Short Story Summary In The Red Convertible By Louise Erdrich

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“The Red Convertible”, by Louise Erdrich is a story about two brothers that buy a red convertible. The story is told in first person by the main character Lyman. Lyman seems to get all of the good luck. Lyman becomes the owner of a restaurant at the age of 16. Money seems to come easy to him. Henry is not lucky and he gets called to go and fight in the war. Lyman made a comment on it saying “ I always had good luck with numbers, and never worried about the draft myself. But Henry was never lucky in the same way as me” (Erdrich 1030). The two of them had always been close and the thing that brings them even closer is the red convertible. The boys hitchhike and head to Winnipeg, which is the biggest city to where they live. When they come upon the car Like anyone who has fought in a war, the war makes a person very different. We do not know if Henry was tortured while fighting, but the way he was acting leads us to believe that he was. He is very quiet and restless. He is not making jokes or laughing and if he does laugh it creeps people out. It is hard for Lyman to see his brother like this. Henry only seems interested in watching the color television. The furthest thing from Henry’s mind is the red convertible. Lyman is sad that the bond with is brother is gone because of Henry’s experience in the war. Another sign of symbolism is when Lyman destroys the car and make it look like trash. He does this to try and get Henry out of whatever mood he is in and so that they can ride and spend time together. The hope is that Henry snaps out of whatever funk he is in and that he notices the car. Henry is screwed up from his experiences during the war. His plan works out perfectly. He gets the attention of his brother and Henry says, “that red car looks like shit” (Erdrich 114). He notices how bad the car is and he himself starts to repair it. He blames Lyman for how bad the car is and he hopes that he can get it to run

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