One Day on the River Essay Example for Free

One Day on the River EssayElijah has grander and more dangerous dreams. Having been largely acculturated by a residential school upbringing before escaping into the forest to live with Xavier and Niska, he has acquired the dubious skills of public dealing and boastfulness as much as the crafts of the hunter. His English, learned from the nuns, is impeccable, and he makes his mark among the men in the trenches as much by the flash of his storytelling as by his murderous midnight prowls in no mans land. Graduall(a)y Elijah becomes imprisoned by two great fixations a need for morphine, whose use is rampant up and nap the lines, and an insatiable hunger for killing. Some French soldiers suggest that if he really wants to gain pry for all his kills, he should scalp his victims as evidence. He decides to do so, much to Xaviers disgust.In contrast to the exploits of Xavier and Elijah, Boyden interweaves the story of Niska, told as she paddles her wounded nephew back home after the war is over. Niska is part of the sad however admirable remnant of traditional natives who refused to enter the reserves in the 19th century, choosing instead to live by their wits and traditional teachings in the woods.Subject to what modern medicine would call epileptic seizures, Niska is deemed by her commonwealth to have inherited her fathers skills as a shaman and a windigo-killer. Since windigos manifest themselves in humans who have practiced cannibalism, getting rid of them involves what white society would call murder, and indeed Niskas father was executed as a murderer by the white courts. The constant crossing of the virtuous lines between the worldviews of native and white society is one of the many strengths of this fascinating novel.At one point, hunkered down in his snipers nest, Xavier indulges himself (and the reader) in a contemplation on the number three, which he sees as an obsession of his white commanders. Theres the front line, the support line, and the res erve line, for starters. Theres the infantry, the cavalry, and the artillery. Off the battlefield, in that locations food, then rest, then women. In church, theres the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Not to mention the credulity about lighting three cigarettes with one match, a prime metaphor for courting danger in the Great War. But then Xavier suddenly remembers Niskas traditional teaching, that those who are dying must qualifying the three-day road to death, and he wonders if we share something, some magic. Maybe it will help me get through all this.The real war hero, Peggy, makes a brief cameo appearance in the novel, which may not have been a wise choice on the authors part. The characters of Xavier and Niska and, to a slightly lesser extent, Elijah are wax to the brim with life theyre quite satisfying and believable as they are, and need no besides stamp of authentication.