Character Analysis Of The Red Convertible By Louise Erdrich

Post-traumatic stress disorder abbreviated PTSD is a response to traumatic events in someone’s life. Traumatic events are events that provoke fear, helplessness or horror in response to a threat or extreme stressor (Yehuda, 2002). Soldiers and other military members are at a much higher risk to Post traumatic stress disorder due to combat and other stressful situations they are put into. People effected by Post-traumatic stress disorder will have symptoms including flashbacks, avoidance of things, people or places that remind them of the traumatic event. Also, hyper arousal which includes insomnia, irritability, impaired concentration and higher startle reactions. In this paper I will discuss post-traumatic stress disorder, its signs, symptom and effects on culture as portrayed in the movie, American Sniper.

In "The Red Convertible," by Louise Erdrich, the red convertible symbolizes the brothers relationship at different stages through the story. In the story Erdrich uses specific actions of the brothers to show change in their relationship, which corresponds with the red convertible. Erdrich uses scenes involving the red convertible to show different stages of the brothers relationships. The story begins with a road trip representing the boys closeness, then precedes onto Lyman beating up the red convertible symbolizing the brothers separation. Erdrich then continues the story with Henry giving the red convertible to Lyman representing their reunion. The story finishes when Lyman runs the red

The Red Convertible by Louise Erdrich is more than an emotional story about the lives of two brothers who grew up together on an Indian reservation. She uses a writing style that allows the reader to understand the text, while providing the opportunity to read into the story. Erdrich uses metaphors, symbols, imagery to describe and define the brothers Henry and Lyman’s relationship.

Henry was a normal boy and did all of the normal things young boys do: making noise, being busy and active, nosing around in the refrigerator, and asking questions - all part and parcel of being a normal child. But he was brought up to believe he wasn't a "model boy." His parents were constantly interrupted by him - his mother while she was reading and grading papers, and his father so much so that he spent most of his time in his office on campus, joining them only at mealtimes. His father wished to remain "blissfully unaware."

The article relates to the wide range of situations that can cause PTSD and to how people need to direct their attention toward familiarizing themselves with the disorder's symptoms and seriousness before attempting to deal with it.

From this point on, Henry did not even look at the car that he and Lyman owned together. Obviously, they did not travel anymore or went anywhere together as before. This bothered Lyman, and attempting to bring him back to his own self, Lyman destroys the car and waits for Henry to find it. When Henry finds it, he begins fixing it, and as months passed by, he begins to act a little different. He was not as jumpy and disturbed as he was when he returned from the war. He finishes with the car, leaving it almost as good as it was before. He invites Lyman to go on a ride as they used to do before. They arrived at the river and begin drinking beer and laughing together. All of a sudden, Henry says, “got to cool me off” and troughs himself in the river, and let the current take him. Before he was gone he said, “My boots are filling”. He probably meant that he was tired of living, waiting for his dreams and hopes to be fulfilled and being stuck in two different cultures. After Henry says this, he finally disappears, separating what was once a relationship between two brothers.

Looking at the plot of the story, one can see that the story deals with a psychological conflict. Before Henry had left for the Vietnam War he and Lyman had a close relationship and since coming back he changed significantly because of what he saw and experienced. Lyman explains, “Once I was in the room watching TV with Henry and I heard his teeth click at something. I looked over and he’d bitten through his lip. Blood was going down his chin” (Erdrich 129). This example shows how Henry is dealing with the post war stress and how he cannot get what he went through out of his head. As he sits and watches the replaying war videos, he is unable to get past that he can live again and go back to the way things were because psychologically he is still at war and fighting.

