Chapter Notes: Three Day Road

Chapter 1

Niska (Xaviers Aunt) starts talking

o Change in character from prelude
Summer of 1919
o Post WW1
Niska is surprised to see Xavier come home alive instead of Elijah, the man
she was told that was coming
Xavier is addicted to morphine
o I got closer and see that he has stuck something into his arm,
something he pulls out just as he looks up and sees me. (7)
Niska is taking Xavier home towards Hudson bay on a three day paddle
home(8)
Conclusion made is that Xavier has come home to die(9)

Chapter 2

Speaker changes to Xavier

Time flashes back to the front lines of Flanders
o During WWI
o Meet the soldiers in his section
Lt. Breech
Sgt. McCann
Fats
Sean Patrick
Grey Eyes
Impression that Xavier and Elijah are the best soldiers in their section
Peggy is a reference to Francis Pegahmagabow
o Famous Canadian sniper is WWI

Chapter 3

Xavier continues his story in the front line of the trenches

New character- Corporal Thompson
o Teaches soldiers survival techniques in the trenches
Learn about the atmosphere inside the trenches
Xavier learns the real danger when almost being shot in the face
o It is real. All of this is suddenly very real. The other side wants to kill
me, and Ive never even seen their faces. (33)

Chapter 4
Speaker switches to Niska
Talks about her childhood stories trying to relive Xaviers memory of the
terrible war
Realize Niska is able to foretell the future like her dad

A new character is introduced

o Micah
Went out trying to look for better hunting
Froze to death
Wife and child was forced to eat Micah (cannibalism) so they
would not die from starvation
Wife and child became insane thereafter
Insanity is called windigo
Niska father forced to kill them
o HBC men arrest her father for killing the mother and the child
Dies in prison
Niska sees the irony of the Cree helping a white man who eventually take
over the Cree land
Chapter 5

They arrive at a point where Xavier tells a story when they reach a certain
point of the river
o Tells story when he and Elijah paddled southward to apply for the
Canadian army
Explains the experience paddling through a forest fire
Fire represents purification of the two men
We realize that Elijah is much better with English than Xavier because he
grew up with a white man but is less experience in the forest
o This make Xavier feel that he must protect Elijah
I will protect him. It is what I do, what I always tried to do (58)

Chapter 6
Return back to the trenches and talks about how they move to and from
craters in preparation of a raiding party
Young soldier named, Gerald, was caught sleeping at his sentry post
o He was executed by an officer in the back
Learn about the new weapons of war
Thompson teaches the soldiers camouflage by rubbing charcoal over any
exposed skin
At night the group of soldiers wait inside a crater and in the morning they go
onto and throw grenades into other craters to kill German soldiers
o Xavier kills his first person
Learns that Elijah has killing in his blood but Xavier is weary when he does
Chapter 7
Thompson is impressed how calm Elijah and Xavier can be even under fire by
the German soldiers
Learn about conflicts between Elijah and Xavier
o Competition between two friends start

 While Xavier dreams of home, Grey Eyes, a morphine addict, tempts Elijah
with morphine
Thompson teaches Elijah and Xavier to be snipers
o They learn how to use a scope (85)
o Xavier links sniping and hunting together.
o Learn to be concealed when sniping
Xavier is a spotter and Elijah gets his first sniper kill
Chapter 8
Niska tells her story when she was a child, her family and she had to move to
Moose Factory
o Became dependant on a white man
o Hope these stories will relieve Xavier from the morphine he is taking
Learn about how residential schools destroy aboriginal families
o Niska was forced to go but she refused to follow the schools rules
She was thrown into a basement and locked up
Niskas mother rescues her from the basement and returns to
live in the forest
Chapter 9
Ideas convey that Xavier and Elijah are very good snipers
o Xavier still being the spotter while Elijah doing the actual sniping
Shooting contest during training in Ontario proved that Xavier has a better
shot than Elijah but Elijah is better at killing
Xavier and Elijah are on a wanted list of the Germans and people dont want
them to come near because they draw artillery fire from the Germans
wherever they go
Another reference to Three Day Road as a path to ones afterlife
Learn about Xavier and Elijahs childhood together and how Xavier teaches
Elijah to live in the forest after he leaves residential school
Chapter 10
Sean Patrick is killed by a German sniper and Xavier and Elijah are seeking
for revenge
o This sniper is extremely good and is causing huge problems to the
Canadian lines
Learn that Germans dig there trenches deep so that they are not affected by
artillery
Xavier and Elijah take on sniping roles and pick of German snipers sniping
behind steel plates
Chapter 11

