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)