Summary of The Red Convertible by Louise Erdrich Often times, an inanimate object can be as important and sometimes more important than the characters of the story. In Louise Erdrich's "The Red Convertible," the car played an equally important role with that of the characters, but for different reasons. Two brothers, Lyman and Henry, had very little in common other than their blood. One day they decided to catch a ride to Winnipeg. The car was introduced while these two were doing some sightseeing in the city. They spotted the red Oldsmobile convertible. Lyman, the storyteller, almost made the car a living thing when he said, "There it was, parked, large as life. Really as if it were alive." (461) The brothers used all of the money they had, less some change for gas to get home, to buy the car. The car's significance was the bond that it created between the brothers. The purchase of the vehicle brought these two together with a common interest: the car. Once the bond was formed, the brothers became inseparable, at least for a while. The boys spent the whole summer in the car. They explored new places; met new people and furthered the bond that the car had created. When they returned from their trip, Henry was sent to war. He left the car with Lyman. While Henry was gone, Lyman spent his time pampering and fixing the car. Lyman saw the car as an extension of Henry. Lyman used the car to maintain an emotional bond with his brother who was thousands of miles away. During the war, Henry was taken P.O.W. and spent time in a Vietnamese prison. When he returned home, Lyman said, "Henry was very different...the change was no good," (463). Henry was constantly paranoid and evidently mentally unstable as a result of his wartime trauma. When the family had exhausted all efforts to help Henry, Lyman thought of the car. Though Henry had not even looked at the car since his return, Lyman said, "I thought the car might bring back the old Henry somehow. So I bided my time and waited for my chance to interest him in the vehicle." (464) Lyman concluded that the easiest way to interest Henry in the car was to "fix" the car so that it needed repair. After Lyman banged the car with a hammer, it took Henry almost a month to notice the dents.
Henry suffers from retrograde amnesia due to internal bleeding in the part of the brain that controls memory. This causes him to forget completely everything he ever learned. His entire life is forgotten and he has to basically relearn who he was, only to find he didn’t like who he was and that he didn’t want to be that person. He starts to pay more attention to his daughter and his wife and starts to spend more time with them.
of war. Before Henry Jr. went to Vietnam, he and Lyman (his younger brother) bought a
Written in the first person by Lyman Larmartine, The Red Convertible follows a typical dramatic development. The story begins in with an introduction of the narrator's life. Almost simultaneously the reader is introduced to older brother Henry Junior and the shiny red Oldsmobile convertible they bought on the spur of the moment together. The rising action of the story begins when the two take off one summer on a road trip that ends them in Alaska. When they arrived home, it was conveniently just in time for Henry to be drafted for the army. Just months later in early 1970 Henry was fighting in the Vietnam War and Lyman was had the red convertible in his possession. More than three years later, Henry finally returned home three years later only to be a much different person than the one that had left. Henry was distant and lackadaisical for the most part, never really caring about anything. Lyman knew there had been only one thing in the past that really cheered him up, and would do whatever it would take to have Henry back to his old self. Lyman took a hammer to their prized possession one night and soon showed Henry the car. Henry then was angered by the way the car was treated and was soon spend all his days and nights consumed by repairing the car. The climax of the story begins when Henry finally finished refurbishing the car and posing in front of it with Lyman for one last picture followed by a trip to Red River like in the good old days. When they arrived at the river, Henry confessed that he had known what Lyman did to the Olds, and was thankful for it, then offered to give his portion of the car to him. Just when the reader believes the old Henry has come back to life, he dives into the river and is sucked down with the strong current.
From an early age, Henry loved to take stuff apart and put it back together again just to only see how it worked. He was given a watch by his father at age 15. This was when he mainly adapted how to take stuff apart and put it back together again. Since Henry was good with watches, neighbors and friends would bring him their broken watch so that he would fix their watch. Henry’s main passion was machines. Henry believed that machines could make life of farmers easier by replacing farm animals. At age 17, Henry Ford left the farm and headed to Detroit to become an apprentice (http://www.biography.com/people/henry-ford-9298747).
“The Red Convertible” revolves around Henry, but it is narrated by his younger brother, Lyman. From Lyman’s perspective,
One can easily see the love both, Lyman and Henry had for one another, especially Lyman. He never calls the red convertible is own in fact, throughout the story he treats the convertible as Henry's car. After the enemy caught Henry, Lyman wrote him several letters. "Even though I didn't know if those letters would get through. I kept him informed all about the car" said Lyman ( Erdrich 332). While Henry was away for 3 years, "In those years, I'd
We learn that when Henry comes home from the war, he is suffering from PTSD. "It was at least three years before Henry came home. By then I guess the whole war was solved in the governments mind, but for him it would keep on going" (444). PTSD changes a person, and it doesn 't always stem from war. Henry came back a completely different person. He was quiet, and he was mean. He could never sit still, unless he was posted in front of the color TV. But even then, he was uneasy, "But it was the kind of stillness that you see in a rabbit when it freezes and before it will bolt"
The author then looks back upon the time in his life when her mother decided to drive Hunter Jordan’s old car. However, she didn’t know how to drive, and was generally afraid to get behind the wheel. On that day, she drove crazily on the road, and declared to never drive again. James McBride also reflected on his life up to a teenager, who knew that bad things would occur in the not too distant future if he didn’t change his ways and behavior.
