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50 pages 1 hour read

Three Day Road

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2005

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Chapters 18-21Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 18-21 Summary

In the present, Niska relates another tale of her childhood. When her mother dies and Niska is lonely, her visions return. Some of the visions are strange, including images of war, while others are more familiar. When Niska thinks that she is the only human being left alive in the cold, and feels as if she might be consumed by her loneliness, she has a vision of a boy, and knows at once that it is Xavier. She then realizes that she needs to rescue Xavier, but that she will not simply take him. She will ask him if he wants to live with her in the bush. If he says yes, she will help him leave the residential school. She makes the trek to town and, after spying Xavier playing one day and speaking with him, he says that he wants to live with her. She returns later, and while Sister Magdalene forces Xavier to row, Niska sneaks up and scares the nun so that she falls in the water, then takes Xavier.

The two have a fruitful time in the beginning, but then harder times come. When these rough patches arrive, Niska wonders if she has done the right thing in taking Xavier. Though she thinks her visions have left, they return one day before she has time to explain them to Xavier. When she awakens, Xavier is relieved to see that she has not died. Niska also has a vision about a stranger visiting them in the winter, which is a sign of foreboding.

In “Fighter”, Xavier thinks back to when he and Elijah plotted to run away from the residential school and steal the rifle that one of the nuns purportedly owned. He then flashes back to France. In this recall, Xavier has begun suffering from depression, and being away from Lisette makes it worse. Elijah has become friends with a few officers, so whenever they need cover, he can call in artillery fire. Xavier is coming to terms with the fact that he has killed, and offers prayers for the men he has sent on the three-day road. The battalion is bracing for a major offensive. One night, Xavier decides to try and be brave like Elijah. He sees a stretch of trench where he might find bullets for his Mauser, but is too afraid to go out alone. This hesitation angers him because he knows that Elijah would not have hesitated.

Elijah realizes that Xavier is going deaf. The two are eventually told they are to take up positions to snipe at the German line for the offensive. They find a secure hiding place, and when Elijah tells Xavier he has a present for him in his bag, Xavier reaches in and finds that Elijah is keeping scalps in his bag. Among the scalps, he finds bullets for his Mauser. Elijah goes off on a mission, leaving Xavier behind, and when he returns, tells of how he slit the throats of three soldiers. The offensive begins the next morning. Elijah and Xavier are surprised at how well dug in the Germans are, and must work overtime to take out German soldiers as their fellow Canadians advance. Soon the Germans unleash machine-gun fire, and Xavier and Elijah try their best to hit the machine gunners. When the Canadians reach Xavier and Elijah, they join the soldiers and attack the German position. Xavier is sickened from the killing, and hates that he must kill scared soldiers, including a young boy. One soldier, however, does not die, and attacks Xavier even though he is injured. Just as Xavier comes to terms with the fact that he is about to die, McCaan arrives and shoots the German soldier in the head. Xavier is exhaust, but notices that the Germans are retreating.

“Turning” takes place when the soldiers are on rest. They have taken Vimy Ridge, which is an incredible feat for the Canadians, as the French and British have lost tens of thousands of soldiers in the same place without success. Fat was injured in the fighting, and no one tries to think of the fact that Gilberto died in the offensive. Xavier is still troubled by his near-death experience, and is still depressed over being away from Lisette. Elijah still wants to fly, and is determined to find a way to do so. He boasts more and more, and retells events so that it seems as if Xavier has hardly done anything. When a group of soldiers ask Elijah to shoot a duck and he misses, Xavier shoots the duck with ease so that the soldiers do not “forget who I am” (226). Xavier begins thinking about the white man’s love of the number three, how everything seems to fall into this pattern, including war, stages of life, religion, and everyday affairs.

Xavier and Elijah continue to snipe, this time along the Douai Plain. They will receive a break soon, and Xavier makes up his mind to walk and see Lisette during the downtime, whatever the consequences. When they make it back to town, Xavier pretends that he is injured and stows away on a lorry. Only Elijah sees him, but he says nothing. While making the trip to see Lisette, Xavier thinks back to when he and Elijah first arrived in Toronto to enlist. Elijah left him and visited a cemetery, where he talked to a little girl whose father had been killed by gas in the war.

Xavier eventually makes it to Lisette’s house, only to find that she is sleeping with another man, an officer. She tells him to leave, and he feels foolish for having felt something for her. In anger, he punches the officer and then flees, no longer caring if he is court-martialed. He makes it back to his camp in time for roll call, but is singled out anyway by Breech. Elijah reveals that Lisette is a prostitute, which angers Xavier even more. Xavier is summoned by Breech, and Elijah speaks for him, pretending Xavier cannot understand English. Elijah explains that he was absent because he was looking for game for the men. Then he tells Breech that Xavier is not feeling well, and Xavier is sent to see a doctor. Xavier is put in a room to rest, and takes comfort in a bird that has made a nest in his room. When Breech and Elijah visit him one day, Breech sees the nest and demands that Xavier destroy the nest. He refuses, though Elijah implores of him to follow orders. When Xavier still refuses, Elijah destroys the nest, killing the baby birds in the process.

Chapters 18-21 Analysis

Xavier and Niska continue relating stories while traveling home. Niska relates how she often had visions of doom and destruction, foreshadowing the Great War. In one of her visions, she sees Xavier as a child though she has never seen him before, and realizes she must rescue him from the residential school. Niska’s decision to rescue Xavier alters the future significantly, and affects them both, as well as Elijah later. Likewise, the decisions that Elijah and Xavier make, as well as the decisions of fellow soldiers, alter their lives and the future.

Xavier begins to go deaf during the war, while Elijah continues his descent into madness, now killing seemingly for sport. Xavier also suffers from depression, something he has not dealt with before. His near-death experience has compounded this mental state. He is in love with a woman he shared a night with, and the thought of seeing her again helps him get through the vagaries of war. Yet thoughts of her upset him as well. The Lisette storyline highlights Xavier’s youth; even though he and Elijah are involved in a war and responsible for killing, they are still impressionable, and their thoughts are not solely consumed with death and dying. This is highlighted when Xavier sneaks away to visit Lisette, only to realize that she is a prostitute Elijah paid to have sex with Xavier. This angers Xavier even more, and further drives a wedge between the two friends.

Elijah still appears to care for his friend, however, and gets him out of trouble with Breech. The difference in their characters highlighted again when Xavier refuses to harm the birds nesting in his room. Elijah hits the nest, killing the baby birds. Elijah’s willingness to please his superiors, and by extension, to kill, is completely at odds with Xavier’s love of life and sense of morality.

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