Grade 12 University English

Archetypal Theory

For this post, i will be talking about the elements of archetype that are present in the novel Three Day Road

This book does contain a lot of archetype. Some of the characters remind me of archetypal characters.

Xavier would be the hero in this story. He may not be that much of a hero in the war, because he doesn’t really want to kill anyone himself, even though he does point out enemies for others to shoot and kill. But, the thing that makes him a hero are his moral beliefs and the actions he takes because of them. “although i am a fine shot too. As fine as Elijah. But i don’t have the killing instinct for men. I believe that Elijah sensed my hesitancy to shoot the sniper even when our lives were threatened.” (Boyden). Even faced with a life or death situation for him and his friend, Xavier still hesitates to take a shot because he doesn’t want to kill a person. He stays true to his morals and beliefs no matter what challenge he is faced with.

Elijah would be the trickster. He is always laughing and joking with the people around him. He also tends to exaggerate and tell stories of the things he has accomplished. “I look over to Elijah and he smiles at me. It is that same trickster grin he’s flashed since he was a boy.” (Boyden). This shows that Xavier has known Elijah for a very long time, and is familiar with his mischief and joking attitude. But Elijah also seems to have a bit of a dark side to him. He kills other people with ease and even jokes about it and seems like he wants to do more of it. “The image of the soldier’s head exploding makes my stomach churn. I retch a little and spit up bile from my empty stomach, my throat burning and the acrid smell of my own insides making me retch a bit more. I look over to Elijah. Elijah stares through his scope still, smiling to himself. ‘I got him, didn’t I?’ he whispers.” (Boyden). This is when Elijah is starting to become noticeably different and darker. He kills without thought and even seems proud of it and jokes a bit about it afterwards.

Niska would be the mentor or mother, especially to Xavier. Niska took Xavier out of the residential schools and brought him back with her to be raised the way she was raised, to live off the land like in the past. She raised Xavier as if he was her own child, and not just her nephew. “The months that followed were the happiest of my life. We spent our days wandering and trapping and hunting in the bush. Amazingly, you had very little knowledge of it, and so i taught you everything i could.” (Boyden). Niska taught and raised Xavier from when he was a very young age, and Niska was really the only mother figure or family that Xavier had.

Symbols

this story also has quite a few symbols. One of the major ones in this book are the Wendigos (a cannibal). In the beginning of the story, Niska watches as her father is forced to kill a woman and her baby, because the woman was found to be a cannibal. Then later on in the story, Xavier witnesses Niska killing a Wendigo when he is young. The Wendigo seems to represent corruption, and how extreme adversity can corrupt people and make them do terrible things. Another symbol i have noticed in this story is the lynx. When Elijah and Xavier come close to death in a forest fire, they spot lynx tracks that lead no where as they are escaping the fire. The lynx also appears in Niska’s visions. I think the lynx appears when someone needs protection, so it would symbolize safety and power.

The archetypal characters in this book are fairly different from characters in other books i have read. However Xavier and Niska have that kind of mentor and student relationship that can be seen in many other books. One it reminded me a little bit of was in Harry Potter. In that series, Harry Potter looks up to professor Dumbledore and views him as his mentor, the same way Xavier does with Niska when he was a child. But these are different because Xavier and Niska seem quite close, and have that family bond and connection that makes it easier for them to have that relationship. I think this shows that Xavier and Niska are very close to each other, closer than other characters with this kind of relationship in other stories.

Works Cited

Admin. “Archetypes.” Ancient Symbols, http://www.ancient-symbols.com/archetypes.html.

Inc, Scribendi. “5 Common Character Archetypes in Literature.” Scribendi, http://www.scribendi.com/advice/character_archetypes_in_literature.en.html.

After listening to the Serial podcast, you can’t help but form your own opinion on the mystery. The biggest question this podcast brings forward is, is Adnan Syed guilty? Did he actually kill Hae Min Lee, or is there more to the story?

After listening to the podcast, and doing some other research, I am personally leaning towards believing that Adnan is innocent. The case against him that put him in prison is very thin. There doesn’t really seem to be enough to convict someone, and yet Adnan was convicted. It was based almost entirely on just one witness, Adnan’s “friend” Jay. Jay and Adnan didn’t really know each other, Adnan was friends with Jay’s girlfriend, and Jay went to the police after Hae’s murder and told them Adnan did it.

