This is a new day, a new beginning
— Ahsoka Tano.
I’m excited to see what adventures this blog takes me on and I am excited to read all of yours.
Survival Makes Changes
Throughout the book Three Day Road by Joseph Boyden, we see many different ways of survival at play throughout the different stories that they tell. The different types of survival that the characters had to go through had a huge effect on who the characters were and how it affected their story arch and it had a lot to do with their archetypes.
If we have a look at all of the different sacrifices that have happened throughout the book, it can relate a lot to the characters archetypes and the roles that they play with one another. Let’s take a look at one of the very first sacrifices that we read about. When Xavier leaves to fight in the war he is sacrificing his freedom, his previous life and the people in it. This correlates a lot to the hero archetype because of their general story, they lose their familiar environment with a task, almost always ending up in a fight. But, it also goes along with the hero’s strong will to do good and to fight for what is right.
Another sacrifice that it made is how Niska sacrifices her needs to be with others to carry on the traditions of her culture. This goes along with the great mother, who has a need to protect others. In this sense, she sacrificing her human needs to carry on the tradition for future generations and to respect past generations. It wasn’t until she started having visions about her Nephew and retrieved him from the school to raise him in her cultures traditions, that her sacrifice was worth it in the end.
If you haven’t already gathered from articles, movies, books, documentaries, etc., War can change people. If we look into Elijah’s death we see that he was slowly losing himself in the fight and the drugs which caused him to lash out and get himself killed by Xavier. He ended up this way because he pretended to be someone that he wasn’t and got out of a lot of situations by using deceit as his main weapon of defence. This follows along with the trickster archetype and he ended up tricking himself until he fell down a dark hole that he could not get out of which resulted in him going insane and getting put down by his best friend.
You can find a lot of these example in many different sources such as movies and books, and there will always be a connection to the archetypal literary theory because it’s a fundamental in writing even if you don’t realize that you’re doing so.
Three Day Road Analysis: Part 2
So far in Three Day Road by Joseph Boyden, things have gone for a bit of a darker turn.
Here are the chapter summaries. Read sections 10-21 for the 2/3 of the book. https://www.gradesaver.com/three-day-road/study-guide/summary-sections-10-13
In this novel, we have three different main characters. Niska, Elijah, and Xavier. Niska is The Great Mother. She takes both Xavier and Elijah in even though Elijah isn’t blood-related. “Elijah is as close to a relation as I still have,” (Boyden, 4) She also carries great wisdom that she passes on to the boys and teaches them every that they know. Even after they have left her to fight in the war against the Germans, she still loves and prays for them every day and even forces herself to be among the wemistikoshiw just to get information about their safety and whereabouts. Although we do get to see into her past and see the struggles she went through, it only strengthens her in the future and made her be the woman that she is. She reminds me of Leigh Anne Tuohy, who is the mother in The Blind Side. She is a strong and brave woman but is caring for those around her and protects her own.
Xavier is the hero of the story. He leaves his home to go and fight to protect his country and his Auntie. Even though he is one of the best shots in the squadron, he doesn’t brag about it or uses it to get special attention. He also cares a lot for Elijah, caring for him even though he’s started a deep spiral into addiction. Although it’s kind of out of order, Xavier also follows the fundamental plot archetype because we start in his hometown and he proceeds to go to war against the Germans, making his first kills and constantly being in danger. in the end, he gets to go home and see his auntie. Xavier kind of reminds me of Wonder Woman played by Gal Gadot because her character has this innocence of the world yet she knows what she’s doing and is very skilled in her field. She is also very brave and selfless and cares about others.
Elijah is tricky because at the beginning he seems to be a hero along with Xavier because he’s running off to join the army and fight in the war. But, the longer he spends in the trenches the less he becomes of himself and starts to become wild. Based on where he is right now in the story, I would say that he is the trickster because he goes out of his way to become someone else when he is interacting with the others. “Elijah’s taken to talking in an English accent in the last days. This makes the other soldiers laugh, but I wonder why he really does it.” (Boyden, 77) He even manages to trick himself in the beginning that he was never going to become an addict. Elijah reminds me of Jack-Jack from The Incredibles. Jack-Jack is seen as a very innocent thing and is always happy and funny but he can be so deadly and unstable due to uncontrollable emotions.
Adnan Syed: Is He Guilty?
