The Red Convertible Analysis

While they were on the road where Lyman said could have been anywhere, they encounter a girl named Susy who needed a ride to her home in Alaska. Once they got there, Henry and Lyman were welcomed with opened arms. "We got up there and never wanted to leave... Her family really took to us. They fed us and put us up" (Erdrich 2). Henry seemed to be liked in all the interactions he has with other people. His social skills were great, and he acted no different from other normal people, so he had no reasons to be considered an outsider. His personality was playful and careless, as evident from all the driving around without knowing where they were going. Henry plays around with Susy and seemed to have formed a good relationship with her very quickly. She even seemed bummed out when Henry and Lyman had to leave. Susy states "I told her it was time for us to go. She stood up on a chair. 'You never seen my hair'" (Erdrich 3). Henry was a very easy guy to get along with we don't

Television dramas use the way they are constructed and their production and reception contexts to affect meanings. “Stand Up” from the television series Redfern Now is an episode that features the protagonist Joel who had won an Indigenous scholarship to the prestigious Clifton Grammar. “Tara” from the television show Skippy is an episode where Sonny and Skippy befriend an Indigenous elder, who thinks that he is dying after seeing a helicopter and thinking that it is a death spirit. These two television shows both represent ideas about Aboriginal people, however, due to the different time periods, the Aboriginal people are represented different ways. The shows have a few similarities, but have more differences.

The car was in good shape before Henry went off and joined the Marines but Lyman wanted it in perfect condition for when his brother arrived at home. The red convertible to Lyman is everything that he wants his relationship with his brother to be once he returns. Lyman wants everything to go back to the way things were like the summer before Henry left. When Henry finally does arrive at home, however, Lyman describes him as being "very different" and "jumpy and mean"(367). Henry no longer seems to have any interest in the car or in Lyman any longer. In desperation, to retrieve his old brother, Lyman goes out one night when Henry had gone out and "did a number" on the red convertible(367). This desperate act of Lyman is in order to try to bring the brothers together. Lyman feels that since they were connected through the red convertible in the past that it would bring them together now. When Henry sees the car messed up he becomes upset and instead of bringing the brothers together Henry becomes fanatically obsessed with fixing the red convertible. This event in the story shows how the war has changed their relationship from close knit to distant. However, once Henry gets the car fixed up he asks Lyman to go for a drive once again showing how the car and their relationship are hand in hand. The red convertible continues to bring the brothers together even in the worst of times.

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.

The car is one of the most important elements that develops and supports the theme brotherhood. The car is a symbol that is meant to show Lyman and Henry’s close bond, and it holds the key to their definitive separation. The red convertible is also a symbol of success, and a connection to the white world for both Henry and Lyman “ I was

“The Red Convertible” is a story of Henry, the American Indian man, about how he was suffering from the experiences at the Vietnam War. The story begins when he and his brother purchased a red convertible car. This story indicates that how cultural ties and the brother’s precious memories helped recover Henry. Actually it is more about the importance of family. By

The relationship of brothers usually lasts forever, but in Louise Erdrich’s short story “The Red Convertible”, the relationship of the main characters Lyman and Henry takes a turn. Erdrich takes her audience through the experiences these brothers face and how they must come to terms that their relationship has changed. Knowing that it will most likely never be the same both Lyman and Henry try to fix their relationship until eventually one falls because of the experiences he faced in life. While Lyman may think the red convertible will save his and Henry’s relationship, Erdrich makes it clear that it will not through the characterization of the brothers, the plot of the story, and the symbolism she uses to tell her story.

Lyman soon realized he was wrong. The war had torn Henry to the point that he would stare lifelessly at a television screen for hours on end. He had not said more than a few words to Lyman for some time. Angered, Lyman purposefully damages the red convertible to get the attention of his brother. The damaging of the car represents the anger felt by Lyman that the relationship with his brother had been destroyed by the war. By destroying the car, Lyman is metaphorically changing the condition of the red convertible to match that of their brotherly bond. “Now I don’t even know if I can get it to start again, let alone get it anywhere near its old condition.” (Erdrich 328) Henry states about the car, symbolizing his feelings towards their relationship.

