Shea Longfield Longfield 1

Mr. Brunsveld

ENG4UA- 04

27 July 2017
Three Day Road: The Negative Impacts of Postcolonialism

The 16th century colonization of Canada inflicted an everlasting negative impact on

indigenous Canadians. In Joseph Boydens Three Day Road, these devastating effects are

portrayed through the life experiences of three main characters; Xavier, Niska and Elijah. We

will see how detrimental Colonial forces disrupt their sense of self and cultural identity and

resulted in grave mental and physical illness.

The main character and protagonist of the story, Xavier, undergoes a great change in

personality as a result of the unrelenting repercussions of postcolonialism. While contemplating

the first months spent as a Canadian soldier, Xavier notes on his own transformation since

beginning his career in the army. Xavier thinks to himself, A mist rises all around and in the

darkness Im reminded of my first month in this place, when it seemed Id been thrown into an

underworld full of skulls and quick, brutal death. So much has changed since then. I realize that

the place hasnt changed. Its me (Boyden 250). In another instance, Xavier contemplates how

the war has caused him to go insane. Boyden writes, Sometimes, though, I feel as if Im going

mad (Boyden 348). As you can see, Xavier engages in self-reflection quite often during his

military deployment. He is fully aware of the negative impact on his mind caused by the horrors

of the white mans war. While his friend Elijahs lack of self-awareness led to his ultimate

demise, Xavier is able through self-reflection to prevent an otherwise unavoidable destruction of

his mental state. On another note, during his stay in a military hospital following amputation of

his leg, Xavier develops a tragic morphine addiction. After his discharge from the hospital, he is

certain that when his small supply of the drug runs out, he will be unable to survive. Boyden
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writes, They gave me medicine for the pain and I learned how to fly in a new way. The cost this

time is that I can no longer live without the medicine, and in a few days there will be none left.

Their morphine eats men. It has fed on me for the last months, and when it is all gone I will be

the one to starve to death. I will not be able to live without it (Boyden 10). Without the help of

his aunt Niska and her spiritual healing methods, Xavier may have spiraled into a fatal drug

withdrawal as a result of his exposure to opiate drug use while in the war. Along with his

morphine addiction, Xavier develops post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of fighting for the

Canadian military. He deprives himself of sleep out of fear of having hallucinations of his dead

comrades. Xavier thinks to himself,

Rain patters on the sand all around me tonight, slowly soaks through the wool of this

uniform I still wear, the animal scent of it pulling me back to the battlefields. I do not

ever want to go there again. Auntie rests in her little teepee, but me, I cant. When I do,

the dead friends I dont want to see come to visit. They accuse me of acts I did not

perform. Of some that I did. We all acted over there in ways it is best not to speak of.

(Boyden 10)

Xaviers dire self-conflict is merely a result of the brutality of war and in turn, postcolonialism.

Enlisting in the military may have been the worst decision of Xaviers life, resulting in grave

mental illness and a lethal addiction to morphine. His tragic experiences illuminate the

devastating impact of postcolonialism on the indigenous characters of Three Day Road.

Throughout the novel the character Niska faces great mental anguish and loss of identity

as a result of postcolonial influences. As a child, Niska was forced against her will to attend

residential school, a system used by the Euro-Canadians to assimilate indigenous children into
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Euro-Canadian culture. In these schools, children were beaten, sexually assaulted, starved and

mentally abused. In one instance, as punishment for doing something that the nuns didnt like,

Niska was confined for an entire week to a small dark room away from the other children. This

atrocity caused her to have a severe mental breakdown. Boyden writes,

After a week of talking to no one and of being given a single bowl of porridge to eat each

day, I began to have strange visions. [...] My hunger, combined with the thought of being

in this little room with the single high window, caused the shaking to come to me,

something that hadnt happened since my father had died. It felt like a warm current

running up my back and filling my head until I grew dizzy. Then my jaw tightened and

tremors ran through my legs and lower torso, building in intensity until my whole body

quaked and I fell to the ground. My vision turned red and that was the last of my

consciousness. (Boyden 94)

As can be seen, Niskas forced isolation resulted in serious detrimental effects. Although she

states that she had a similar psychotic episode when her father died, it is important to note that

her father was murdered by the Europeans settling in Canada. Thus, both mental fits could be

said to have resulted from negative effects of colonization in Canada. Later on in her life, Niska

makes the mistake of entering into a love affair with a cruel Frenchman. After engaging in sexual

intercourse with her, he tells her that by doing so, he has stolen her spirit. As a result, Niska

becomes very distressed, terrified as to whether or not the Frenchmans words were true. Boyden

writes,

I f___ed the heathen Indian out of you in this church, he said, but this time the smile was

not happy. I took your ahcahk, he said to me, the smile gone now. Do you understand? I
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f___ed your ahcahk, your spirit [...] I crouched and sobbed, afraid that his magic had

killed my familys fire inside of me, and it was only then that I realized he was a spell-

caster of some kind and hed stolen my strength. (Boyden 174)

Up to this point, Niska had managed to maintain her sense of self and the fact that this is now not

the case demonstrates the gravity of the abuse which she sustained as a result of the Frenchman's

racial hatred toward her. Moreover, nearing the end of the story, Niska and Xavier have

numerous praying sessions inside of a sweat lodge in hopes of healing Xavier. Eventually, she is

able to relieve Xavier of the pain that has been consuming him, however, this pain is very

powerful and attempts to enter Niskas body. This makes her feel weak and vulnerable. Boyden

writes,

The third round I am consumed by Nephews pain. I can feel it settle on my chest as

surely as if someone is sitting on me. I pour water onto the rocks and the steam rushes

into my lunges like poison. It is difficult to breathe. I begin to feel panic, something Ive

not felt in this place since childhood. [...] Nephew is chased by something horrible, even

in here. And it threatens to take me too. I am a child again and this is my first time in the

Matatosowin, the darkness and heat and moisture making me desperate to get out. [...]

