| — | Isabella Allende |
entry 5
Niska no longer talks about her past, because now Xavier is willing to tell her everything that happened. Elijah, who is known as the Germans killer, has become totally addicted to morphine-he eats very little and his mood is often uncontrolled. Moreover, his becomes more and more blood-thirsty, in order to gain respect to his kills, he even scalps his enemies as proof. Although people who does not know Elijah considers him a hero, but Xavier and those who are close to him know that he is becoming unbalanced and cruel. Xavier, especially, fears the change in Elijah and tries to avoid him, but because he’s Elijah partner and best friend, he is forced to witness the crimes that Elijah commits- cutting the throat of a young German soldier of their age, stabbing the head of their comrade in order to avoid detention. As Elijah becomes more and more paranoid and unbalanced, Xavier becomes more and more fearful of him and subconsciously knows that one day Elijah’s knife might even point toward him. Finally, when they go to a mission together, Elijah tries to choke Xavier to death; Xavier fights back and kills Elijah. After that, Xavier loses conscious and is transported to the hospital, when he wakes up he finds out that he is mistakenly identified as Elijah but not Xavier, he has also lost his hearing. Xavier then is recognized as a hero for all his killings and sent to a town until Niska picks him up. The whole story ends when Xavier finishes recounting his story and they finally arrive at home.
In these final chapters, the mood is extremely intense because the plot is mostly centred in Elijah whose action has become unpredicted. At first when he’s simply obsessed by killing, but after event happened he realizes that he, like the others, cannot control their fate and may also become a sniper’s target. This realization influenced his bravery and destroyed the last bit of balance in him, he has become insane. Xavier, on the other hand, is struggling with himself; he is torn between his will to survive and his friendship. In the final scene, when he points his sniper at Elijah he hesitated, he knows that he will not be able to survive if he doesn’t kill Elijah, but he also knows that he loves Elijah as a friend. After he is sent to the hospital, he does not correct the others when they identify him as Elijah but instead hopes someone will identify him. This shows that he regrets having killed Elijah and innately hopes that Elijah is the one who lives.
The end is touching that I nearly cried, these are my favourite quotes “I straddle him once more and place the rifle across his throat. I look into Elijah’s eyes. Water splashes on his cheeks. I think it is rain, but then realize that it is my tears.” /”looking down at the ground far below, where I swear Elijah stares up, smiling once more, arms outstretched to me” When I read this part I keep recalling the time they have been together, although Xavier is jealous of Elijah and often complains about him, he still loves Elijah who has become an unseperatable part of him. I think the reason why Xavier becomes attracted to morphine although he has hated it so much before is not only because of the war, it is also because of he wants to keep something that reminds him of Elijah. Finally, this friendship between them is what attracts me the most in this novel apart from the war. Although it is a sad and realistic story, three day road is still one of the best novels I’ve ever read.
entry 4
Finally Xavier’s skill as sniper is acknowledged: the armies held a competition of shooting in the troops, Elijah, Xavier and another soldier all got into the final round. Their final test was to light a match by shooting, and Xavier is the only one who accomplishes the task. Thus, Elijah and Xavier become the sniper group that is feared by the Germans. However, although Xavier has finally been accepted by his comrades, he still envies Elijah for his popularity among the soldiers. At the same time, Xavier finds out that Elijah is addicted to drugs and is more addicted to killing. On the other hand, Niska’s story is continuing, after she has grown up in the woods, she starts to want a mate, she finds a French man in the forest, and they soon starts to have an affair. As time passes, Niska falls in love with the French man and starts to fantasize marrying him, when he stops meeting her, she goes to his town and tries to find him, when she finds out that she’s merely one of his lovers and he has tricked her, she calls the spirits and kills him.
In this part, I feel that the friendship between Elijah and Xavier is stressed: Xavier is worried about Xavier because of Elijah’s addiction to morphine and feels the distance between them when he finds out that Elijah is not even guilty about the fact that he has killed so many people, and he feels betrayed by Elijah because he thinks that Elijah prefers the white Canadians instead of Natives. As for Niska, it can be seen that she is an extremely independent and determined. She finds a mate by herself, and goes to the Frenchman’s town by herself even though she knows how she’ll be treated; she ignores the other people’s comments about her and continues to do what she thinks is right. When she realizes she has been betrayed, she does not panic or cry but simply decides to revenge. I believe these traits of her allow her to survive. The way Niska and other Native women are treated is another evidence of how Natives were treated by the White Canadians, in the story the French man has relationship with several Native women like Niska, and when he is tired of them he simply abandons them without a word. On top of that, this action of his is regarded as ordinary by the white Canadians and even the Natives themselves.
