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Prologue
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Three Day Road, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Isolation vs. Community
Racism and Assimilation
Language and Storytelling
Nature, War, and Survival
Summary
Analysis
Niska hides in the woods just outside of town. She has been there for days, waiting and watching. The town is big, and there are more wemistikoshiw than Niska has ever seen before. She leaves the woods cautiously and walks among the cars and people, who “stare and point” as she walks by. “I must look like a thin and wild old woman to them,” Niska thinks to herself, “an Indian animal straight out of the bush.”
Niska’s traditional life in the bush means that she has very little interaction, if any, with the white settlers. Like Xavier, Niska rejects wemistikoshiw culture, and because of this, she is marginalized by society. The staring and pointing wemistikoshiw are evidence of the widespread racism against Indigenous people seen in the novel.
Themes
Niska approaches the train station and stands near the back of the covered platform. The people eye her suspiciously and move closer to the tracks. They all wear hats despite the high summer sun. Niska does “not understand much of the wemistikoshiw.” The train comes into sight, the whistle “like a giant eagle screaming,” and stops at the platform. Niska’s only living relation, her nephew, Xavier Bird, has “died in a faraway place,” and his friend, Elijah Whiskeyjack, is arriving on the train. Elijah “is as close to a relation” as Niska has, and she “will paddle him home.”
This too is evidence of the rampant racism faced by Native people. The wemistikoshiw react to Niska as if she has a disease and move closer to the tracks instead of away from them, as is expected. The wemistikoshiw would rather risk falling onto the train tracks than stand near Niska on the platform. The comparison of the train whistle to an eagle’s scream reflects Niska’s connection to nature, which contrasts the lack of connection she feels to the wemistikoshiw world. She is unaccustomed to machinery and automobiles, and she tries to understand them in terms of nature.
Themes
The last passenger steps out of the train, but Niska does not see Elijah. She looks again to the train and can see a man moving slowly inside. The man wears a hat like the wemistikoshiw, and one leg of his pants is “pinned up,” hanging “empty” at the knee. He steps onto the platform with his crutches and looks around. Niska is suddenly met with “the ghost of [her] nephew Xavier.”
Elijah’s Native identity has taken a hit during the war, and while he has tried to hang on to hang to his culture, the wemistikoshiw hat is evidence of his forced assimilation by the white army. Typically, Indians only wear hats in the winter, not the summer, and Niska thinks it is odd.
Themes
As Xavier’s eyes meet Niska’s, he falls to the platform. Niska rushes to his side as the wemistikoshiw stare. “I was told you were dead, Auntie,” he says to Niska. “And I was told you were, too,” she replies. She helps him to stand, and they immediately head for the riverbank where Niska’s canoe is waiting. Niska tells Xavier to wait on the riverbank while she wades upriver to retrieve the canoe. As she paddles back, Niska watches Xavier rolls up his sleeve and stick “something into his arm.”
The wemistikoshiw stares are more evidence of racism, and Niska and Xavier are clearly uncomfortable since they waste no time leaving town. Obviously, Xavier is injecting himself with morphine. He has become terribly addicted on account of his injuries, and the fact that he injects it when he thinks Niska isn’t watching suggests that he is ashamed of his addiction. Xavier’s shame, however, makes very little difference at this point; he needs the morphine to survive.
Themes
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Inside the canoe, Xavier leans against his pack and closes his eyes. Niska watches him closely as she paddles. Xavier “sleeps, but his sleep is not restful.” He twitches and shakes and wakes himself when he cries out. She knows he is “very sick” and can see that “fever is burning him up from the inside.” Their destination, the Great Salt Bay, is “a three-day paddle,” and Niska approaches the riverbank to make camp for the night.
Boyden frequently references their “three-day paddle,” which harkens to Niska’s Cree story of “the three day road,” where the novel also finds its title. Niska claims that the spiritual trip to the afterlife is down a “three day road,” and this suggests that Xavier’s trip home— “a three-day paddle”—is, essentially, his journey toward death.
Themes
