Theme

Joseph Boyden, in the novel “Three Day Road”, suggests a universal message that humans will stop at nothing to survive. The Windigos that are constantly brought up in the book are a strong example of this. Windigos are basically people who eat other people and the author gives two examples of this. The first is of the woman who ate her dead husband and the second is of a man who ate his dead wife. The parallel between these two examples is that both windigos take this cannibalistic act because of their natural instinct for survival. They are both on the verge of starvation and if they do not eat soon they will die of hunger. Out of this threat and the will for survival, they make the decision to eat their loved ones. Moreover, the war in general is a strong illustration of Boyden’s message. Elijah and Xavier have killed a countless number of lives but the excuse that they give themselves is that “in war you must do what [is] necessary to survive and that in this circumstance Gitchi Manitou under[stands] if you [have] to kill” (301). A further illustration of Boyden’s message is manifested when Elijah kills both Grey Eyes and Lieutenant Breech after Grey eyes tattletale to Breech about Elijah overdosing on morphine. “Elijah raises the wood in both hands and swings it down as hard as he can onto Grey Eye’s forehead” and “crawls over and finds Breech…and begins smashing [his head] with the wood” (340). He tells Elijah that “we have no other choice… we do not want to spend the rest of my life in one of their prisons”(340). Rather than being thrown into prison or possibly even court martialled, Elijah survives by committing a sinister deed and killing his friend and commander. Just like in this book, the ambition for survival is great in our society. However, we have to decide sometimes whether worth sacrificing in exchange for survival in our society.