PTSD, also known as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, can cause change and bring about pain and stress in many different forms to the families of the victims of PTSD. These changes can be immense and sometimes unbearable. PTSD relates to the characters relationship as a whole after Henry returns from the army and it caused Henry and Lyman’s relationship to crumble. The Red Convertible that was bought in the story is a symbol of their brotherhood. The color red has many different meanings within the story that relates to their relationship.
Even though Lyman and Henry’s relationship ends up ending, the red convertible will always be with Henry and will always be a memory for Lyman. While Lyman struggles with losing his brother to the war, the red convertible brought them back together, even though it was really the end. Henry was faced with war and when he was finished and came back home he changed because of his experiences. Both Lyman and Henry changed throughout the events that took place, but unfortunately for Lyman the red convertible was not able to bring back the relationship they had when they first bought it together.
Throughout the story, Erdrich uses the red convertible as a symbol of Henry and Lyman's relationship, and more generally, the war-torn relationships of soldiers. In the beginning of the story, Henry and Lyman buy, restore, and travel around the continent in the convertible together. This action represents a normal relationship before the effects of war. When Henry goes off to war, the relationship changes and Lyman demonstrates their separation by taking the car apart. Later, when Henry returns from war a scarred and changed man, he loses his usual interest in the convertible, as well as in Lyman. In return, Lyman bangs the car up, as a result of feeling neglected. The car portrays the "banged up" relationship he feels between his brother and him. When Henry discovers the car, as well as his relationship with Lyman is damaged, he confronts Lyman, "When I left, that car was running like a watch. Now I don't even know I can get it to start again, let alone get it anywhere near its old condition." Henry alludes to what condition the car was in before he left for Vietnam and expresses his concern about bringing the car back to its old condition. Erdrich uses symbolism here to e...
Flink’s Three stages of American automobile consciousness fully express the progress of the whole automobile industry. From the first model T to the automatic production, it gives me an intuitive feeling of the automobile history from a big picture. On the other hand, Kline and Pinch focus more on a certain group of people--farmers or people who live in the rural area, they use it as an entry point to talk about automobile, alone with the role and duty transition between male and
Lyman says, “We went places in that car, me and Henry. We took off driving all one whole summer” (135). The car symbolized their carefree and innocent lives. They took off without a car in the world and made memories in their car. Bussey asserts in her critical essay, “At the time, Lyman was only sixteen, an age at which most young people long to explore the world and to make their own decisions. Together, Lyman and Henry used the car to leave the reservation where they lived and to see what was beyond its borders” (Para 5). This is exactly what the two were doing when they traveled all across the country. The car created a bond between the two. The first paragraph symbolizes the foreshadowing of Henry’s death, “We owned it together until his boots filled with water on a windy night and he bought out my share” (134). Initially this statement is not clear until you finish the story. When the car and Henry both go into the water it symbolizes the end of Lyman’s innocence and the end of the relationship between the two brothers. The car had lost meaning once his brother was
In “The Red Convertible” by Louise Erdrich the two main characters Lyman and Henry are brothers that have an amazing relationship with one another. In the beginning of the story Erdrich writes about how Lyman and Henry bought a gorgeous red convertible; and together they went on plenty of road trips and bonded over the car. On the other hand, the two siblings in Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use” don’t have that same sibling bond. The siblings in “Everyday Use”, Maggie and Dee, are complete opposites. Dee is extremely vain, snobbish, and outspoken while Maggie is coy, insecure, and timid. Although Maggie and Dee aren’t as close as Lyman and Henry, they still have a very complex relationship in terms of being “close” to one another even though it seems as if they’re from two different planets. In the stories “Everyday Use” and “The Red Convertible”, the characters share one particular trait which is
After breakfast Josh headed for the barn where the Chevy was, Sophie followed him quietly. Josh tugged both of the double doors open, and there it was, the jet black 1972 Chevy SS. Josh’s grandfather got the car the year it came out, and passed it down to Josh’s dad. Josh wanted to try and get the car for his birthday coming up on April 13. He stepped into the barn and went to the bench with all his dad’s tools. Sophie went over to the car and opened the hood.