The pain that nephew has carried inside of himself for so long is leaving his body and

swirling around in this place. It swooshes and screams and scratches at me until I think I

am bleeding. (Boyden 379-380)

Even in the place where she is closest to Gitche Manitou (God), the pain of Xavier caused by the

war makes her feel as weak as a child, incapable of warding off its evil. In turn, showing how the

impacts of postcolonialism detach the characters of the story from their self-identity. In summary,
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Niska faced great mental suffering as well as identity crisis as a result of the devastating effects

of postcolonialism.

Xaviers best friend, Elijah, also falls victim to the impacts of postcolonialism, resulting

in a major personality change and his ultimate demise. As a child, Elijah was orphaned and his

formative years took place in residential school. He was repeatedly sexually abused by the adults

that were charged with his care. Elijah confesses the abuse to Xavier, "Elijah tells me the story of

the nun, Magdalene, who liked to bathe him each week when he was a boy. He tells me of how

she would rub her soapy hands over him, how Elijah would get an erection, how she would scold

him and then take his erection in her hands [...] he was horrified" (Boyden 341). Similar to the

experience of Niska, Elijahs life in postcolonial residential school was a horror that scarred him

for life. How could the idea of ripping small children from their families, cutting off their hair,

forbidding them their own language and culture and subjecting them to mental and physical

abuse be considered assimilation? This could be compared to the ludicrousness of taking a small

innocent dog, confining it, withholding all affection, punishing natural behaviour and inflicting

unwarranted physical and mental abuse on it and then wondering why it develops behavioural

problems. Elijah's abuse as a child sets the wheels in motion for his decline and as with Xavier,

he is exposed to morphine during the war which he uses as a form of release but predictably

leads to his complete drug dependency. Boyden writes, When hes gone too long without the

medicine, he tells me, he becomes fragile and headaches cause him so much pain that death

seems a good alternative. When he does not take the morphine, he is afraid of the world

(Boyden 212). The thought of being so dependent on a substance that when it is withdrawn,

death seems like a positive release, is truly saddening. Following his enlistment to the military,

Elijah begins to hone his natural ability to kill and develops an unnatural love of the hunt. With
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every German killed, Elijahs bloodlust continuously grows like a wildfire. He performs odd

rituals in the field that no sane man would do, causing Xavier to worry about his mental health.

Boyden writes,

Before he leaves a corpse, Elijah tells me he has taken to opening each mans eyes and

staring into them, then closing them with his calloused right hand, letting a strange spark

of warmth accumulate deep in his gut each time that he does it, noting the colour of the

iris, knowing that he, Elijah, is the last thing that each will see before being placed into

the cold mud and water here. Before they go to their place. Elijah, he says the spark fills

his belly when it gnaws for food. (Boyden 200)

As you can see, the war (a factor of postcolonialism), has made Elijah completely insane,

replacing his need to eat with the act of staring into the souls of his fallen enemies. Additionally,

this level of insanity reaches its peak when Elijah attempts to murder Xavier. In turn, leaving

Xavier with no choice but to kill Elijah in self defence. Boyden writes,

It has gone too far, hasnt it, he says. I have gone too far, havent I? His words wake my

body. Elijahs hands reach for my throat. He squeezes it hard, and the words from that

letter come back to me then, Niska. Do what you have to. I cant breathe. He is killing

me. My good arm grasps at the ground beside me. My fingers grab a rifle. I swing the

butt of it awkwardly at Elijah. The hard wood of it cracks the side of his head. He falls

over. [...] You have gone mad. There is no coming back from where youve travelled. [...]

I lean all of my weight down across the rifle. Elijah begs with his eyes. [...] He goes still.

His eyes are open, still watching me. (Boyden 369-370)

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The combined negative impacts of postcolonialism in the novel caused a chain reaction in Elijah

starting with his addiction to morphine and ultimately leading to his untimely death. All in all

portraying the fatal effects of Canadian colonization on the characters in Three Day Road.

The reading of Joseph Boydens novel Three Day Road has made me embarrassed to

acknowledge my colonial roots. Although Xavier, Elijah and Niska are all fictional characters, I

know that their experiences mimic real life stories of our indigenous people. The atrocities

inflicted in the name of colonialism, assimilation and patriotism that result in great mental pain

as well as identity crisis sicken me. To further add salt to the wound, Canada just celebrated our

150th anniversary as a nation while our indigenous people have actually been here for at least

fifteen hundred years. Where is the truth in that reconciliation?

Works Cited

Boyden, Joseph. Three Day Road. Penguin Random House Canada, 2005. Print.