Three Day Road Chapter Notes
Chapter notes
Prelude (1-2)
-1st person point of view established, and the three main characters.
-E and X are hunting; 12 years of age
-Who is the more experienced hunter? (X) How do we know this?
-Establishing the story and its struggles through foreshadowing:
-We stand back and stare as the marten struggles in the air. The black eyes focus on me. It does not want to die” (2).
-We are great hunters and best friends, yes?” (2)
Chapter 1: Returning (3-9)
-We encounter the second speaker, Niska (Xavier’s aunt). As in most chapters, Boyden makes it easy to identify the new speaker in the first two paragraphs of the chapter. How?
-It is the summer of what year? (1919)
-She feels conspicuous and unwelcome in the white man’s town.
-What is the great surprise awaiting Niska? (Xavier returns alive, not E)
-On p. 7, we learn of Xavier’s addiction. How do we learn this?
-Niska is taking X home from the white man’s town, into the bush where she lives. It will be a “three-day paddle home” down river towards Hudson’s Bay (8).
-Style: Niska speaks to us in English, but Boyden makes her speak in an informal but more natural-sounding dialect that is characterized by short sentences, comma splices, “me” instead of “I”, and figurative language (see below).
-Figurative language:
“… the iron nose that sniffs the track” (4)
“It whistles like a giant eagle screaming…” (4)
“… [his eyes] are like the dark river in the sun” (7)
Conclusion: Xavier has “come home only to die” (9).
Chapter 2: Arrival (10-24)
-Xavier is the speaker in this chapter. He stays outside his aunt’s teepee, still basking in the warmth of his morphine, and begins telling his story of first arriving on the front lines in Flanders (near Saint-Eloi, probably in 1916). We meet members of his section, including Lieutenant Breech, Sergeant McCann, Fats, Sean Patrick and Grey Eyes.
-E and X distinguish themselves by helping their platoon find their way to the Canadian frontline camp. We understand
Prelude (1-2)
-1st person point of view established, and the three main characters.
-E and X are hunting; 12 years of age
-Who is the more experienced hunter? (X) How do we know this?
-Establishing the story and its struggles through foreshadowing:
-We stand back and stare as the marten struggles in the air. The black eyes focus on me. It does not want to die” (2).
-We are great hunters and best friends, yes?” (2)
Chapter 1: Returning (3-9)
-We encounter the second speaker, Niska (Xavier’s aunt). As in most chapters, Boyden makes it easy to identify the new speaker in the first two paragraphs of the chapter. How?
-It is the summer of what year? (1919)
-She feels conspicuous and unwelcome in the white man’s town.
-What is the great surprise awaiting Niska? (Xavier returns alive, not E)
-On p. 7, we learn of Xavier’s addiction. How do we learn this?
-Niska is taking X home from the white man’s town, into the bush where she lives. It will be a “three-day paddle home” down river towards Hudson’s Bay (8).
-Style: Niska speaks to us in English, but Boyden makes her speak in an informal but more natural-sounding dialect that is characterized by short sentences, comma splices, “me” instead of “I”, and figurative language (see below).
-Figurative language:
“… the iron nose that sniffs the track” (4)
“It whistles like a giant eagle screaming…” (4)
“… [his eyes] are like the dark river in the sun” (7)
Conclusion: Xavier has “come home only to die” (9).
Chapter 2: Arrival (10-24)
-Xavier is the speaker in this chapter. He stays outside his aunt’s teepee, still basking in the warmth of his morphine, and begins telling his story of first arriving on the front lines in Flanders (near Saint-Eloi, probably in 1916). We meet members of his section, including Lieutenant Breech, Sergeant McCann, Fats, Sean Patrick and Grey Eyes.
-E and X distinguish themselves by helping their platoon find their way to the Canadian frontline camp. We understand