The case against Adnan Syed is a very finicky thing because even 20 years after the murder, people are still arguing over whether he is guilty or innocent. Here is a timeline of the case: https://www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/film-tv/a26721305/adnan-syed-case-trial-timeline/
The case can be looked at in two different ways. People believe that he is guilty because Jay Wild’s testimony lines up really well with the cellphone records they were able to remove from his phone that was in his car with Jay. there is also the fact that although he was an honors student, an EMT, he was on sports teams and he was active in his religion, he also smoked and drank, both things that are banned due to his religion plus his relationship with Hae Min Lee was a big no-no with his parents. But if you look at it from the other way, there is no physical evidence that he was at the scene and Jay kept changing his story so the people believed that his story was prompted by the police to line up with the cellphone records. Also, his friends and nothing but good things to say about him. The only thing that I’m not sure where to put was Asia McClain’s letters that could’ve been an alibi because they god dismissed by the defense attorney yet she also somehow remembered that day 20 years later even though she forgot about the case after she was never called in as a witness.
I don’t really have an opinion on the case and whether or not he was guilty or innocent but if I had to chose I would say that he’s innocent because I believe that people are innocent till proven guilty and there is no hard evidence that puts him at the scene of the crime. Also, Jay’s testimony seems very flimsy because he kept changing it all of the time. There was also a possible alibi that they had disregarded that could’ve possibly been the tipping point in whether he is guilty or innocent. My opinion isn’t really strong and it’s based more on facts than emotion because I wasn’t there. I didn’t know anybody in the case. I have no reason to have a strong opinion of what happened.
I’ve read many different theories about who could’ve killed Hae Min Lee. Whether it’s Jay, one of her other ex-boyfriends, other completely unrelated murderers, the person who found the body, and many others, I think it still remains a mystery on who had killed Hae Min Lee because they have no hard evidence on Adnan Syed, just verbal. So, I do think that there could’ve been a different culprit or another culprit, but unless there is other evidence, I foresee Adnan staying in jail for a crime he may or may not have committed.
Links about the case below: https://serialpodcast.org/season-one https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8425310/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Hae_Min_Lee https://www.biography.com/crime-figure/adnan-syed
Dickson, EJ. “Rolling Stone.” Rolling Stone, 8 Mar. 2019, http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/adnan-syeds-serial-conviction-reinstated-appeals-court-805493/.
Dibdin, Emma. “Harper’s Bazaar.” Harper’s Bazaar, 31 Mar. 2019, http://www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/film-tv/a26721305/adnan-syed-case-trial-timeline/.
Biography.com Editors. “The Biography.” The Biography, 21 Mar. 2019, http://www.biography.com/crime-figure/adnan-syed.
“Euro Posters.” Euro Posters, http://www.europosters.eu/who-did-it-murder-crime-scene-suspect-chalk-outline-illustration-f114951869.
Three Day Road Analysis Part 1
The Book that I have chosen is Three Day Road by Joseph Boyden and it’s quite the wild ride. The book follows Niska, one of the last Oji-Cree to live in the forest, and her nephew Xavier, who had just returned from the war and is addicted to morphine. They begin a journey back to Niska’s camp and throughout the chapters, a bunch of different stories are told. Niska tells the story of her youth to her nephew as he comes in and out of consciousness and when Xavier is coming in and out of consciousness, we see his flashbacks to his training and his time in the trenches.
In the latest chapter, Xavier had just killed the phantom sniper, one of the deadliest fritz (German) of that battle, but based on how the others just ignore him because he doesn’t know a lot of English, he probably won’t as much recognition as, for example, Elijah, his best friend from home who was raised by nuns and is a people person. I also think, based on Elijah’s first try of morphine, he will get addicted to it and will be the reason Xavier gets addicted. I also think that the morphine plays such a big part in the story, for example, Grey Eyes was high on morphine when he was supposed to be looking over Sean Patrick, who “was a kind of bridge between me and Graves and Fats and the others.” (Boyden, 120) and ended up dying. Because it plays such a big part, I think that the morphine will be the reason that Xavier loses his leg.
If we look at Niska’s story, she has lost a lot to the wemistikoshiw because they were converting her people into God worshippers. For example, her sister Rabbit was taken, “Will she come with us? She is called Anne now” (Boyden, 95) and the fact that they were separated and Rabbit was converted, I think that there is going to be a confrontation in the future that changes how Niska goes on with her life and behaves with others.
