ISP Blog Post 4- Feminist Literary Criticism and Three Day Road

            Joseph’s Boyden’s Three Day Road was set during World War One (1914-1918) when women had very little say in their role in society. It wasn’t until 1921 that Canadian women could vote in a federal election, but this didn’t include all women. Aboriginal and Asian women still weren’t allowed to vote at this time. The wemistikoshiw males deemed themselves superior to the wemistikoshiw women, and even more superior to the aboriginal women. To the male Europeans aboriginal women were considered the lowest of the low on the social scale.

            Aboriginal women played a very important role in their aboriginal societies before European contact. They would have say in decisions that involved the chief and had powerful statuses like clan mothers or healers. In some tribes it was tradition to take the last name of the women during marriage. Niska, the last Oji-Cree medicine women to live off the land had a very high status in the novel. She always had other aboriginals (mostly men) come to her for her visions and advice. She is known to be a “windigo killer” (169), which is an aboriginal spirit that possesses characteristics of both a beast and a human. This spirit is a gift that according to aboriginal tradition gets passed on through the generations of powerful families. Niska’s windigo spirit is valuable and is feared by the Christian Europeans. Her new wemistikoshiw affair eventually tries to take this from her.

            Young Niska becomes involved with a French trapper one Winter. She invites him into her tent and despite their language barrier he ends up taking her virginity. After the fact Niska admits “That’s when it dawned on me that maybe I wasn’t the hunter anymore” (134). The trapper left before dawns making the reader believe that he was only involved with Niska for physical pleasure but when they meet again the reader discovers his true goal. Niska’s mother notices a difference in Niska and warns her not to trust the trapper. She doesn’t listen because she was “too full of him and too flushed with him” (164). Niska goes into the wemistikoshiw town to find her trapper. As she walked through the town “The converted Indians blessed themselves and closed their doors when I walked by. Young men pointed at me and stared” (168). She was an outcast and everyone in town knew about her and the trapper. He was rumoured to have “a taste for red meat that he can’t satisfy” (169) and has many half-Indian, half-French children he refuses to claim. Regardless of all the warnings Niska meets with the French trapper and he takes advantage of her in his church. After he said “You are nothing special, just another squaw whore. I took your power away in this place and sent it to burn in hell where it belongs” (174). During their whole relationship he was trying to take her windigo spirit and power away.

            Aboriginal women were not the only women that were taken advantage of but European women too. When the soldiers get a break from the trench lines they go estaminets where “women come and men line up to be with them in the little rooms in the back” (155). One night Xavier beds one of the local women, Lizette. With all the drunken men always around her, he worries for her safety. Xavier wants to see Lizette again so he sneaks away from the front lines to visit her one night. She tells him “You can’t stay Indian boy, I’m with another. He is upstairs” (252). Xavier becomes enraged and tries to fight the other man. He was unaware that Elijah “paid a lot money for her time” (257) with Xavier. War creates hard times financially so the local women sell themselves for money. After all, it is the only job other than care for the house and children that they would have been allowed to do back then. The local whores are the only women mentioned in the in the war as women were not allowed to enlist. This would finally change once the Second World War started in 1939. Women have made a lot of equality advances since World War One and aren’t as limited as they were in Three Day Road.

ISP Blog Post 3; Issues Within Three Day Road

In Joseph Boyden’s Three Day Road he vividly paints the cruel experiences of Canadian residential schools. This issue is highlighted within the novel because all three protagonists Niska, Xavier and Elijah were forced to attend these schools. Residential schools are usually “forgotten” in Canadian history because it’s not something you want the world to know. This dark part of Canadian history seems to always get swept under the rug. Even though Three Day Road is a fictional novel, it still contains hard and real facts about residential schools.

The novel was set during World War One therefore you would think residential schools were only around during those few years. You would be wrong. The first residential school opened in 1880 and the last one closed in 1996! Residential schools and all of their harm have been around for over a century and have just recently stopped but Canadians still have very little knowledge about this part of their heritage. These government run schools were a cross-country issue effecting over 150,000 children and yet it is still Canada’s best kept secret.

