WW1 and Canadian Aboriginals in Joseph Boyden's "Three Day Road" Book Review by Top Papers

This paper analyzes and reviews Joseph Boyden's novel, "Three Day Road", which deals with the subject of Canadian Aboriginal participation in the First World War. By means of using two narrators, Niska the ageing medicine woman in the bushes of Northern Ontario, and Xavier Bird, the Canadian Aboriginal soldier in Belgium and France, the novel also juxtaposes the challenges of traditional Aboriginal life with the plight of Aboriginals in the white man's world. This essay shows how the novel sheds light on the challenges faced by Aboriginal Canadians as they fight to hang onto their own identity, while faced with the competing claims of aggressive, dominant colonialism.