As he is walking, a few soldiers that seems to be fleeing run into him. As Henry tries to stop them to ask what’s been happening, one of the soldiers swings at him with a rifle, opening a bloody gash on the top of his head. After a long while of waiting, a friendly soldier finds him and leads him back to camp, where a friend tends to his wound. After a few days of waiting, they come across another battle. This time Henry doesn’t flee, instead he thinks about all the people who have fought and died in the war, and decides to do the same: fight. Not only for the glory this time, but for the people he was

The narrator in Louise Erdrich’s The Strange People is characterized as a doe, a “lean gray witch” (i, 20) and finally, a “shadowy body.”(i, 25) Her own actions ultimately trigger this transformation, and are further emphasized through three jarring shifts within the poem. Despite portraying the narrator as prey in the beginning, she is not faultless. By placing double meanings on the word “burning,” (i, 6) it allows the self-destructive actions of the narrator to be evident. Also, by juxtaposing the cold and warmth described in the poem, the reasoning behind the doe’s self-destructive actions is explained, and ultimately paints her in a more nuanced light. Even so, her self-destructive actions highlight the consequences resulting from her attempt at self-preservation. She transforms into a “lean gray witch” to save herself, and yet it destroys her self-identity. The poem exposes the bleak yet nuanced consequences of destructive desires and self-preservation, and how even when necessary and justified, leads to the unfortunate loss of one’s identity.

In a battle in deep trenches, Henry starts complaining that the regiment has no real plan in the battle and that the regiment does not really know what to do in the battle. Wilson tries to calm down Henry from his anger, but Henry got angrier and took his anger out on Wilson. The lieutenant was dissatisfied with Henry’s anger and told him to keep his mouth shut about anything that might bring the regiment down. His immaturity is shown as Henry does not know how to control his feelings in a dangerous situation, which could get him and the regiment in

Henry Fosdick once said, “The tragedy of war is that it uses man’s best to do man’s worst.” In “The Red Convertible” by Louis Erdrich, there is a conflict amongst two brothers, Henry and Lyman as ones awareness towards reality is shifted upon the return of the Vietnam War. Henry’s experience fighting in the Vietnam War is the responsibility for the unexpected aftermath that affects their brotherhood. The event of Henry fighting in the war through fears, emotions and horrors that he encounters is the source of his “Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome [PTSD].” It has shaped his own perception of reality and his relationship with his brother Lyman and the strong bond that they had shared.

Erdrich’s story sheds some light on the mental problems some soldiers had to face after the Vietnam war. In her story she gives a glimpse of how a soldier who has faced an unbearable amount of pain and fear, struggles to be reintroduced into society. During the

about Henry's time as a Prison of War in Vietnam. Instead of confronting the situation head on he created little fixes like destroying the red convertible they purchased together. He destroyed it because he figured Henry could fix it and keep his mind of his Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Lyman began to do whatever Henry wanted because he thought submission would be the cure. He turned his head to incidents, such as, when Henry chewed through his lip while watching tv and then proceeded to, “... [shove him] out of the way, against the wall,” (4) and moments later, Lyman looks over to see, “there was still blood going down Henry’s chin, but he didn’t notice it… he took a bite of his bread his blood fell onto it until he was eating his own blood mixed in with the food” (4) Even when Lyman saw his brother like this he refused to take him to the doctor because men were supposed to be tough and should not need aid from prescriptions. Henry ended killing himself because he did not get the proper care he needed. His family conformed to American gender roles and avoided major conversation ,there for, they suffered great

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is a mental condition that ails soldiers and civilians alike who have been unfortunate enough to endure terrifying life harrowing experiences. Those who experience this disorder are prone to pejorative flashbacks to the time of the incident that triggered the neurological disorder. Most soldiers are capable of withstanding the withering physiological strain of combat, however a growing portion of people exposed to the graphic belligerence of war are prone to PTSD. In the novel 1984, George Orwell writes on multiple occasions of graphic war depictions and human pain. Having served in the Spanish Civil War, Orwell was exposed to violent reactions long before PTSD was officially diagnosed or

He described that he couldn’t escape even if he wanted to. Through this analogy, the reader can see that Henry is reducing the soldiers to unthinking, unfeeling machines, performing their duty without taking into account the threat of injury or death. As he looks around at the faces of the rest of the soldiers in his regiment, he notices their focused commitment to the firing of their rifles. He wonders if he is the only one faced with questions of morality. While the regiment began to advance, Henry was shocked to receive a packet of letters from Wilson, who feared he would die in battle. After the battle, he is glad that he made it through the first day. He begins to lose the romantic vision of war by seeing the realities, but he starts lying to himself about who is really is.