Despite hearing a lot about Three Day Road by Joseph Boyden, I still didn’t really know what to expect when I began reading it. Overall, I was thoroughly impressed by the novel (especially with Joseph Boyden as this was his first novel — ever!). The novel gave me a different perspective on World War I. This was one of the first times I had ever heard of the war through eyes other than American. It was also the first time I’ve seen it through an “Indian” (as called in the novel). The book offered detailed description of the destruction and annihilation within World War I. For some reason, before I had read the novel, I never imagined World War I being an incredibly vicious war. After Xavier and Elijah’s account of their time in France, I realize now that it was incredibly brutal and bloody. Historically, I had never heard of the battle of Vimy Ridge. While reading Three Day Road, I Googled this battle and realized just how instrumental the Canadians were in achieving eventual victory in this battle and then the war. Also fascinating to me in the novel was the jump to what was happening back in Canada to Aunt Niska (in both the past and the present of World War I.) Her contributions to the novel made me realize just how real this war was — to absolutely everybody in the world. It affected not only Canadians, but also those who lived within the boundaries of Canada but considered themselves of another nationality (Cree for Aunt Niska).
Aunt Niska, as a character, offers several aspects to the novel. As I read Three Day Road I came to decide that maybe Aunt Niska is the character that offers most in terms of lessons or messages. Like I said, she proves to be representative of those that are left back home, those who never go off to war. She, like all the others, do their best to continue on with life without family, friends, and normality. Aunt Niska is also, quite clearly, a character representing the changes and transitions that aboriginal people experienced in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. She is a character in between traditional aboriginal culture and that of an assimilated Canadian-Aboriginal culture. She proves to be the fighting force of this transition — trying her best to escape from something that makes itself out to be inevitable as she constantly has interactions with it despite her best trying to avoid it (i.e. her Frenchman-lover, the need for companionship in Xavier, the need for information about Elijah and Xavier in the war, etc. ) These two roles that Niska holds in the novel are crucial to the arguments made about the different definitions of morality between First Nations and European/ Canadian peoples, a key theme within the novel. Despite having her own issues and own decisions that are questionable, Niska proves to be an instrumental character in developing lasting messages in the novel. Niska’s main message that made me decide that she was one of the most important character? Believe in your ancestry, believe in the essence of yourself, and help others achieve this same type of enlightenment — something I hope to live by myself.