From a young age, Niska suffered from convulsions in which she saw flashes of the future. She grew up with her mother, her sister Rabbit, and her father, a skilled medicine man who could divine the future and communicate with spirits. Niska was raised in one of the last existing bush communities of Northern Ontario Indigenous people. NiskaĪ Cree-Ojibwe medicine woman, Niska is Xavier’s aunt and the second narrator of Three Day Road. His three-day journey down the river with Niska sends him back into memories of the war, and poses a final test to his endurance and will to survive. Finally, Xavier returns to Moose Factory with deep emotional and physical wounds. Finally, a severe injury causes Xavier’s leg to be amputated while in the hospital, the continual administration of morphine fosters an addiction. Throughout the war, he must deal not only with the threat of death or injury, but also with racism from the white soldiers and tension caused by Elijah's growing bloodthirstiness. The constant destruction wears him down and he longs to return home. Despite being the best shot in his company-better than Elijah, and possibly the best shot in the Canadian army-Xavier eventually grows to hate war.
The two become fast friends, and as they grow older and hear of the war, they eventually decide to join. At twelve, Xavier befriends Elijah, another Cree who was raised in the residential school. Later, she raises Xavier to adulthood in the bush, teaching him the secrets of survival and cultivating what turns out to be his incredible hunting ability. When Xavier immediately responds yes, Niska engineers their daring escape. Making bird noises to attract him into the woods, she explains that she is his aunt and asks if he would like to leave.
She hides by the school and observes the nuns’ tyrannical treatment of Xavier. After seeing Xavier in a dream, Niska decides to find out if he wants to leave the school, which is in Moose Factory and is run by diabolical white nuns. Xavier’s mother-Niska’s sister Rabbit, known as Anne in the inhospitable wemistikoshiw (white) town of Moose Factory-had descended into alcoholism and was forced to give Xavier up to the residential school when he was very young. One of the narrators of the novel, Xavier is a young Canadian Cree man who enters World War I with his best friend, Elijah.
0 kommentar(er)
