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Summary Of The Red Convertible By Louise Erdrich

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Both Louise Edrich’s “The Red Convertible” and Oscar Casares’ “Big Jesse, Little Jesse” demonstrate the toll relationships take due to resentment. “The Red Convertible” is a story about 2 brothers who pursue adventure across the country in their car, until one year the older brother, Stephan, gets drafted to go to Vietnam. When he gets back, he is very quiet and emotionally unavailable. Due to this, the younger brother, Marty, starts to resent Stephan for changing so drastically, even though it wasn’t his fault. The older brother’s personality finally emerges one night on a trip, but then he jumps into the water and lets the current sweep him away. Contrarily, “Big Jesse, Little Jesse” is a story about a young, separated couple and their child. The mother raises her son to be like her, but Jesse (the father) wants his son …show more content…

Louise Erdrich and Oscar Casares together demonstrate the different causes of resentment present in relationships, and the detrimental consequences they lead to. In both cases, the resentment seen in the relationships was a product of forces controlled by neither party. In “The Red Convertible,” the driving force behind Marty’s resentment is the change in character Stephan due to his time serving in the war, something out of their control. When Stephan returns, Marty immediately recognizes his brother’s change and sees it was “no good,” (Edrich 44). While watching TV, the narrator describes Stephan as “a rabbit when it freezes and before it bolts,” showing the constant state of anxiousness and tension Stephan is in (Edrich 44). In reaction to this, Marty goes over to the television that has Stephan so fixated, and in anger, he wants to “smash [it] to pieces,” (Edrich, 45). In “Big Jesse, Little Jesse,” it is explicitly stated in the beginning that the reason for Jesse and his wife’s separation and resentment is their kid, (Casares,

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