I am once again amazed by Niska, I cannot approve her action of killing the French man( who deserves it), but I must say that if I encounter something like this I will not be as strong as her. The Frenchman’s deed also shocks me, I know that Natives were discriminated against like Asians were but I never really thought that much about it, now I feel lucky that I live in 21st century. As for Xavier and Elijah, I really liked Elijah before this because he is funny and always helps Xavier out, but now I think that he’s too reckless and confident to think that he won’t be addicted to morphine, I can now even predict the cause of his death. Up to this point my only concern with the book is-it’s soooo depressing! I know that there shouldn’t be anything good happening in world war two anyways but really, even the storyNiska picks to comfort Xavier is depressing. Now that i am attracted to Elijah and Xavier’s friendship, it makes me a little bit unwilling to know how Elijah dies.
entry3
Elijah and Xavier have been in the army for several months already, and they have already built a reputation as the snipers because of their superior skill of shooting. Although Xavier is the better sniper due to his years of experience of hunting, Elijah is the one who enjoys most of the attention because of his superior English and most importantly his willingness to kill the Germans. At the same time, Xavier finds out that Elijah is secretly taking morphine, though he is not yet addicted to it. At this point, Xavier has gotten used to death, he has seen his comrades being shot and he has nearly been killed by a bullet. On the other hand, Niska keeps telling Xavier her story after she escapes from the reserve, she finds out that she has inherited her father’s supernatural power-she can contact spirits in the forests and ask them about the location of the animals in the forest, thus allowing her to live with another clan.
Up to this point, I already have a decent knowledge of the characters. Xavier, who is raised by his aunt in the bush, learns the tactics of survival and hunting since he was little, whereas Elijah, who is raised by the nuns in the residential school, only learns the skills of hunting after he becomes friends. When Elijah and Xavier enters the army, they are grouped in the same category because of their common ethnic background, however, they are two opposite people because of their different believes and moral. For instance, Xavier who grew up in the bushes only kills wild animals and human when it is necessary for survival. Whereas Elijah, who is proud of his shooting skill, views killing as a way to gain respect or even sport. Apart from that, Xavier’s opinion on his identity as a Native is different from that of Elijah. Xavier has no shame in being a Native, this is not the case for Elijah, who grew up in the residential school and knows how to blend into the white Canadian society, which is what caused him to be ashamed by his identity.
I’m surprised to see that Elijah and Xavier can become such great friends when their personalities are so different from one another. Personally I prefer Xavier who is quieter and more mature, what I like the most about him is his kind nature, for he refuses to kill Germans even though this is despised by the other soldiers. Unlike the others, Xavier understands the real meaning consequence of killing and avoids it; this trait of him is what determines the difference between him and Elijah. I also notice that the life in the trenches for the soldiers has become more and more violent and realistic, I am even used to seeing a soldier chatting and laughing with the others and killed the next second, I think the first thing I learned in this story is that: death is sudden and unpredicted, there’s no foreshadow for death in real life, it just happens.
entry2
Niska woke Elijah up from his memories, and started to talk about her own story to distract him, she talked about her father, who was a leader of a clan. Her life is all peaceful until more came. In order to trade with the wemistikoshiw, they overhunted the animals in the forest, causing the clan to starve in the winter. During this winter, a wife in the clan cooked her dead husband’s dead body to feed her and her children. Niska’s father executed the woman because she got a disease that makes her to eat more human flesh, though the white Canadians hears this and arrests him. The clan fell apart and most people were forced to live in the reserve, where they were obliged to speak in English and treated harshly. Not willing to lose their identity. Niska and her mother ran away from the reserve and went to live in the forest. After Niska finishes recounting her story of her childhood, the story shifts to another piece of Xavier’s memory which takes place before he goes to the war: one time, he and Elijah went to the forest to hunt, as they finished hunting suddenly a fire broke out, they escaped the fire and went back, Xavier felt relieved but found out that his friend was excited by this event.