Jay’s Statement

Jay’s statement is really the only one that was used against Adnan. A big problem with this that he changes his story several times when talking to police. He changed several important things in his story, it changed three times from his first police interview, second interview, and statement during the trial. He changed things like Adnan’s motive for killing Hae, whether Adnan planned and talked about killing Hae before the day she was actually killed, place where she was killed, place where he was shown the body, and even his own involvement changes. He changes other many things too, which makes this all even more confusing. In one version of the story, only Adnan digs Hae’s grave in Leakin park, and in another version Jay is actually there helping him dig the grave. That’s a huge thing to lie about. Whether it’s little things, or huge, major things, Jay’s story changes drastically several times. I think that they should not have made Jay’s statement so incredibly important to the case because of all the inconsistencies. But, because he was the only one able to give a real story about the day it happened so he was the only witness that could be used, and he was on the side of the police, so they were able to use him. Adnan was never even asked to give his statement on the stand in court, so the jury never even heard his side of the story from him personally.

Call Records

Another big part of the case that was used against Adnan was a timeline of cell records, Which don’t entirely match Jay’s story. But there were a few calls that matched some of the more key events, so it was enough to help support his statement and get Adnan convicted.

Asia McClain

Adnan Syed says he doesn’t remember much of the day the Hae Lee was killed, because for him it was a fairly normal day, one that didn’t really have that much significance. Other than getting a phone call from a police officer about Hae Lee’s disappearance, which he claims the only thing he thought of this what that she had run away or something and that her parents would be mad at her. He says he never thought he would be hearing that she was actually killed. This memory gap is a problem for Adnan, because it means he isn’t able to produce an alibi for himself. But after Adnan was sent to prison, a girl named Asia McClain wrote him letters saying that she remembered seeing, and even speaking to him at the library, which is where Adnan said he would’ve most likely gone on the day that Hae was killed. The letters were given to Adnan’s lawyer, but they were never used in the case, even though it could have provided Adnan with a useful alibi.

These are some of the reasons i think Adnan Syed is innocent. On top of all these strange, confusing factors of the case, Adnan and many of his friends say that he was very respecting of Hae, and that he was a very good kid and would never want to hurt her. These could just be lies Adnan is telling to try and get himself out of prison, but many of the people who knew him closely fully believe that he could not have killed Hae Lee. He also still seems very baffled by his situation, even after all this time. He still sticks by his “I didn’t do it” statement, even though he can’t really back it up. I don’t know who really killed Hae Min Lee, or if the truth will ever really be known, but in my personal opinion, Adnan Syed seems innocent.

Works Cited

Dwyer, Colin. “’Serial’ Subject Adnan Syed Deserves A New Trial, Appeals Court Rules.” NPR, NPR, 29 Mar. 2018, http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/03/29/598001941/serial-

Lazzaro, Sage. “The 9 Most Surprising Revelations From Asia McClain’s New ‘Serial’ Memoir.” Observer, Observer, 7 June 2016, observer.com/2016/06/the-9-most-surprising-revelations-from-asia-mcclains-new-serial-memoir/.

subject-adnan-syed-deserves-a-new-trial-appeals-court-rules.“Serial: Why Jay’s Testimony Is Not Credible Evidence of Adnan’s Guilt.” The View From LL2, 31 Dec. 2014, viewfromll2.com/2014/11/26/serial-why-jays-testimony-is-not-credible-evidence-of-adnans-guilt/.

The book i chose to read is “Three Day Road” by Joseph Boyden. The book is partially based off of a real-life World War One Ojibwa soldier, Francis Pegahmagabow. He was an amazing sniper and was given credit for 378 German kills and 300 more captures. I found this very interesting, especially since he was actually mentioned in the first part of the book. The characters are talking to a Canadian sniper, amazed at the number of kills he has, but the sniper tells him that it is nothing compared to an Indian sniper by the name of “Peggy”. Francis Pegahmagabow’s nickname was Peggy.

So far in the story there are two main characters that the point of view flips between. The first one is Niska and she is an Oji-Cree woman. She seems to be one of the last of her people living off the land and keeping up with their past traditions. When the story takes place from her point of view, it is often her telling her nephew stories of her past. This gives more background information on the tribe and how they lead their lives, as well as about how Niska got to where she is in her life. The other main character is Niska’s nephew, Xavier. He has just returned home from fighting in the first World War, and he lost his leg in the fighting. A lot of his perspective describes his role in the war and about his past with Elijah, another Cree sniper and Xavier’s best friend.