In The Red Convertible, LouiseErdrich uses the red convertible to symbolize the theme of change in two brothers relationship. The changes in the car parallel with the changes the brothers go through. As the car evolves, so does the relationship between Lyman and Henry. The two brothers have a close bond until Henry is sent off to war. Upon his arrival home, the changes in Henry and how he relates to his brother is apparent.

In the texts Redfern Now and The Rabbits, similar ideas about cultural relationships and power positions are conveyed through many different textual contexts and conventions. Whilst some of the ideas explored in these texts are comparable, many contrast the different ways that euro centricity and “white” dominance function within societies, especially with regard to Indigenous Australians. Through the clever use of camera angles and symbols in Redfern Now, and symbolism and written text codes within The Rabbits, the ideas of disempowerment and power relationships between Indigenous Australians and European settlers is examined. In the television drama Redfern Now, the creators explore the undermining racism within modern-day society. The values

There was no actual evident mention of their American part of lifestyle until this point of their life, dealing with Henry after war. In the end, the reader can see that red convertible is a bigger representation of Henry and his individual changes after the Vietnam than anything else. It is his changes that affect his whole family and thus his strong relationship with his brother and thus why the car also counterparts their brotherly relationship. Further as the red convertible re-introduces itself throughout the story, it is the first and foremost object that shows the lifestyle of Henry and Lyman as Chippewa and American members of society.

Emotional connections between two people can be fortified with an object in which both people can care for and share with one another. In the story “The Red Convertible” by Louise Erdrich, Lyman and Henry have a special bond. This bond is emphasized in the red convertible because it symbolizes the connection that both brothers have with one another. After Henry goes off to war Lyman takes care of the car. Lyman cares for the car as if he were trying to preserve the bond that he and Henry had. Furthermore, Lyman knows to some extent that the bond between his brother and him is fragile because Henry has been gone away to war. The color of the car which is red has a double meaning which includes emotions such as the love that exists between the brothers, but also disaster like war. The war separated them both emotionally and physically, but despite this, at the end, they were able to relive the old days when their bond was at its strongest.

Both Erdrich’s, “The Red Convertible”, and O'Brien's, “The Things They Carried” reflect the effects of psychological trauma left by war; specifically, the Vietnam War. In Erdrich’s piece, she uses the red convertible as a metaphor for Henry. The fact that the two brothers purchased the convertible together is a serves to symbolize their bond. Yet, when Henry returns from his tenure as a soldier, his mental health has deteriorated into an apparently depressive state. I believe that Lyman’s act of wrecking the car represents how the war has devastated Henry’s emotional state. In Henry’s attempt to restore the car, he is indirectly trying to mend himself. Indeed we see that in his effort to do so, he exhibits signs indicative of his previous

In Karen’s ‘The Red Convertible,’ the story is narrated by Lyman Lamartine who is the younger brother of Henry Junior who had just got back from Vietnam after the war was over. The whole story is narrated in a flashback unlike Tim’s ‘The Things They Carried’ where the story moves back and forth in time. For example when the author describes the things that the soldiers carried in the very beginning of the story, he mentions Ted Lavender carrying six or seven ounces of premium dope until he was shot. Karen emphasizes more on the relationship between brothers and compares the state of mind in which they were before and after the war. The younger brother Lyman hadn’t changed much where as the elder brother Henry was completely a different person after he got back from Vietnam.

Other stories, perceived as unrealistic, often are posited so because they contain elements we do not see in the real world; metaphoric fantasy, symbolism, abstractness. These concepts are all based on our own filters of perception – we discern what is historically accurate and what is legend, or myth, based on our position in culture and the lenses which we view ourselves. In “The Red Convertible”, we can see these concepts at play – Lyman, narrating the story of the relationship with his brother Henry, tells a story that flows very effortlessly. Things that happen around him seem to brush off of him, as if they are no big deal.