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THE SHIFTING SITES OF IDENTITY NEGOTIATION IN BOYDEN’S THREE Day ROAD a prostitute. Elijah knew but played along for Xavier’s sake, he says. Earlier, in a parallel world, Niska has fallen in love with Frenchman, who turns out to be a racist villain who rapes her. Niska also has to conceal herself when in town to avoid being a target of racist remarks and assault, she needs to change clothes and “fit in” to look like a young homegrown Indian." Then in the European context, charcoal face masking is a survival practice at war,” along with hiding in a cellar or covering one another on the frontline due to the constant fear of being found and killed. If we enter the game of invisibility, the lethal game of hide and seek, we can read the novel on multiple levels. One is the actual physical visibility the soldiers try to avoid.** The other is the question of their visibility as human beings in the context of racial divides in the army: “I am especially proud to note that Acting Corporal Whiskeyjack has been recommended for the MM for unmatched bravery in the face of the enemy”, but Xavier is then invisible and frustrated.*° There is even a sarcastic game of invisibility at the end of the war: Bird tries to save Elijah but cannot, kills the windigo in him, rips off his ID and keeps it in his own pocket. However, when wounded and still carrying Elijah’s ID, Bird is mistaken for Elijah, praised for bravery, returned home as if he was a great Fritz killer. His guilt complex is relieved through the sweat lodge ritual, when identities are resettled in home grounds. In conclusion, Boyden’s novel depicts a fundamental aspect of interracial relations and identity development of Indigenous persons who are intensively exposed to the culture of Euro-Canadians, and that is the fluctuation between more social identities and utilizing the “hybrid potential“ in post-racial nations in North America. Xavier claims that “I am stuck between these two places”* in a vacuum, that can be resolved by reconnecting with his tribal heritage, through the sweat lodge rebirth ritual facilitated by Niska. Both comrades experience a major identity transformation process of oppositional outcomes and the radical undoing of ethnic stereotypes surrounding them. Similarly to Silko’s Ceremony, where Tayo’s journey towards spiritual wholeness and mental health are achieved through a complex learning process, the two Cree men also attempt to reach those, but only Xavier can actually achieve both. Rituals and ceremonies of transformation mark those journeys, and the reader can feel the painstaking process and also understand the relevance of rituals both in a tribal cultural and in a personal psychological sense. Above, I presented how a mixed heritage author challenges interracial understanding and what happens in his protagonists’ identity negotiation in the shifting sites 51 Ibid., 177. 52 Ibid., 187. 53 Ibid., 235-236, 249. 54 Tbid., 255. 55 Ibid., 256. 56 Ibid., 372. + 319 +
