entry 4

Finally Xavier’s skill as sniper is acknowledged: the armies held a competition of shooting in the troops, Elijah, Xavier and another soldier all got into the final round. Their final test was to light a match by shooting, and Xavier is the only one who accomplishes the task. Thus, Elijah and Xavier become the sniper group that is feared by the Germans. However, although Xavier has finally been accepted by his comrades, he still envies Elijah for his popularity among the soldiers.  At the same time, Xavier finds out that Elijah is addicted to drugs and is more addicted to killing. On the other hand, Niska’s story is continuing, after she has grown up in the woods, she starts to want a mate, she finds a French man in the forest, and they soon starts to have an affair. As time passes, Niska falls in love with the French man and starts to fantasize marrying him, when he stops meeting her, she goes to his town and tries to find him, when she finds out that she’s merely one of his lovers and he has tricked her, she calls the spirits and kills him.

In this part, I feel that the friendship between Elijah and Xavier is stressed: Xavier is worried about Xavier because of Elijah’s addiction to morphine and feels the distance between them when he finds out that Elijah is not even guilty about the fact that he has killed so many people, and he feels betrayed by Elijah because he thinks that Elijah prefers the white Canadians instead of Natives. As for Niska, it can be seen that she is an extremely independent and determined. She finds a mate by herself, and goes to the Frenchman’s town by herself even though she knows how she’ll be treated; she ignores the other people’s comments about her and continues to do what she thinks is right. When she realizes she has been betrayed, she does not panic or cry but simply decides to revenge. I believe these traits of her allow her to survive. The way Niska and other Native women are treated is another evidence of how Natives were treated by the White Canadians, in the story the French man has relationship with several Native women like Niska, and when he is tired of them he simply abandons them without a word. On top of that, this action of his is regarded as ordinary by the white Canadians and even the Natives themselves.

I am once again amazed by Niska, I cannot approve her action of killing the French man( who deserves it), but I must say that if I encounter something like this I will not be as strong as her. The Frenchman’s deed also shocks me, I know that Natives were discriminated against like Asians were but I never really thought that much about it, now I feel lucky that I live in 21^st century.  As for Xavier and Elijah, I really liked Elijah before this because he is funny and always helps Xavier out, but now I think that he’s too reckless and confident to think that he won’t be addicted to morphine, I can now even predict the cause of his death. Up to this point my only concern with the book is-it’s soooo depressing! I know that there shouldn’t be anything good happening in world war two anyways but really, even the storyNiska picks to comfort Xavier is depressing. Now that i am attracted to Elijah and Xavier’s friendship, it makes me a little bit unwilling to know how Elijah dies.