The Theme Of Survival In Joseph Boyden's Three Day Road

The Windigo in indigenous mythology is a human who has turned cannibalistic with an insatiable hunger for human flesh. Although the spirit was once human, all sense of morality disappeared within the first bite of their own kind. However, if killing a human being - by any means - is immoral, then the Windigo killers must also become “Windigos” in a psychological sense of the word with their first Windigo kill. In Joseph Boyden’s Three Day Road, the two narratives of Niska and Xavier are written as reflections of one another to portray the thin line of morality between the need for survival and the subsequent shift in identity due to individuals’ beliefs not aligning with their reality. This is explored when the question of survival and addiction

This law is the same law as in the bush. Turn fear and panic into the sharp blade of survival” (Boyden 19). He is told to make no distinction between the animals he hunts in the bush and the humans he hunts on the battlefield - survival being his justification of means because they align with his beliefs as an indigenous hunter; “It is just like hunting, [he thinks]. It is hunting” (Boyden 86). On the other hand, Elijah “cannot wait to get over there. He tells me he’s afraid the war will end before we arrive” (Boyden 101); he rapidly develops an obsession with killing the Germans and with the continuation of the war, takes to “opening each man’s eyes and staring into them, then closing them with his calloused right hand, letting a strange spark of warmth accumulate deep in his gut each time that he does it...knowing that he, Elijah, is the last thing that each will see” (Boyden 200). Elijah begins to kill to “fill his belly when it gnaws for food” (200) which marks his continued transition into a Windigo; he believes he is the greatest sniper in the war, but he feels the need to keep killing in order to make his belief a reality. Although this solidifies his reputation as a skilled sniper, it leads him to shift into something inhuman because of the loss of all ethics. In comparison, Niska quenches her loneliness by seducing the French trapper. She believes “[she] has chosen a wemistikoshiw for a mate” indicating that

In a similar fashion, Niska’s and Xavier’s stories portray the unnerving similarities between the hunter and the hunted through the exploration of survival and addiction, the choices and their consequences and the resulting loss of control. Due to the instinct for survival, the ones who carry the burden of looking after the ones who do not have the same ethics must make decisions that are not based on their beliefs, which eventually lead them to lose their identities unless they find their redemption and