The Negative Change In Three Day Road By Joseph Boyden

War is happening all over the world and is an important issue in society. Why would one nation fight another? Is it for power? Whatever the reason may be, war is definitely leaves an impact on one’s life. War is a pitiful cause that can invoke an inevitable negative change within one. The story dates back to the early 1900’s when the First World War had occurred. Xavier tells a story where throughout it, he and his best friend, Elijah, slowly sever their friendship. Also, there were important events in the story that helped show the how war can change a human. Joseph Boyden uses the setting, character development and key plot events to indicate the negative influence war has on a human. The author utilizes setting in the story to display how

After the First World War, Xavier comes back alive and meets her aunt Niska. Niska looks at Xavier after he came back from war and thought, “Nephew walks slowly on his crutches, his eyes cast down. People stare at us, at him. There was a time before he left that he would stare back” (7). The author used this thought to show that Xavier was very strong and brave before he entered a life of war. He would be able to look back at the white people without becoming startled. However, after the war, there were a bunch of people staring and he just kept his head down, which seems as he lost all hope and his bravery. Xavier at first did not know what war would feel like. However after an instance where he almost got shot, he realizes how dangerous war really is. It says, “It is real. All of this is suddenly very real. The other side wants to kill me and I’ve never seen their faces.” Xavier was never experienced in being in a war and so when he witnessed the real action of war, he got a bit scared. Another instance that Xavier had changed was the actual fact of war and killing. Xavier abhors the fact that Elijah likes to kill for a living rather than killing to survive (269). The author writes, “Elijah says that something in me has hardened in the last months. I talk even less than before, do not smile at all anymore. He knows that I want to be home, that I am

However, later on in the book when he is in the war, he slowly drifts apart from Xavier and wants to be with the people who acknowledge him as one of the greatest assets to the army. When Elijah killed someone and told the others, Xavier thought, “To make it all worse, Elijah’s taken to talking in an English accent in the last days. This makes the other soldiers laugh, but I wonder why he really does it. It’s like he wants to become something he is not” (77). Elijah wanted to impress his fellow comrades so much that he tried to change himself and act like the others soldiers to blend in. Elijah also slowly succumbed to Grey Eyes’ medicine throughout the story. The medicine is used to alleviate pain caused from the war but Elijah gets addicted to it which makes him change his behaviour. At first when Xavier asked if the Canadians would separate them, the author wrote, “Do you think the Canadians will separate us… It takes Elijah a long time to answer, so long that I think has fallen asleep. He finally speaks in the darkness.” Elijah replies, “They’d better not” (61). After a while, he spends more time with Grey Eyes and has taken morphine before, the same exact conversation is brought up but a completely different answer. Elijah says, “They don’t give a damn about us. It might be better if they separate us” (102). Due to morphine being easy to acquire during wars and it being