Ending (Entry 9)

After finishing the last paragraph in the book, the ending has left me mesmerized by the novel. This three day journey made by Elijah and his aunt has taken me to explore war, survival, brutality, rebirth, and Aboriginal culture. The ending itself is very sophisticated in that does not give an obvious conclusion to Elijah and his aunt. It merely tells us that they will be home. However the author does not specify where "home" is. We do not know how Elijah survives and frees himself from the morphine addiction. Home could mean his literal home with he used to live with his aunt, but it can also mean home as in heaven. After all, the title of the book is called Three Day Road which means the journey to the afterlife. This title is symbolic as Elijah and his aunt have been travelling for three days.

The right thing (Entry 8)

To me, Xavier's action of killing Elijah serves to be extremely controversial. In a sense, he kills Elijah because he has turned into a monster and someone needs to stop him before he causes further bloodshed. However, does Xavier killing Elijah not make Xavier a monster as well? Technically Elijah just killed his best friend. There is also the possibility that Xavier kills Elijah out of jealousy. Throughout the novel, there has been tension between the two friends, and it builds up gradually. In Xavier's opinion, he is no less talented than Elijah so he cannot accept the fact that Elijah is getting all the recognition and praise. Furthermore, after Xavier kills Elijah, people mistake Xavier for Elijah. Xavier just took Elijah’s identity and replaced him. It is hard to say whether Xavier did the right thing by killing Elijah.