In the novel, Elijah asks, “And what will collecting these trophies do for me? ” “They will buy you honour among us” Francis says. In order for Elijah to prove his killing abilities as a soldier to his peers, he begins to collect the scalps of his killings as trophies. That being said, it is quite evident that Elijah had disregarded his Cree traditions so he could become someone who only cared about killing and to fulfil his desired reputation as a deadly sniper. Instead he had modified his persona to embrace war and killing, which contradicts his initial belief before entering the war. Order custom essay Analysis of the Main Character in Three Day Road

By doing so, Elijah had gone against the traditional Cree ways he was taught by Xavier and Niska. Elijah responded, “It’s in my blood” (75). When Elijah returned to the Canadian trench, Corporal Thompson asked him if he enjoyed the night raid. During the raid, Elijah and his best friend Xavier threw mill bombs into a German trench, thus killing the people inside. After Elijah became more familiar with the other soldiers, Corporal Thompson had chosen Elijah to be apart of a night raid. Elijah’s decision to not speak Cree when around his peers was his attempt to blend in with the rest of his former soldiers.ĭitching his original Cree accent and adopting a British one was Elijah first step to creating his new persona. “Dear Henry, would you be a kind chap and make me a cup of tea? ” (144). To hide that he was an Aboriginal man, Elijah chose to adopt a British accent and speaking style when among the other soldiers.

Elijah had initially been able to speak English so he could communicate with the white soldiers, for he was raised by nuns in a residential school. Once Elijah joined the Canadian army, he immediately did what ever he could in order to blend in with the other soldiers. Further more, the loss of identity, his desire to become a war hero, and the use of morphine to escape reality caused Elijah Weesageechak to become a motionless killer. That being said, World War I, Aboriginal sniper Elijah Weesageechak becomes mentally and physically corrupted by the war, which results to his inevitable death. Joseph Boyden illustrates the idea that war may impact someone to become something they initially weren’t. Arthur Joseph Boyden represents Carl Jung’s idea that humans often create a persona in order to be perceived by society in a certain way through the journey of the main character in the novel ‘Three Day Road’.

Three day road novel