I already have a couple questions about this book just from reading the first part of it. The main one I have is what happened to Elijah? Elijah and Xavier fought together in the war, and Xavier tells stories about the war that Elijah is present in. But when Xavier returns home, Elijah is not with him. Where i am at in the book, this question has not yet been answered, so it leaves me wondering if Elijah was killed in the war, or if he was just somehow separated from Xavier.

Next, I’ll go over a few of the things i think will happen in the future of this story. One thing i definitely predict is that the story behind what happened to Elijah will be revealed. Even though he has only made appearances in stories form the past, he is still a major character and is a big part of Xavier’s life. So i think either Xavier is going to will talk about what happened to Elijah, or he and Niska might even try to find Elijah. Another major thing i think will happen is Niska is going to help Xavier recover from the effects of the war, both physically and mentally. Right now Xavier is sick, he’s missing a leg, and he has become addicted to the morphine that was given to him as a painkiller for his leg. On top of all this, he is haunted by his time in the war, so i think a big part of this book will have to follow his recovery and Niska helping him get through it.

Even in just the first part of this book, i was able to make quite a few connections. This book reminds me a lot of history class, learning about the first World War and the trench warfare. Xavier tells lots of stories about his time in the war, fighting in the trenches and a lot of it sounds similar to what i have previously learned. He talks about the rats in the trenches and how brutal the fighting was. There were even a lot of terms i was able to recognize, such as “duckboards” and “Ross Rifle”. I’ve also watched a lot of movies and TV shows and read books about World War One, so i have a lot of prior knowledge to make connections with.

Overall, i think the story is really interesting so far. It is very descriptive, the author is very good at using imagery to help you create a mental picture of the events taking place and, espicially with the war scenes, making you feel the emotions that the characters must be facing while these events take place.

“Francis Pegahmagabow.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 28 June 2019, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Pegahmagabow.

I began listening to the podcast ‘serial’ which is a very intriguing podcast about a boy named Adnan Syed, who was convicted of his ex-girlfriend’s murder. The narrator, Sarah Koenig, tells the story of the murder, and does some investigating of her own as she attempts to discover what really happened that day

I found this podcast, and the story of the crime, to be very interesting. I love mysteries and crime stories like this and I actually want to go into a career in that area, such as forensics or even becoming a detective, so this type of thing really interests me. This is also a fascinating case, and many things about it are confusing. Syed says he has very little memory of that day, because for him it was just a normal day. But the friend that was supposedly with him the day that Hae was murdered, who’s name is Jay, remembers the day vividly. This makes me wonder which one of them was lying. This case is full of contradictions like this. One person will say that Adnan Syed was a great kid that would never have hurt Hae, but there are also people that genuinely believe he was the only one who could have killed her. The case against Adnan was entirely based on Jay’s story of that day, and only one girl, named Asia, was able to provide an alibi for Syed, but she never testified in court about her side of the story. Asia stated that she saw, and talked, to Adnan in the library, but this was never mentioned at the trial.

I really enjoyed listening to this podcast, and i like that the information was presented in that format. It was interesting to actually hear the witness statements and stories from the real people involved in the case, and I think it helped develop the story. The music in the background also add a more dramatic effect to the story that you can’t get when you’re reading a book. As much as I love reading, i think this form of journalism was better suited in podcast form because there was a lot of tapes and phone recordings that were very significant to the case, and being able to actually listen to them helped me understand what was going on and here the tones of people’s voices and help build a bit of a picture in my head. But, if this story had been put into a book format, pictures and other visuals could have been added which would have been useful to see as well.

As interesting as this case is, I do wonder if the family of Hae Lee was upset about the podcast and its popularity. No matter who committed the crime, something awful happened to Hae Lee and it was probably upsetting for those that were close to her when the events from that past started getting dragged out again. Especially since this all happened so long ago, so it’s hard to know when someone is lying or telling the truth. Some people have no memory of that day, but others say they have very detailed memories of it. These people could be telling the truth, or they could be making it all up. Either way it makes for a very interesting story that I would love to know the real answer to, but it might never truly be found out.