Niska's Character Development in Joseph Boyden's Three Day Road

Spare Some Change?

Examining how Niska is actually the most dynamic character in Joseph Boyden’s The Three Day Road

When we are born, we are given a name. This name could be long, short, simple or complicated, we have no say in it. It is given to us before we can decide what we might like it to be. Something that we do have control over is our identity. An identity is not something that is created overnight, for some it might take years to develop an identity that they feel embodies who they want to be and for others this might never come to be. An identity can change many times in the span of someone’s life. The character whose identity goes through the most change throughout Joseph Boyden’s Three Day Road is Niska.

The novel begins with two boys hunting for a marten in the snowy forest. They mention the name “Auntie” we are unaware of who this is at the time but we follow the development of this complex character soon after. Auntie, or Niska as she is referred to for the majority of the novel is an old woman when we hear of her first, though much of her story happens when she is younger and very different from who she is at the beginning of the novel and at the end of her stories. With a father, who is a well known windigo killer, she grew up seeing things that many other children her age had not. When she was not yet a woman when she witnessed the deaths of a mother and child by the hands of her father. This event was followed shortly after by her first period. The tradition of being a windigo killer is passed on from generation to generation and Niska was an only child; therefore, she knew that some day the honor of cleansing their tribe from the windigo, will be hers. In Niska’s first story of the novel she starts out as a girl who is eager to make use of her gift of vision, after watching her father develop into a well-respected leader in their community. When her father was taken away from their community, her special talents went with him. When her visions returned people still did not take her seriously, like they did her father. For a long time Niska strays from her destiny and title as a windigo killer. She looks for something outside of the tribe. So she leaves for the city to finds what she desires, which is a Frenchmen. It is apparent that her character has changed from someone who yearns for nothing more than to be like her father to a young woman who finds interest in other things. She becomes less like the people who raised her and is turning into her own woman. The closer she intertwines with Frenchmen the further she disengages from her people. Eventually her visions stop and when she calls for the spirits there is no answer; this made her realize that she was more burdened than thankful for her gifts. With this revelation, she chooses to pursue lust, over her destiny as a windigo killer. This, separation from her heritage, is at a peak point of her life, she cares more for the Frenchman than her people. She wants to be a normal girl and not worry about carrying the weight of the visions around:

It struck me that I could not focus on both. I was young and the emotions of the young are as strong as the Arctic tides that suck fishermen’s canoes out into the bay to be lost forever. I walked out of my shaking tent with no answers to what was coming, and the not knowing was a strange relief. Not having to be the one divining answers was a weight lifted from me. I could just be normal, suffer the sweet pains that came with my young age. The bad feelings of danger still tugged at me but I pushed them away with thoughts of him. (Boyden 165)

After spending many nights with the Frenchman, she sends him away while trying to help a visitor from a tribe close by. He doesn’t return for a while so she decided it is in her best interest to pursue him. This leads to the next big change in Niska as a character. When she finds her mate they again fornicate, but this time in a church. The Frenchman then reveals that he had never planned on being anything more than a sexual partner and only wanted to steal her power. This travesty caused Niska to revert back to what she had known before the Frenchman; she decided that what was important to her was her power. At this time Niska is reverting back, coming closer to what she was when she was younger. She no longer wants to remove herself from the visons and spirits. Having gone through this devastating betrayal she realizes that others rely on her and she should not try to run from what she was given.

Niska is a dynamic character; she is in constant flux, at the beginning