Elijah's Madness In Three Day Road

One of the greatest fictional villains of all time, Joker, once said, “Madness, as you know, is like gravity. All it takes is a little push”. The quote is epitomized by the show, but sure, deterioration of the mental state of Elijah in Joseph Boyden’s Three Day Road. It is easy to attribute Elijah's fall from the brink of sanity to the circumstances of war, however, it would be much more accurate to make the claim that Elijah’s insanity is caused by his own characteristics. Elijah metaphorically becomes his own enemy while on the front lines. His struggle with his addictions and his quest to prove to others and to himself that he is the greatest sniper in the war, lead to his lunacy and ultimately, his demise. There is no doubt that the war

has a great effect on Elijah’s mental state but Elijah’s personality traits are to be blamed for the loss of his mental stability. Elijah’s inability to conquer his addictions and his struggle with his own ambition are the causes of his descent into madness.

Throughout the novel, Elijah is known to struggle with addiction. The most prominent of his addictions is his addiction to morphine. Initially, Elijah uses the morphine to lessen pain from wounds he gets, but as time goes on, Elijah craves the morphine for more than medicinal purposes. Even Xavier notices and says, “I know it is much more than medicine. Much more” (Boyden 153). Although Elijah’s addiction to morphine is the most prevalent, the reader can also easily see that Elijah has an obsession with killing enemy soldiers. He is said to spend days in no man’s land, lying in wait to kill the next Germans he can sight in his scope. His addiction is foreshadowed early on in the novel. Xavier says, “Thompson is asking Elijah if he likes killing. Elijah considers it for a moment. ‘It’s in my blood,’ he finally says” (75). By the time the reader is near the end of the novel, Elijah is consumed by his passion for killing and it has visibly made him deranged: “‘He is dead,’ I report, and Elijah begins to laugh” (284). Elijah does not posses the strength to deal with either of his addictions and both are key components to his mental breakdown.

The second contribution to Elijah’s madness is his ambition. His fixation on proving he is the best sniper in the war is almost as strong as his addiction to morphine. He is prone to recounting his kills to the other soldiers in his troop and enjoys the sense of approval he gets from other soldiers whenever they hear his stories. Elijah is especially eager to impress the French soldiers that he encounters. The Frenchmen tell Elijah to scalp his enemies so that he has proof of the number of his kills. But even the Frenchmen find Elijah’s collection of hundreds of scalps he has collected to be unnerving. Elijah notes that, “All they did was stare at me when I showed them my trophies . . . they acted nervously around me after that” (287). Nonetheless, Elijah is more than happy to know that he is feared by the men: “He smiles at the memory. . . ‘My reputation is sealed, I think’” (287). Elijah is willing to do anything and everything necessary to gain the reputation as the best Allied sniper in the war.

The final factor that contributes to Elijah’s insanity is his need to prove to himself that he is the best.

It can be argued that this is the greatest factor to Elijah’s breakdown because it leads to Elijah’s addiction to killing and is a more intense desire than proving his greatness to others. Throughout the novel, Elijah take unnecessarily dangerous risks so that he can add more kills to his already ridiculously high count. Sometimes, Elijah leaves the camp for days without Xavier to go sniping by himself. Xavier rebukes Elijah when his incessant risk-taking nearly gets them both killed: “Put yourself in danger if you like, but not me!” (285). What makes this factor of Elijah’s insanity so interesting is that it is the only one that Elijah cannot satisfy. He can satisfy his addiction to morphine and killing by taking morphine and killing. And it is not hard for him to prove to other that he is extremely skilled at sniping, but he cannot seem to prove to himself that he is the best. Although no one else seems to take notice of Xavier, Elijah knows that he will never be better than Xavier: “You always were the better shot” (368). Throughout the story, Xavier is always subtly proving his dominance over Elijah, for example, in the shooting competition in the training camp and when Xavier is able to kill the German sniper in no man’s land. The Mauser rifle that Xavier takes from the German is a symbol for Elijah’s jealousy of Xavier—hence Elijah’s jealousy is what finally kills him. Elijah is highly competitive and understands that Xavier will always be better than him. His inability to prove to himself that he is the best sniper is the biggest contributor to Elijah going

insane.

As can be seen from Elijah’s story, it doesn’t take much to make one lose control of his own mind. It is elijah’s own character traits that cause him to go insane. His weakness and ambition being the driving factors. Elijah is unable to control his addiction to morphine or his addiction to killing. Elijah’s ambition and desire to prove his worth to others and to himself are also key factors in Elijah’s downfall. However, Elijah’s downward spiral into madness provides a great plot development in the novel and is a powerful connection the the slow insanity suffered by windigos. Furthermore, it shows that it does not take much to push someone to the brink of sanity. It only takes a few mental lapses; the rest is as easy as falling under the influence of gravity.