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Three Day Road Sparknotes

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Three Day Road is a novel which deals with some sensitive subjects in Canadian history while at the same time telling two stories at once. The first one being about Xavier and Elijah, two Cree hunters who joined the Royal Canadian Army together to fight in the Great War. While the second one focuses on Niska, an older Cree woman and the aunt of Xavier. Niska's story focuses on her life in Ontario and the struggles she faced growing up near Canadian settlers. World War 1 and the aboriginals of Canada are two extremely important aspects in regards to Canadian history. Both playing a significant role in allowing Canada to become the country it is today. Author Joseph Boyden presents an accurate view of Canadian history in regards to the life of …show more content…

It was a war like no other, with the use of gas and other new technology which allowed opposing sides to kill each other in large numbers with incredible speed. Joseph Boyden's use of vivid and expressive language gave the reader every tool they needed in order to really feel as though they were experiencing the war for themselves. At Verdun, Germans would cut barbed wire and use flamethrowers to clear out enemy machine-gun posts. These flamethrowers were easy targets due to the large tank on their back. (http://online.wsj.com/ww1/flamethrowers) Boyden used this small piece of information which could have easily been looked past; as a result, it only helped build the story and really allow the reader to experience what it might have been like to witness this type of weapon. "Before I can get off the ground and aim at the fire shooter, a couple of men in the trench do it. One of them hits the tank… A fiery explosion shoots up into an orange-and-black ball of flame. He is unrecognizable lying there, gasping, the pink inside his mouth the only colour that stands out against the oozing and charred black of his body." As I continued to read the book, the more I realized how much of a struggle it must have been to get up each and every day and muster up the will to keep fighting. If it wasn't the Germans, than it was the environment. With harsh rains, cold nights, wet trenches, and almost useless equipment. Private Donald Fraser of the Canadian …show more content…

Boyden makes it very clear that Niska wasn't welcome in the white Canadian town. Nearly where ever she went she was stared at, called names, or ridiculed. Names like "witch" and "savage" are used fairly frequent. Boyden also touches on the residential school system in the book. Throughout the story, Xavier would think back to the time when he and Elijah were in residential school together. Xavier was abused both verbally and physically, starved, and punished whenever he spoke his native language. Elijah on the other hand, was touched sexually while he was bathing by a nun. The way in which residential schools are depicted in this story are pretty similar to the way they actually were. Children in the school system were often treated worse than animals. Stripped of their language and culture, children were given European names similar to that of Xavier and Elijah. (Book) Any misbehaving children would be locked up, starved or lashed. The lashings were often over used and caused very serious damage to the child (Book) Christine Haines, a residential school survivor had this to say when she was returned to her school after trying to run away. "The Sisters didn't treat me good. They gave me rotten food to eat and punished me for not eating it. The meat and soup were rotten and tasted so bad they made the girls sick sometimes. I told the Sisters

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