Although the first part of the story merely talks about the childhood experience of Niska, it still reflects the Native people’s position in Canada. In the first chapter, when Niska arrives at a wemistikoshiw town she was stared at and avoided because of her appearance. When Niska’s father was arrested, the white Canadians did not even listen to his protest and executed him without holding a court, also from the way Natives are treated in the hospital, it can be seen that they are regarded as second class people or even third class. This fact predicts how Xavier and Elijah are going to be treated in the army. The second part does not seem important at first, but it might also be a prediction of what is going to happen in the future, when facing the same fire, all Xavier could think about was to escape and survive, conversely Elijah finds the situation exciting and does not want to leave, the fire symbolizes the war, as Xavier wants the war to end and does not want to kill anyone, Elijah actually enjoys the battles and finds the action of killing exciting.
I learnt a lot more about Natives in these chapters, reading the story from the point of view of a Native is very new and different experience. Although I have read other novels concerning the mistreatment of Natives, I’ve never read one in a Native’s perspective. From Niska’s point of view, the white candaians are just people who destroyed her home and killed her father. The fact that the author did not directly express Niska’s feeling toward the white Canadian did not weaken the effect but strengthened it. I am attracted to Niska after reading this part, I find her brave and strong, and she sticks to her belief and is very persistent. When her father died, she did not cry as other girls would have down and instead comforted her mother, her environment makes her mature and sophiscated for she knows what is happening although nobody told her. Moreover, after she is sent to the reserve she does not obey the nurses like the other children do, she subconsciously know what is the real meaning of obedience and is determined to keep her identity, her bravery is shown in her disobedience, therefore she is my favourite character in the whole story.
entry 1
Three day road tells the story of two James Bay Cree soldiers-Xavier and Elijah during WWI, it begins with Niska finding out that her nephew-Xavier is alive after the war and brings him back to their home, as they travel back to the moose factory-their home, Niska recalls her and her family’s history, whereas Xavier relives the horror of the years he spent in the army. For the first few chapters, it basically talks about how Niska went to a town of wemistikoshiw ( white Canadian) , saw her nephew who looks so “skinny” like an “old man”, then she drives him home on a canoe (seems a little bit impossible to me cuz their home needs days of travelling). On the way, as Xavier takes morphine in, the rain reminds him of friend Elijah, who died during the war, and he recalls the night before he went to the trenches(where battles were fought), in the town the troops stayed, he saw the terror of the war for the first time, he saw his “ first dead body in one of these places, not the body of a soldier but of a small boy, naked and bloated in the sun, a great chunk of his head gone”, at the same time, Niska grasps every opportunity to divert Elijah’s memory by telling him his past.
Although I’ve read only a few chapters, I’m still impressed by the language the author used. As Xavier, the narrator, is a native soldier who has poor English, the vocabularies he uses are often simple and straightforward. Although sometimes the language even seems a little bit awkward, but this style of story-telling has a direct and primitive strength, especially in describing the battle horrors. Apart from the language, the author also successfully created a cruel and ruthless war in a soldier’s point of view with a detailed and precise description of the battle, the trenches the soldiers and their emotions. I remember this scene in which Xavier says “bodies melted and black…[gives off] …a smell sweet enough to make the stomach feel bad.” We can also see that the author has down a lot of research for the story because of all the detailed description of the trenches lives. Actually, this story is so vivid that you sometimes forget that you’re reading a book, but watching the the war with your own eyes.
I am actually a little bit confused at first, because the story keeps switching from the present to the past and switching back, it is not until the third chapter that I got a hold on what is happening. The beginning of the story is quite depressing, because the characters’ ends are revealed-Xavier loses a leg, becomes addicted to morphine, and is tortured by his memories about the war, on top of all these, Elijah-Xavier’s best and only friend dies in the end. Despite this depressing way of starting a story, it did stimulate my interest in further exploring the story. As Xavier recalls his memory in the war, I find myself overwhelmed by the chaos of the battle, the main character saw a dead body for the first time and after a few pages, his first battle began. So after around 7 minutes I am already dragged into the trenches full of the smell of sweat, blood and mud, surrounded by the sound of the explosion of shells and rifles. The most amazing thing about this story is, I’m not be able to tore my eyes away from the book, it is like reading a person’s secret diary. I usually prefer stories with a happy ending, but I’m too attached to the characters that I don’t want to stop reading it.
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