Even though Three Day Road is a modern story, it closely follows the archetypal hero’s journey. Using an archetypal lens, you can see that the story includes many of the conventional plot, characters and symbols associated with the Hero’s Journey.
The first thing in an archetype plot is that the protagonist goes from innocent to experienced. The protagonist of the story, Xavier, begins as a young boy. He has been in a residential school for most of his life until his aunt Niska came and took him back to the woods. There she would teach him how to hunt and all of the other skill that her father had taught her when she was young. QUOTE Throughout the story, he faces more challenges and endures suffering. He experiences war and sees many of his friends die. He learns the important skills required to be a successful sniper. He faces many challenges in the war but he also learns many important skills. By the end of the book, he is much more experienced than he was at the beginning.
The next point in the archetypal plot is that the story begins in a familiar place. The story starts with Elijah and Xavier hunting in the forest. The forest a safe place where Xavier’s family has lived for generations. Next in the archetypal plot is the descent to danger. You can see this in Three Day Road when the boys are then sent to war. The archetypal plot, the hero is faced with a battle or task. In the story, the battle is the first world war that Xavier has to survive.
Finally is the return home. After recovering from his injuries he is sent home. He reunites with his aunt that he thought was dead and they start their three-day journey back home. She paddles him home and tells him stories to ease his mind. In the end, she summons the spirits to remove the illness from Xavier. He returns to the safety of the woods where he started the story. We even see his future when Niska has a vision of Xavier when he is older and watching over his two young children while they play in the river.
There are many conventional characters shown in the story. The protagonist (Xavier) is the Hero. He always tries to do the right thing and he stands up for what he believes in.
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Another character that follows many conventions is Niska as the Great Mother. She rescues these boys from residential school and takes both Elijah and Xavier under her wing. She teaches them how to hunt, stalk, kill, fish, cook, and how to talk to their god. She taught them about values in life and how to respect the earth. QUOTE Once they grew up and went to war she prayed for them every night and she asked the spirits to protect them. She was the nurturing, safe, and loving person for the boys.
The Shadow is another character convention in archetypal stories. It is the person or thing that creates conflict in the story. The shadow is the mirror image of the protagonist. In Three Day Road, the shadow is Elijah. He and Xavier had much of the same upbringing other than Elijah’s longer stay in residential school. They both learned the same things growing up. But when the boys went to war, Elijah became a dark version of Xavier. Elijah had a desire to be loved: he used a fake accent to win them over and make the other people in his platoon laugh. That desire then lead to the desire to kill. He became obsessed with being the best killer and he took enjoyment at taking other men’s lives. After becoming addicted to morphine he then began the habit of taking the skin off the skull of the ones he killed to have evidence of his bravery. Elijah showed symptoms of turning into a Windigo. Xavier killed Elijah in the end to release the evil spirits that had consumed him.
The heroic journey also has enemies for the hero to confront. In the war, the Germans were the enemies that Xavier had to defeat. Back in Canada, another enemy was the Frenchman who had mistreated Niska. He attempted to take her powers away, to make her ordinary. It is then hinted at that Niska ordered the spirits to protect her, driving The Frenchman to commit suicide.
There are also some recurring symbols used throughout the book. There is the lynx that is the Protector. Whenever Niska called for the spirits, the lynx always responded. QUOTE Another symbol was the number three. In the military, they often like to do things in groups of threes. They send out groups of threes to do patrol, the military is grouped into three divisions, there is a three-step training process. The story is split into three parts, before the war, during the war, and after the war. Aboriginal people believe that there is a three-day travel to the afterlife and the journey home took Niska and Xavier three days. One other symbol is the Windigo. Windigo in this story represents the Evil Spirit from the archetypal story. When Niska was young she watched her father kill Windigos and he told her that is was their families duty to kill them. He told her that she would have to kill them one day. When she was older, a neighbouring group came to her in search for her skill. She then had to kill a Windigo and Xavier watched from the corner. This was an important part of the story because when Elijah showed signs of turning into a Windigo, Xavier killed him to defeat the evil spirit.
Although at first, it might not seem like a typical hero’s journey, Three Day Road closely follows the archetypal conventions.
Abby Says 