I am currently in the process of preparing for the close reading assignment, which is one that I do look forward to. While I am still yet to solidify my thoughts for the paper, in the mean time, I will say that one scene from Three Day Road that particularly interests me is the climactic point of the novel where Xavier takes Elijah’s life on the front lines and gets wounded in action by enemy fire shortly after. Perhaps this might be the scene that I will use for my close reading, but I’ll have to see whether it resonates with any readings from the Indigenous Foundations website.

During our previous class, we did an informal close reading on the novel’s prologue, where Elijah and Xavier are hunting during their childhood. We made note about how Elijah asks Xavier the question, “We are great hunters and best friends, yes?” and how this question signifies the uncertainty that Xavier feels towards their relationship to Elijah. Amazingly, when I reread the climactic scene of the novel, Elijah again asks Xavier this question shortly before his demise. However, Xavier’s response in these scenes differs quite dramatically. While Xavier simply answers, “Yes” in the prologue, during the battle scene, he does not reply until Elijah physically tries to choke him, which forces him to retaliate aggressively. Afterwards, Xavier replies that Elijah has “gone mad”. This simple, yet radical difference between Xavier’s responses is one indicator that he does grow more indifferent toward Elijah throughout the novel.

Another way in which the climactic scene of Three Day Road resembles the hunting scene novel’s prologue is that Xavier silences the mortally wounded Elijah the same say he clubbed the screaming marten in the opening. As Boyden describes, “the rifle in my (Xavier’s) hands sinks down and I feel through the stock the collapse of his (Elijah’s) windpipe under the rifle’s pressure”. This happens just right after Elijah “tries to whisper words to me (Xavier) but I know that I cannot allow Elijah to speak them”. Based on this, I get the feeling that novel’s prologue does serve a more significant role than I had originally thought in that for Boyden uses it to foreshadow the events that take place at the novel’s climax.

As an extension to our study on the novel, I searched up some information on Francis “Peggy” Pegahmagabow and found out that he was an Aboriginal marksman from the First World War who was a three-time recipient of the prestigious Military Medal. After having learnt about his, I truly came to a realization of the lack of recognition for the accomplishments Aboriginal Canadians during the First World War. Despite this remarkable accomplishment, I am utterly surprised that Pegahmagabow was somehow a name that I had never previously recognized. By comparison, Billy Bishop, a Canadian aviator who downed 72 enemy aircraft during the same conflict, which was the highest among all Allied Forces, is a name that is already on our lips. Based on this finding, I have come to the realization that the stereotypical image of a Canadian soldier has historically been and still remains today as a white person despite the various accomplishments by Canadian soldiers of other ethnicity.

Here’s a link that explains Pegahmagabow’s accomplishments: http://www.historymuseum.ca/cmc/exhibitions/tresors/treasure/280eng.shtml