'The Red Convertible' By Louis Erdrich

The first journey is the trip he and his brother, Lyman, took to purchase the red convertible. The second is his journey to Vietnam to fight in the war. Finally, the third journey is the trip he and Lyman took to the Red River where he ultimately committed suicide. Korb suggests that while Lyman has a natural talent for making money on the reservation, he still “experienced his share of difficulties” (Korb ). These difficulties are potentially the reasons behind Henry and Lyman feeling the need to escape by means of the red convertible. The red convertible is the brothers’ ticket to a life off the reservation and a way for them to experience joy, peace, and adventure different to what they are accustomed. Korb specifically puts emphasis on Henry and Lyman’s trip to Alaska by stating that this particular trip was idyllic and felt as though it was a “pleasant dream world” (Korb). After a pleasurable time spent in Alaska, the brothers’ head back south when winter begins. After he has completed his first journey, Henry embarks on his second to Vietnam. The Henry that leaves the reservation to fight in the war is not the same Henry who returns three years later. “Even the red convertible brings no life to Henry,” Korb claims. The author focuses on Lyman’s attempts to bring his brother around to his old self, including the destruction of the red convertible. On the final journey, the trip to the Red River, Lyman is hopeful and believes that his brother is finally turning a new leaf. However, Henry is still just as haunted and troubled as before. Korb reinforces that losing the red convertible is losing the ability to experience freedom and joy, which explains why Lyman refuses to accept the car when Henry offers it to him. Lyman tries to “beat feelings of hope back into his brother”

In the novel Montana 1948, by Larry Watson, we witness this through the eyes of David a 12 year old narrator, the sickness and death of his beloved caretaker Marie Little Soldier by the doing of his Uncle Frank whom he has always looked up to. An important character central to the story is David’s father Wesley the sheriff of Bentrock who is brave, courageous, conflicted and, protective of his family. A message Wesley helps us understand a thought-provoking message that it is difficult to choose between family and doing the right thing.

A symbol used in the story, The Red Convertible by Louise Erdrich, is Susy’s hair. In the beginning of the story, the main characters and brothers, Lyman and Henry Junior, buy a red convertible and go on a summer road trip (Erdrich 2). While on their trip, they pick up girl name Susy, and drive her back to her home in Alaska. The brothers stay with Susy and her family for a while in a tent. The night before the brothers left to head home, Susy entered their tent to reveal that she had very long hair which she usually kept in buns around her ears, hiding its length.

About a year later, Robinson’s uncle came to visit. He had served in the first World War. Afterward he had settled in California. When he returned to visit his family in Georgia, they scarcely recognized him, because he was dressed so finely (Mann 57). Once he learned of their troubles, he was immediately convinced that his sister and her children would do better in California. Within a few days, she boarded a train with her five little ones.

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.

In the short story “The Red Convertible” you will find some important elements that are integral to the support and development of the theme brotherhood. First, you will see how the road trip gives a lesson in the story. Second, you will discover how the war affected the relationship of Lyman and Henry. Finally, you will understand the symbolism of the red convertible and the link it has between both brothers. One important element that has a powerful lesson in the story is the road trip. While Lyman and Henry went on a drive one afternoon, they met a girl named Susy in the middle of the road. Susy had her hair in buns around her ears and was very short. They let her jump in the car and

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.

Henry returns from the war damaged not unlike the car after Lyman tries to destroy it. The relation ship between the brothers will never return to its previous state just as the car will never be the same. The car now comes to signify the change in the brother’s relationship. When Henry drowns himself in the river, Lyman lets the car go with them. Henry knows life will never be the same and neither will his feelings about the car. The car will now only trigger the raw emotions of his brother’s transformation and his death, instead of the carefree life he once had with a close brother. The car comes to symbolize death and the death of the close relationship between the to brothers. When Lyman lets go of the car, he is also letting go of his innocence.

“The Red Convertible” is an interesting story due to its characters, plot, and the general background that the author was motivated by to write this story as well as many of her other works. “The Red Convertible” deals with the relationship between two brothers of the Chippewa Reservation. The story focuses on how their relationship changes over a period of time and discretely how the red convertible car they both bond over reflects those changes in their relationship throughout that period. Sadly, these changes are not good as they focus on the effects Henry Jr. has after he serves in the Vietnam War. Lyman, his younger brother, is also affected and tries many things to help his brother go back to his “regular old-self” but in the end he

With her West Virginia upbringing and living in a coal town, she was inspired to write about “rednecks” in a more positive way. The main way of her doing so was to bring to light the characters of the novel and their loyalty to family, the land and values. The characters are very relatable, the characters manage to wiggle their way into the reader’s heart. It is easy for the reader to become attached characters and to the issues arising in the book. It is in fact a part of our history, native to Appalachia or

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.

In conjunction with the symbolic representation of Elisa’s life, the dramatic description of the environment can also be seen as a unique representation of the relationship conflict between husband and wife. Steinbeck’s foggy description demonstrates conflict through the following statement, "a time of quiet and waiting." This description is interesting because the fields are personified as waiting for rain, however, “rain and fog do not go together” therein lies the conflict just as Elisa waits for a positive change in how her husband treats her (Palmerino, Gregory J). Gregory P. further points out that, “The natural elements of the foothills ranch seem as unwilling to confront each other as the characters that inhabit its environs. Hence, fog and rain can be seen as the female and male equivalents to Elisa and Henry.” This only further solidifies the deep rooted troubles within Elisa and her relationship with her husband. The setting of the story is personified to act as a symbolic representation of the couple’s relationship (Steinbeck, John 337-338).