 Learn that Xavier and Elijah has killed many men and at least one sniper but
the one who killed Sean Patrick is still on the loose
They return to the back for rest
Xavier wakes up Elijah one night and Xavier tells Elijah that the way how
Sean Patrick was shot, it suggested that the Hun sniper was very close to the
Canadian trenches
They return to the front lines and resume there hunt for the sniper
Elijah tells a story about the only time he had tried morphine
When Elijah was shooting at a dead horse out of curiosity, someone near the
horse returns fire
o The shot almost hit Elijah and Xavier aims at where the shot came from
and realises that he had killed the phantom sniper (129)
Chapter 13

Xavier, Elijah and Thompson look for the dead German Sniper
o Elijah is surprised that Xavier killed the sniper
Xavier says No Indian religion for him. The only Indian Elijah wants to be is
the Indian that knows how to hide and hunt
They find the sniper and Xavier brings back the Germans rifle
o They also find the Germans constructing a machine gun nest
Gets extra reward of rum from Lt. Breech
Breech wanted to send a large raiding party to destroy the machine gun nest
but Xavier and Elijah only wants to go with Thompson

Chapter 14

The raid was successful but a soldier was killed and Thompson is severely
injured
o Elijah is also injured but only a little bit
Elijah rushed the nest but got wounded on the way and could not finish the
job
o Xavier finished off the nest and brought Elijah back
Xavier sees that Elijah is sort of addicted to morphine
Reference that the name Elijah is also a trickster
Xavier falls in love with a bartenders daughter

Chapter 15

Learn about the relationship between Niska and a French trapper and how the
trapper betrayed her
Niska is discriminated against when she was in Moose factory by the
homeguard Indians
o Rescued by an elderly woman
Niska finds the trapper and has sex with him in a church
o Apparently was a trap to take her powers away

Trapper then went crazy in thinking demons were chasing him

Later committed suicide

Chapter 16
Switches to the battle of Somme
Xavier does not hide his morphine shots from Niska anymore
Xaviers jealousy begins to take over
o Me, Im clearly invisible to the officers. How is it that Breech refuses to
recognize that it isnt only Elijah out there killing Fritz? We are a team.
If nobody will recognize this, maybe I will force them to (178)
Learn about the Canadians creeping barrage
Xavier and Elijah spots a bombed farmhouse where they can use it as a
shooting spot
Chapter 17
Elijah gives up on resisting morphine
Another raiding party occurs but the Canadians creeping barrage did not last
long enough and German gunners sweep down lots of soldiers
o Xavier and Elijah kill dozens of Fritz
They use a canvas as a type of camouflage
They start taking out more German machine gun nests but Xavier runs out of
bullets and acts as a spotter
Breech doesnt believe their claims
Learn about trench foot
Xavier tells us that Elijah volunteers for burial duty
Chapter 18

They spent Christmas behind the lines at a village pub with French troops
They learn about a sniper named Peggy
They are then sent to Vimy Ridge
Both are allowed back out and hunting
Canadians are constantly raiding German trenches until they become afraid
Elijah tells Xavier about the raid that he did not go to
o Elijah tells about how he came close to many soldiers and was in hand
to hand combat
o Tells Xavier how lucky he was when the German soldiers gun jammed
so that he could save himself and kill him
Elijah wants to pull away from morphine but is unable to

Chapter 19

Learn how Niska rescues Xavier from the residential school

Niska forces Xavier to eat

Learn about Niskas seizures and impairing vision
Niska teaches Xavier how to survive in the wilderness

