Culture and Identity in Joseph Boyden’s Three Day Road

Ms. Suganya J. Ph.D.
Research Scholar, Reg. No:18223154012006, S.T. Hindu College, Nagercoil.
(Affiliated to Manonmaniam Sundaranar University, Abishekapatti, Tirunelveli-627012, Tamil Nadu, India.)
Email: suganyaclinden@gmail.com

Dr. Karthika Premkumar
Associate Professor and Head (SS), PG & Research Department of English, S.T. Hindu College, Nagercoil.
(Affiliated to Manonmaniam Sundaranar University, Abishekapatti, Tirunelveli-627012, Tamil Nadu, India)
Email: Karthiprem71@gmail.com

Abstract
Joseph Boyden is a Canadian novelist, short story writer, screenwriter, essayist, and a public speaker of Irish and Scottish descent. Joseph Boyden in his works very effectively illustrates the native culture of the Cree people and their struggle to create a respectable identity. In his works, Boyden has portrayed how an individual’s identity keeps on changing, based on their goals, ideas and moral values. In the novel Three Day Road, Boyed uses the Journey of Nishka, the head of the clan and the two Canadian soldiers, Xavier and Elijah to show how the wemistikoshiw, that is the western culture, language, war and the traumatic experiences of war alters the identity of the natives, and how culture and the cultural values they hold made them a better person than others.

Keywords: Culture, Identity, Trauma, Natives, Experience.