The conditions in the residential schools created by Boyden in Three Day Road were horrible. Niska, Xavier and Elijah were ripped apart from their families and never allowed to visit “so the nuns could work their spells without any interruption.” (Boyden 91)  Soldiers told aboriginal parents “it is for the greater good of God that they come with me.” (Boyden 92) The settlers from Europe wished to erase all First Nation culture, tradition and language. The nuns who ran the schools had no respect for the children and told them “the old Cree are heathen, backwards and anger God.” (Boyden 56) The nuns forced their religion and language onto the children. If they were caught speaking their own tongue they would be punished by washing their mouth with lye soap and no food for days. “The younger children were beaten with switches and forced to eat food from the floor like dogs.” (Boyden 92)  Both Elijah and Xavier were beaten on their bare bottoms with branches by the nuns for simply disrupting the class. Abuse and cultural genocide are just the start of all the problems associated with residential schools.

Boyden created a horrible experience with residential schools without mentioning sexual abuse and death, which were also a reality. Researchers have been combing through old records and have already discovered 3000 deaths in residential schools. This number is already unbelievably large and they have only found records for about 1/5 of the existing schools.  According to researcher Alex Maass “The schools were a particular breeding ground for tuberculosis and dormitories were incubation wards.” The main cause of death in residential schools was disease, which could have easily been avoided if simple precautions were taken. For example caring for the sick children and keeping them away from the healthy ones, better nutrition and better ventilation.

Residential schools have finally been recognized for their cruelty and more people are trying to raise awareness of this issue. Researchers are trying  to get all the facts to educate the public about a serious problem that has always been right under their noses. This research from secondary sources has helped me understand residential schools even more by knowing the numbers of all those who have been effected. It wasn’t until 2008 that the government owned up to the reality of residential schools with Stephen Harper’s formal public apology. Canada is taking steps towards trying to compensate the victims but it still doesn’t change what happened to them.  

Sources

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/at-least-3-000-died-in-residential-schools-research-shows-1.1310894

http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/residential-schools/

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/st-anne-s-residential-school-one-survivor-s-story-1.2467924

Three Day Road by Joseph Boyden

ISP Post #2; Post-colonialism and Three Day Road

Joseph Boyden’s Three Day Road is set during World War One (1914-1918) where the world was becoming more and more colonized.  European countries wished to extend their empires and it soon became a race on who could be the most oppressive and rich country. Britain and France acquired most of North America at this time. The Canadian town, Moose Factory, where the three protagonists are from has influence from both French and British cultures.  The European colonists demonstrated imperialism by oppressing the Natives in several different ways. They created an unequal balance of power, cultural genocide and ignored the contributions of Native soldiers in World War One.

            The Europeans had a parent-child relationship with the First Nations in Canada. The European “parent” got to make all the rules while the dependent “child” is forced to follow. If the Natives refused their wishes serious consequences followed. But what gives the Europeans the right to be considered the parent? The Europeans considered themselves more superior due to their advanced technology and greed. This lead to “the Hudson’s Bay Company instilled in the Cree a greed for furs that nearly wiped out all the animals, and because of this the time came when even the most experienced of the bush men and women were faced with the decision to move to the reserve or die of hunger.” (90) The wemistikoshiw (white people) had another secret weapon, other than greed and it was rum. This was traded for furs and most importantly Native advice. “The Cree are a generous people. Like forest ticks the wemistikoshiw grabbed onto us, growing fatter by the season, until the day came when suddenly it was us who answered to them.” (48)

            During colonialism Native culture was wiped out. The Europeans literally tried to erase their traditions, way of life and language by sending them to residential schools. The nuns who ran the schools were determined to convert little Indian children to their language and religion. “The younger children were beaten with switches and forced to eat food from the ground like dogs.” (92) If the nuns caught any children speaking their Native tongue they would force lye soap into their mouth and not give them anything to eat for days. The children were pried away from their families and were never allowed to visit their parents “so that the nuns could work their spells without any interruption.” (91)