Chapter 20

Learn how Elijah and Xavier plan to escape residential school

o Steels a bit of food every day
o Tells us that the nuns would sexually abuse Elijah
Xavier and Elijah work as a team again at Vimy
Another reference to three day road as a road to death
o Like crossing the river of Styx
Xavier is short on bullets and plans to go out alone to find some more
o Make a choice of not going
Xavier and Elijah are ordered to take out many German machine gun nests in
preparation of a large operation
Elijah goes out leaving Xavier behind for a raid and kills three
o Xavier says Elijah is an animal
Xavier realizes that the Huns have dug deep to protect from shells
As the Canadians run past Xavier, Gilberto help Xavier up but then is killed
Xavier joins the uphill battle
o Despite being hit twice, Xavier continues and kills couple soldiers with
his bayonet
Xavier is strangled by a large German soldier
o Saved by McCaan as the German is shot in the head

Chapter 21
Fat injures himself to get out of battle
After Elijah shoots and scares a duck the men laugh and drink
o Xavier doesnt want Elijah to take all the credit and shoots and kills the
ducks reminding the other men that he is just as good
More references of the number three
o Front line, support line, reserve line
o Work parties split into groups of three
o Three sections of army:
Infantry
Artillery
Cavalry
o Three rituals
Training
Combat
Recovery
Chapter 24
Learn that Elijah is scalping german soldiers to keep their scalps as trophies

 Only
o
o
o
o
o
o
o

original soldiers left are:

Lieutenant Breech
Sergeant McCann
Corporal Thompson
Corporal Whiskeyjack Elijah
Private Bird Xavier
Fat
Grey Eyes

Chapter 26
Breech sends Thompson, McCann, Elijah, Xavier and one other soldier to do a
raid
They start with the same old creeping barrage and the five advance behind it
o They get to the trench and see that it is empty and looked abandoned
o Germans suddenly rush out because they knew an attack was coming
because the Canadians had used the creeping barrage too many times
o Instantly the new soldiers is killed and Elijah and Thompson group and
jump out and Xavier and McCann group together
o Xavier jumps out and realizes that McCann is still in the trench
Tries to help him up but at that time a German pulls out a riffle
and shoots McCann in the head
Xavier quickly gets out
o Meet up in a crater with Elijah and Thompson and see that Thompson
is severely injured
Gets a letter from his hometown saying that Niska is dead
Chapter 27

We get told that Grey eyes went missing a week ago

o Dead or Alive?
Elijah Earns a medal
Learn that Elijah is extremely bloodthirsty and is always hungry for kills
o Goes out alone to snipe and Xavier stays back cause he no longer
wants to kill
Elijah kills a bunch of officers and we learn how gruesome those kills are and
how Elijah not only kills them but tries to induce the most painful death
Elijah gets a ride in an airplane and sees the battlefield up above
Elijah is not use to the pressure build up in his ears and he says it feels like
his head is going to explode

Chapter 28

We are introduced to the use of tanks

o Soldiers hide behind it while it moves forward towards German
trenches and the preform a raid

Elijah thinks shooting is too easy and now like to fight the Fritz with knifes
and bare hand
Learn that the tanks punch through the German lines easily and Elijah
pursues the fleeing soldiers
o Elijah runs off too far and disappears for two days
Many think that Elijah had been killed or captured
Elijah pretends to help wounded soldiers in the medics tent in order to steal
more morphine
Lieutenant Breech finds out about Elijah scalping his enemies
o And what of this claim that you scalp your enemies like your heathen
ancestors?
Grey Eyes appear and tells Breech about Elijahs morphine addictions
o Elijah kills both Breech and Grey Eyes by bashing their heads with a
piece of wood

Chapter 31

Xavier threw away his ID badge in anger

o I am not a part of such a stupid army (365)
German soldiers open fire at Canadian soldiers
Elijah and Xavier realizes that they both cant escape
Elijah and Xavier starts fighting
Xavier gets hit by an explosion knocking him half unconscious
Xavier wants to put an end to Elijah because he had turned into a monster
Xavier kills Elijah by choking him to death with his rifle
Takes Elijahs medicine sack and finds his ID in there
Xavier gets knocked unconscious by an explosion
o Wakes up at a hospital and is mistaken to be Elijah because they saw
the ID badge
Xavier doesnt correct their mistake because he thinks Elijah should be
remembered more

Chapter 32
Niska and Xavier reaches home
o End of the THREE DAY JOURNEY