The book was written with certain language techniques. Although they never say phrases in Cree and they just say when they’re speaking Cree, he still included a lot of words from the Cree language such as wemistikoshiw (a non-native American person), awawatuk (hunter), ahcahk (spirit) and many others. The great part about how he integrates the language is that you can figure out the context based on what’s being said so that you don’t feel left out or put off by the different language.
I am going through this book so fast because it just leaves you on cliff hanger after cliff hanger. It also has great imagery so that when you reading about the trenches or Niska’s home you can almost be there with them which helps keep the book interesting too. It also seems like Joseph Boyden has done his research on Cree culture and what it was like during WW1 because it’s very detailed and the things he has talked about, I’ve heard in history class and my late night Wikipedia searches so it shows that he cares about the stuff he writes and the readers view too.
It’s an easier read language wise but you need to be paying attention when you’re reading it or you will get lost very quick. I am quite enjoying it at the moment and I would definitively recommend it to my friends and family.
Serial Response
I don’t tend to listen to podcasts a lot because I can’t sit still and I always feel like I need to be doing something, but I quite enjoyed listening to Serial while I worked on other things. I enjoyed it so much because I love investigative books, shows, movies, etc. For example, I like to watch Buzzfeed Unsolved because they cover the entire case, most likely visit the location but they also make it funny. Here is a link to all of their cases: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BuzzFeed_Unsolved
Although I do enjoy reading actual books, I quite enjoyed listening to someone who is as invested in the story as I am. And the fact that you can hear how passionate she is to get to the truth, I definitively think that podcasts are great for true crime investigations among other things. I don’t really think that there are ups and downs to listening to podcasts in relation to books because I think it just depends on the person and their preferences. If they’re more of a visual learner, you might retain the information better if you’re reading it, but if you’re an auditory learner, podcasts will definitively be better because you can retain the information easier.
I think it’s really cool that during the podcast you got to hear from a bunch of different people that are apart of the case or in relation to the case, but I found it a bit weird that we never heard or talked about the families during the episode. I understand that they could be in later episodes but you would’ve thought that we would’ve heard at least something about it. I’ve also been reading some articles and they also almost never talk about their parents and how they feel on all of the podcasts and documentaries, but I found this one article talking about Hae Min Lee’s family speaking out after 17 years. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3437662/Family-Serial-victim-Hae-Min-Lee-says-convicted-killer-Adnan-Syed-destroyed-family-slams-podcast-s-fans-running-defend-him.html
The only thing that I found that I was kind of iffy about was how Asia McClain was able to remember what had happened so clearly 17 20 years ago. I understand that some days you can remember better than others because of significant events, but I think that only really applies to the past couple of years because there is no way that she remembered that day because of a snow storm and a lovers quarrel. Even if, as Sarah Koenig had suggested, she wrote down the events after Adnan Syed was convicted all those years ago, why would she still have them 20 years after the murder if she hadn’t really thought about it for those years? I just think that if he didn’t do it, Asia McClain’s alibi wouldn’t be able to prove if he’s innocent or not anyways.
After listening to the first episode, I am intrigued about this case because I had never heard about it before. I’ll most likely end up finishing the season before we even finished class. I think I’m hooked!
To listen to the Podcast Click here
University Level English
In my opinion, grade 12 University level English should not be a requirement for entry into all university programs. I think that 12th grade English should be mandatory but not necessarily University level English because a lot of University courses and jobs in the future does not require things like a high level of understanding of poetry or how to write a proper iterary criticism essay. Have you considered that some people can be completely fluent in the English language yet they can’t write a proper literary criticism essay and can live their lives perfectly fine with a great job? some people just don’t have that kind of way with words.
University English can be such a hard class depending on the person and if they struggle with the course load a lot, it reflects badly on their average and, if you need a University level English credit, it could keep you out of University and stop you from taking the courses you want even though the courses that you want could have nothing to do with English class. And nowadays, you need a degree to get a job almost everywhere except fast food restaurants and being dishwashers. most people would say, ” Why don’t you just go to college instead?” but not all colleges offer the programs you need or they could be really far away and then you would be stuck unhappy with a job that you don’t want.
although I do agree that English should be a mandatory class that you need to take to graduate and that it could help you get into colleges and universities but I just don’t think that it has to be university level classes to move on in life. English class teaches you very meaningful skills such as communicating with the people around you and presenting things in front of other people but you can learn all that from a regular English class just as well. I think that you should only have to take University level English if your program needs it such as becoming an English teacher or a writer or a philosopher or other similar jobs to those of which you use those skills a lot.
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