The book Three Day Road is a story about two Native Soldiers in WWI and their journey through the war, learning tactics for survival and killing. The two main characters are named Xavier Bird, and Elijah Whiskyjack. These two characters start off best of friends but the longer they go, fighting in the war, the more they grow apart.
“Grey Eyes,” Elijah calls out. “Wake up.” He opens his eyes and looks up at Elijah. Elijah raises the wood in both hands and swings it down hard as he can onto Grey Eyes’ forehead. “Mo-na!” I shout. “We have no other choice,” Elijah answers. “I do not want to spend the rest of my life in one of their prisons.” He swings the wood again and again, battering the little man’s head until the life has left him. “We’ve got to get the lieutenant to a medic,” I say. “Are you kidding?” Elijah answers. “The little prick knows everything.” He crawls over and finds Breech, turns his head to just the right angle and begins smashing it with the wood.
The key scene I chose was where their group is being attacked by the German Soldiers and Elijah kills his own men simply because he disagreed with them. This scene was especially key because just before this he had done another soldier a huge favour by mercy killing him. This scene added to the story because it was the first time Xavier had really looked at Elijah in a different way. Now he not only disagreed with what Elijah thought but he also was now scared of him because of who he was becoming; a Windigo killer.
This scene connects with the rest of the book because it is a pivotal point where the relationship between Elijah and Xavier really starts to go downhill. After this Xavier is no longer curious about Elijah, but just plain scared of what he might do if Xavier were to cross his path.
This book is a well-written story and touches on a lot of the aspects of WWI while maintaining a good plot with excellent characters. I liked how the story started off near the end of Xavier’s life and then flashes back and tells you his story. I would recommend this book to anyone middle to high school and older that has an interest in the history of WWI.
