Sarah, Lyndsay, Joy, Megan
Three Day Road Quotes
Pages 3-24
Theme:
“Me, I won't sing their songs. I have my own songs.” (pg.16) -Identity
“My body hums with Nephew's pain and with the realization that he has come home only to
die.”(pg.9) – Effects of war
“We are to go into the front lines today.” “Now we can hunt.” (pg.15) – Moral dissipation
Imagery:
“but of a small boy. Naked and bloated in the sun, a great chunk of his head gone.” (pg.13)
“In the muffled sound...horses screaming and men shouting.” (pg.16)
“like they are live beasts sniffing and pounding the dirt in search of men's flesh to rip apart.”
(pg.17)
Symbol:
Ghost - “They ignore us like we are ghosts floating by...that it's these men who are the walking
ghosts.” (pg.22) – identity
Three day paddle- “...but with the wind and weather in my favor, the river is a three day paddle
home.” (pg.8)
Moccasins and boots- “I wish now I was wearing my moccasins and not these heavy boots.”
(pg.20)
Pages 130-163
Theme:
“He began talking this way to get the others to laugh, but he likes it now. Makes him feel
respectable...Elijah told me the accent came to him while deep in a slumber. 'Woke up speaking
like a lord,' he said.” (pg.137) -identity
“I've got my animal manitous. Elijah's got his voices. He says he couldn't speak in his old voice
even if he wanted to now. It's gone somewhere far away.” (pg.138) – identity, cultural
assimilation
“I can see that Elijah is pulled away from this moment by the strong tide of wanting to try the
morphine again. I know now that it is more than medicine. Much more.” (pg.153) – succumbing
to drugs
“A man in a uniform said to us, soon as we got on, 'No Indians in this car.' He pointed down the
aisle. 'You belong four cars to the back.'” (p. 161) – dealing with the burden of racial pressure
“I learn to drink like the soldiers around me and get drunk enough once in a while that I talk
freely with them.” (pg.155) – succumbing to social pressures and alcohol, identity change
“...but Elijah's killed five men for every month that has passed. He is Whiskeyjack the Indian
and Whiskeyjack the killer.” (pg.154) -dramatic loss of identity
“'If I didn't know better, I'd report to McCaan that you're displaying symptoms … But I know
better, don't I, Private?' … [Elijah] walks back to the dugout, his anger watered down by fear.”
(p.146) – succumbing to drugs; afraid he's becoming addicted
Imagery:
“His cock stood out straight in front of him and it bobbed slightly as if it had a life of it's own.
… He pulled me to him and he brushed his lips against mine, then over my cheeks and neck. …
He brushed the hair back from my face and stared boldly into my eyes, smiling slightly. … He
moaned out, so I rubbed him slightly up and down until he moaned louder. I knelt before him
and licked him gently.” (p. 134) Scene where Niska gets raped in the tipi.
“We can smell the horse from here. The rotten meat smell of it is different than the smell of
dead human, much gamier.” (pg.139)
Symbol:
French man - “There was a light fur on his chest so that immediately I thought of a wolf, long
and sinewy.” (p.134)
“I've got my manitous. Elijah's got his voices.” (pg.138)
“ I keep the Mauser taken from the German sniper, and Elijah opts to keep his Ross … Elijah
re-sights his old Ross. … The weapon is beautiful and accurate, lighter than Elijah's rifle.”
(p.161)
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