The
novel written by Joseph Boyden, Three Day
Road, follows Aboriginal natives who originally resided in Canada during
the first world war. They were being poorly treated by the wemistikoshiw which means white people in their dialect. This novel
is unique because there are two different people narrating the story and both
each perspective is during a different timeline. Xavier Bird’s perspective is
from World War I when he battled alongside his best friend, Elijah Weesageechak
and served the country in the war. The other perspective comes from Niska as
she retells her experiences as a child growing up as a Cree woman in Canada and
she also happened to be the daughter of the
hookimaw, or chief of their tribe. The wemistikoshiw
create issues with the people who are living in the same general vicinity which
happened to be the Cree. They are having problem with another but the Cree are
getting harmed more. The first person that was harmed by the wemistikoshiw was Niska. Then, Xavier
had also been negatively affected by the wemistikoshiw.
Lastly, Elijah also endures problems with the wemistikoshiw. The Cree did not do anything to provoke the wemistikoshiw but the wemistikoshiw are the reason the Cree
are still harmed and negatively affected because they will do as they please
disregarding how the Cree felt.
First of all, Niska who is the
main female character in this novel was a Cree native and also a woman during
the early 1900s. She was mistreated by the white people that shared and live
around the same area as each other. She became a strong and independent Cree woman
through all of these negative events because they just helped her toughen her
skin. Niska’s father, the chief had to kill a windigo which means cannibals that became crazy in the Cree
language. She narrates: “My father was
led away with his big hands bound behind him as our women wailed for the
future. To take the hookimaw away who was to lead us into the bush for the long
winter was unimaginable” (Boyden 44). The wemistikoshiw took away such an influential figure in Niska’s life
as she is getting bigger and older, requiring guidance from their parents. Niska’s
father who was the hookimaw or chief, got arrested and would later be executed
by the wemistikoshiw which shows how
they would mistreat the Cree people. Niska being forced to grow up without her
father who the biggest influence and teacher in her young life was a very
traumatic experience and time for her. The wemistikoshiw
had no right to get involved with this situation because the Cree and wemistikoshiw are said to be separated
in the book. However, Niska may have been the most devastated but the grief was
not limited to her because this Cree tribe had just lost their chief who is
considered to be the leader of the pack. So, the wemistikoshiw taking away the leader of the tribe because of a matter
they should not have been concerned with shows how the wemistikoshiw impose themselves on the Cree tribe’s lives. The hurt
the Cree as whole because they degrade the Cree and do not care about how they
are feeling. Niska was not the only aboriginal that had to deal with the wemistikoshiw’s disrespectful actions
but so did her nephew Xavier.
Xavier
was Niska’s nephew and he had experienced his own issues and problems that had arisen
with the wemistikoshiw. Throughout
his entire life, the wemistikoshiw found
ways to constantly make his life worse. He lost his mother and was terribly
mistreated in the residential school, along with Lisette treated him and how
the soldiers he fought alongside were racist towards him and look down on him.
Xavier lost his mom due to the residential school, Niska says: “but the talk was that she [Rabbit, Xavier’s
mother] was a drinker of wemistikoshiw rum and had abandoned her only son to be
raised by the nuns in that residential school” (Boyden 197). Xavier’s
mother assimilated into the wemistikoshiw
culture because of how the nuns raised her. Shortly after she gave birth to
Xavier, she began drinking alcohol produced by the wemistikoshiw and abandoned her son for some lousy residential school.
Rabbit forgot how she was a Cree native because of what the wemistikoshiw did too her. Niska had to
save Xavier every time that his mother abandoned him and left him behind. So,
the wemistikoshiw took away a young
Cree boy’s mother and turns her into an alcoholic that can barely recognize her
own son. From their perspective, they left a little boy without a mother and
did not care whether or not he would receive aby care fomr anyone. Even though,
Xavier was lucky enough to be raised by Niska, the wemistikoshiw did not care about what happened to a young child.
