretcher, McCaan again orders the platoon to march. Breech will be waiting outside of town with another unit. “Tiny fucker wants us to march into dangerous land after dark knowing full well we have no goddamn idea where we are,” McCaan yells. “Like fucking virgins into the mouth of a lion!” The night is extremely dark, and the men grow increasingly uncomfortable as they march. A soldier named Fat stumbles and falls.
As the war drags on, Xavier grows tired of his superior officers putting him in danger while they sit safely on the sidelines, and this passage is one such example. Breech is already (reasonably) safe with the unit near the next town, but it is Xavier and the other soldiers who must risk their lives to get there. Xavier’s commanding officers show little regard for life—including the lives of their soldiers.
Themes
“You are acting like rabbits,” McCaan yells. “It is time to act like wolves.” Xavier thinks McCaan’s words are “perfect.” This will keep them alive, Xavier thinks, “to be the hunter” not “the hunted.” This is the same “law” in the woods— “turn fear and panic into the sharp blade of survival.” McCaan calls Elijah and Xavier to the front of the line and orders them to advance and scout the ridge ahead.
Xavier is convinced that surviving in war is much like surviving in the bush, and Boyden repeatedly compares the two. But by the end of the book, Xavier learns that this isn’t true. There is honor in the bush, but there is little honor to be found in the war, despite the medals and decorations.
Themes
Xavier and Elijah crawl into the darkness and quickly lose sight of each other, but just like when they track a moose, each knows where the other is. They come across a group of men speaking the “Belgian tongue.” Elijah asks them in English where the Canadians are, and they learn they are just a half mile over the ridge.
The fact the McCaan sends Elijah and Xavier in first to scout ahead is reflective of systemic racism. McCaan could send any of the men, but he sends Xavier and Elijah, which implies he believes their Native lives are worth less than the others. This passage also underscores the vast differences in language, and the power language has to isolate and marginalize. Elijah’s Native language is Cree, but he is forced to speak English, and the Belgians are likely speaking Dutch.
Themes
Their unit manages to make it to the next town, and Xavier wakes early the next morning. He is invited to sit with a small group of soldiers. One of the men asks Xavier where he is from. “Near Moose Factory,” he answers. “So you’re an Indian, then?” the soldier asks. “You’re pretty short for an Indian, ain’t ya?” The men all laugh. Xavier looks to one soldier’s rifle; there are small notches cut in the stock. “Smithy here’s a sniper,” one man says. He has thirty-three kills—more than any other Canadian or Brit.
The soldier’s comment that Xavier is “short for an Indian” implies that an ideal Indian exists, and Xavier doesn’t quite live up to the standard. Xavier is a “real” Indian, but his real identity doesn’t fit the soldier’s racist assumptions, which is reflective of the racism of broader society as well. Indians are viewed as savage beasts, and it is therefore assumed that they should have a large physical stature.
Themes
“That ain’t true at all,” Smithy says. “There’s another Indian feller goes by the name Peggy. Ojibwe, I think.” Peggy has nearly one hundred hits, Smithy says, but the officers won’t “give him credit” because he works alone. Xavier sits and doesn’t speak. “Man of few words, eh?” a soldier asks him. “I don’t know much English,” Xavier says. “You don’t need to know much,” replies Smithy, “for the job you been sent here to do.”
Peggy’s experiences are more evidence of the racism within the military. Peggy is obviously a talented sniper, but the officers don’t believe his numbers because Peggy’s word as an Indian, to them, is less than the word of a white soldier, or better yet, a white officer. This also puts Elijah’s future sniping record in perspective. Peggy’s kills are measly compared to Elijah’s 356 confirmed hits.
Themes
