Elijah Weesageechak, also known as whiskeyjack was one of the snipers who fought alongside Xavier who were best friends through the novel, Elijah was affected the most out of three characters as he grew a addiction to killing innocents and using drugs due to the war, his identity changed dramatically from the beginning to the end. Elijah would overdose drugs the main drug he would take is morphine a medication but overdose can cause major health problems.
When elijah does not take the morphine to help compensate with the problems and mental issues he is having his body breaks down, ” When he’s gone too long without the medicine, he tells me, he becomes fragile and headaches cause him so much pain that death seems a good alternative” (212). Elijah and his character and identity would change as soon as the syringe of morphine is inserted into his veins and distributed throughout his body, in the book it says “When he does not take morphine, he is afraid of the world, and that is not a good feeling”(212), this quote shows his character when the morphine is not within him but when the morphine is, the novel states ” But when he golden liquid is in his veins! Even at night the world is bathed in soft light. He hears men talking and understands what they are truly saying beneath their words. He can make himself float from his body– he becomes the hunter at these times, the invincible hunter who can lie still for hours, for days, only moving to refuel his body with the medicine,” (212).
The war transformed Elijah into a physcopath a relentless killer, during one of Xavier’s and Elijah’s sniping mission they mistake a innocent woman for a enemy soldier. Elijah kills her and his response towards Xaviers anger was ” I am trained not to hesitate in situations of danger”, Elijah’s mindset has gone corrupt as he shows no remorse and also starts killing Canadian soldiers that got in his way. This devastating war affected Elijah’s mentality negatively which lead to his demise and his loss of identity due to the over dosage of morphine in the novel.
