Here are some discussion questions for Three Day Road from the Penguin website. Some of these could lead to good essays. But don't worry, I'll post an "offical list" to keep you all happy!
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
Why does Joseph Boyden use two narrators to tell the story of Three Day Road? What effects does he create by interweaving Niska's and Xavier's narratives?
Niska tells Xavier about the stories her father told her family. “Sometimes his stories were all that we had to keep us alive” (p. 33). What role do stories play within the novel?
Why does Niska spend so much time telling Xavier stories of the past? Why does she say that she “feeds” him stories? What effect do her stories have on him?
Early in the novel, Thompson asks Elijah if he likes combat and killing, to which Elijah responds: “It's in my blood.” But Thompson doesn't ask Xavier, who thinks: “Does he sense something? How am I different?” (p. 69). How is Xavier different from Elijah? How do they each feel about combat and killing? In what ways are they alike?
Elijah has a dream in which three of his dead fellow soldiers tell him: “Do what you can. There is nothing sacred any more in a place such as this. Don't fight it. Do what you can” (p. 261). How does Elijah interpret this? Are these spirits right in suggesting that in war nothing is sacred and that a soldier should do whatever he can—even if it involves killing innocent people—to survive and win?
In what ways is it significant that Xavier and Elijah are Cree Indians? How do the Canadian soldiers perceive them? What aspects of their traditional ways of life affect how they perform during the war?
How does Niska begin to cure Xavier of his despair and morphine dependence? What does this cure suggest about the difference between Native American and Western views of medicine and healing?
Niska has the gift of receiving visions. What do her visions reveal to her? How do they guide her?
What does the novel as a whole say about war and what it can do to those who must kill in war? How are Elijah and Xavier changed, physically and spiritually, by their experiences in war?
In what ways is Three Day Road relevant to our own time and circumstance?
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4 comments:
Some of these questions open alot of doors... i think they will lead to some very intersting essays!
For myself I felt that by using two narrorators Joseph Boyden achieved a story with more layers, you got to different perspectives on the events of Niska's and Xavier's lives. I also personally enjoy novels where you gradually learn more and more about the characters in this style as the story progresses. I felt that Niska's stories reavelaed the hard and challenging things she had been through in an attempt to show Xavier that he could recover from his emotional and physical wounds from the war. Also, I felt that Elijah and Xavier were different for one really obvious reason, which was; Elijah killed for fame and glory, where as Xavier killed for survival in the war. Lastly, I think that Elijah interpreted his dream as almost granting him permition to continue the kinds of actions which he had already committed in the war. Lastly, I dont think any of us can comment on the rightness or wrongness of war, until we have been placed in a posistion of that scale ourselves we can only answer that question blindly.
I like the fact that Joseph Boyden uses both Xavier and Niska as narrators. They have a strong connection to each other that is more than their blood relation. Being Windigo killers is what connects them together ‘spiritually’ and this connection is what ends up saving Xavier’s life, not just when he comes home from France but also when he is in France, in the trenches. He receives the letter from Niska and even though the message that he reads is not what Niska has dictated to Netmaker, the power that she wields has somehow worked its way to get the ‘right’ message to Xavier.
By letting us see into Niska and her life experiences, we can understand why Xavier has the insight that he does when it comes to Elijah. Xavier is also very wise; it sometimes seems that he’s shy and not outgoing but I think his relationship to the spirit world is what give him his wisdom.
This connects to the fourth discussion question. I re-read the part where Thompson asks Elijah about killing but not Xavier (75). On the previous page, Thompson and Xavier have a short conversation where Thompson says, “Your English is getting better. . . .I watch the way you two walk about. . . .I figure I know true hunters when I meet them” (74). Thompson is a skilled soldier. He teaches Xavier, Elijah, and the other essential skills to help them survive the war. I’m sure that Thompson is no dummy and he can sense that there is a difference between Xavier and Elijah. I don’t believe that Thompson was being rude or mean by not directly asking Xavier the same question; he already knows the answer in his heart, which is that Xavier will do what needs to be done to survive but he’s not getting a thrill from killing like Elijah is.
Hi Rachelle,
I am with you on your last point. Isn't there a saying about walking in someone moccasins.....
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