Xavier’s heart was also broken by one of the wemistikoshiw known as Lisette. He fell in love with he and consummated
the relationship through sexual intercourse from his perspective. However, she
turns out to be a prostitute that Elijah hired to carry out a job. He narrates “Something in me has gone dull and hard, and
I force myself to keep running. My ears hear nothing now but the shallow woosh
of my own breath in my chest” (Boyden 233). Xavier’s heart had been broken
when he found her sleeping with another man, she was caught red handed in the
act of cheating in his eyes because she was having a sexual relation with
another white man. Lastly, Xavier also disrespected by his peers and comrades
within the army because of their prejudice and racist minds looking down on him
due to his ethnicity. All of these examples help prove how the wemistikoshiw mistreated the Cree in
such a way that was so insensitive. They are constantly disregarding how a Cree
person may actually have feelings and emotions. They will do whatever they want
without thinking about how the Cree may be affected. Sadly, this was not the
last case of a Cree person being mistreat but Xavier’s best friend Elijah had
also been mistreated.
Finally,
Elijah seemed to receive the most significant of the all the negative impacts
dealt upon the Cree by the wemistikoshiw.
During the beginning, the wemistikoshiw
excluded both Xavier and Elijah but due to Elijah’s personality, he felt like
he needed to prove himself to them. He would speak using a fake English accent
around them in order to feel as if he belongs. This portrays such an accurate
message of racism because racists make others feel that their race is inferior
and those who have been negatively affected with that message choose to
assimilate into the culture. The wemistikoshiw
are representing the message that if the Cree can not defeat them then they
should just join them. This is such a weak move by Elijah but he was influenced
by the wemistikoshiw’s peer pressure.
They used his insecurities to turn him into one of their own kind. This shows
how manipulative the wemistikoshiw really
are and they do not even care that they are doing so. They make other human
beings feel bad without any reason other than their skin colour is different.
An athlete who received an abundant amount of backlash because they made a
similar choice is Kevin Durant. Durant blew a 3-1 playoff series lead against
the Golden State Warriors of the NBA. So, Suring the off-season he was a free
agent and decided to sign with the Golden State Warriors. This move is similar
to what Elijah has done because they both feel they can not overtake or defeat
the opposition, they decide to join them. The wemistikoshiw turning Elijah into of their kind not only negatively
affects Elijah because he is losing sight of who he really is but those who
were actually close to him are also heavily affected. Xavier felt as though he
was alone in the war because of how Elijah, his best friend, had gone through
some drastic changes. The wemistikoshiw do
not care that they are completely changing someone just because they were able
to poke at their insecurities. They made him feel bad about his native culture
and influenced him that their culture was superior so he would join them. This
shows once again how the careless actions of the wemistikoshiw have cause negative affects upon the Cree.
All
in all, the wemistikoshiw been
nothing but trouble for the Cree that live in the same area. They do not even care
what they do towards the Cree as long as they are benefitted. The killed Niska’s
father, the chief of the tribe at a very young age leaving her fatherless and
leaving the tribe leaderless. The wemistikoshiw
also took away Xavier’s mother, led to his heart being broken and a surplus
of disrespect from those who are supposed to comrades. Also, Elijah had turned
into one of the wemistikoshiw because
they made him feel inferior about his country which led him to want to be
included by his comrades. They did not accept him because of his ethnicity so
he changed who he was as a person just so he may be included in the group. In
conclusion, the Cree do not do anything harmful towards the wemistikoshiw while the wemistikoshiw have no reason to mess
with the Cree but they still do so anyways without any regard of a Cree person’s
well-being.
Works Cited
·
Drainie,
Bronwyn. “Three-Day Road.” Quill and Quire, 11 Mar. 2005,
quillandquire.com/review/three-day-road/.
·
Boyden,
Joseph. Three Day Road. W. Ross MacDonald School Resource Services Library,
2011.
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