Literary Elements In Three Day Road

A literary element that I liked about this book was characterization. Three Day Road reveals the emotional changes one can undergo when living in the shadow of someone else. In the beginning, Elijah and Xavier were friends that could exceed family. Yet because of the war, Xavier often was covered by Elijah’s glory and they started to pull apart emotionally as Xavier became jealous of Elijah. Both being good snipers, Xavier found it unfair that he never received any credit and was an invisible man to the others around him. Although Xavier is more of a static character, Elijah is most definitely dynamic. Growing up with Xavier, Elijah knew and followed the traditions of the aboriginals. They respected all things in nature, especially the dead.

Joseph Boyden has woven a theme of never losing track your identity into this book. As demonstrated by Elijah, he felt the overwhelming need to prove himself and therefore let the killing consume him, giving up his identity and the traditions taught to him as a child, deciding that all he needed was to kill. This is shown when Corporal Thompson asks if Elijah likes killing. Elijah replied, “It’s in my blood,” (69). Letting this madness overrun him, Elijah said “I have found the one thing I am truly talented at, and that is killing men. I do not need food when I have this.” (296). This was when Elijah completely gives up his identity as even a human being. At this point, he became what the Aboriginals believed was evil. The Windigo. His words showed no mercy to those of his own kind, he feeds off the killing of humans. This was what ultimately lead to Elijah’s death. When Xavier saw that Elijah has been broken beyond repair, it left him only one choice. It was to kill his best friend. Although Elijah demonstrated the effects of losing your identity to the extremes, it is still possible to completely lose yourself and as the aboriginals believed, be on a three day journey to meet with the