Summary Of The Windigo In Joseph Boyden's Three Day Road

INDRODUCTION The purpose of this easy is to discuss the Windigo in Joseph Boyden’s Three Day Road according to folk Legend. The Windigo is known by many other names it is said to be a demonic half human half beast creature which feeds on human flesh. “We grow up with stories of the Windigo that our parents fed us over winter fires, of people who eat people's flesh and grow into wild beast twenty feet tall whose huger can be satisfied only by more human flesh and the hunger turns worse “(36) The term Windigo is usually associated with cannibalism and helps strengthen the fact that cannibalism is a taboo the Windigo has not always been a cannibal.
In Joseph Boyden’s Three Day Road the Windigo is seen as having a voracious appetite, forever

It is later diagnosed as a medical condition, which is contagious with the potential to spread” the sickness of the Windigo could spread as surely as the invincible sicknesses of the Wemistikoshiw ”(161) the drug prescribed for the Windigo contagion was the Windigo killer which was quite rare and unorthodox since there were only two left in the line of Windigo killers they proved to be a permanent solution to the contagion that is the Windigo but not one that could stand the test of time since the risk becoming Windigos themselves ” my hand stung from the work of twisting, The Windigos face had turned purple and I was afraid that his eyes would pop from his head his words melted into a long and his thick tongue stuck out from his mouth”

The Windigo is seen as a supernatural creature and according to man’s law if you can't see it or touch it, it does not exist so the hunting and killing of the Windigo was considered a crime and according to the laws which govern man, murder is a serious crime with grave consequence, such as pain, hate, jail time and death which explains why the Windigo killers are a dying bread “my father was led away with his big hands behind him as our women wailed for the future.to take the Hookimaw who was to lead us into the bush for the long winter was unimaginable ignorance. I cursed them with everything I had as they receded with my father into their world. Most of us survived the winter and returned in spring to the Albany River where news awaited that my father was dead” (38). They also risk becoming blood thirsty and turning into that which they hunt “he must kill Windigos once again” (36). The story of the Windigo can be seen as made up story to scare young kids to keep them in line or prevent them from straying too far away from home or it can be described as a psychology illness with affects the mind coursing one to loss