            Two of the Native protagonists Elijah and Xavier became Canadian soldiers in World War One where their contributions were ignored strictly due to their race. Even on their train ride to training camp they were forced to sit in a different rail cart than the wemistikoshiw. Once they were finally working in the trenches and recognized as snipers some of their finest kills weren’t believed. When Elijah tried to report a kill to Lieutenant Breech he said that Elijah’s claim was exaggerated and asked “how many canoe lengths” (196) Elijah was from his target. Elijah was rarely complemented once by stating that “he exhibits the best traits of an officer” (190) but his Lieutenant immediately shot down this idea. The Native soldiers are often referred to as “useless bush Indians” (109) and they never get their kills recognized by officers. Another Native soldier named Peggy is rumored throughout the novel of having close to one hundred kills but no officer will believe him.

            Colonialism is an evident and real-life problem within Three Day Road. Native culture has diminished due to European oppression. This novel highlights the unfortunately cruel reality of Canadian history and their residential schools. Soldiers who fought for Canada weren’t honoured for their work because of their culture. Joseph Boyden does an incredible job of uncovering Canada’s “dark” history of Aboriginal oppression.

The Three Day Road (ISP Post)

            My ISP book is Three Day Road by Joseph Boyden, which I have enjoyed reading so far! It explains World War 1 from a fresh and new perspective told through the eyes of two young Native Canadian boys, Elijah and Xavier. As a reader the story is eye opening to our own Canadian history and culture that I thought I knew so much of. Three Day Road is a historical fiction vividly told by Joseph Boyden. His writing seems so real that it feels like he has personal roots to the horrors of war. His descriptions of the Canadian landscape and the detail towards Aboriginal culture indicate possible heritage.

            It is easy to sympathize with Joseph Boyden’s view of the world through his writing. He reveals the ugly truth about residential schools, oppressive European cultures, war and drug addiction. Native children were striped away from their families and sent to residential schools to teach them how to live like Europeans, the correct way to live. The nuns who taught them treated Elijah and Xavier horribly. “The old Cree are heathen and anger God. They are backwards people.” (56) the nuns would say as they  force their own religious beliefs on the children.

            The migrating and greedy Europeans brought the tragic fall of the Native people. When they first came to Canada it was the Natives who helped the wemistikoshiw (the white people). The Natives taught them how to trap for furs the Europeans disparately wanted. In return the Europeans gave them rum, a sly and powerful weapon. More tricks were placed on “the generous Cree people and like forest ticks the wemistikoshiw grabbed on, growing fatter by the season, until the day came when suddenly it was the Cree who answered to them.” (48)

            War was another problem the wemistikoshiw created. They always seemed to disagree with each other for more greed and power. Boyden successfully strips the glory out of World War One and replaces it with all the hardships of the soldiers. Elijah and Xavier are constantly facing obstacles and shells whizzing past their heads. They are forced to share their trench “home” with rats, lice, and dead bodies. Xavier explains his sleeping arrangement as “slipping into a strange half-sleep lying below the Earth’s surface with the dead.” (70)

            Drug addiction is another evident problem within the novel. The soldiers are issued high amounts of morphine on the battlefields. It relieves the pain but also satisfies another need, a sanctuary away war. The high allows soldiers “to fly in a new way” (10) but once they come back down the men are taken prisoner of the drug. It’s difficult not to sympathize with the soldiers whose relief of pain always comes with serious consequences.

            I believe Boyden is looking for a reader who wants to know the ugly truth. He’s looking for someone who wants to know the whole story behind the glory and tragedy of World War One and Native Canadians. I think that I could be considered one of his ideal readers because I am very interested in the full story. Our worldviews and values are similar which is why Three Day Road is a good read for me.