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The red convertible criticism essay
The red convertible literary analysis
Effect of war on human life
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The Effects of War Shown in Louise Erdrich's The Red Convertible
It is always said that war changes people. In the short story 'The Red Convertible', Louise Erdrich uses Henry to show how it affects people. In this case, the effects are psychological. You can clearly see a difference between his personalities from before he goes to war compared to his personalities after returns home from the war. Before the war, he is a care-free soul who just likes to have fun. After the war, he is very quiet and defensive, always watching his back as if waiting for someone to strike.
The first and most obvious change in behavior is shown by comparing Henry?s actions when they stopped at the place with the willows during the road trip and the description of Henry when he first returned home from the war. While resting at the willows, Lyman said, ?Henry was asleep with his arms thrown wide? (366). Henry was completely relaxed. When a dog or cat lies on his back with his belly exposed, he is making himself vulnerable, so therefore this is a sign of trust. Henry is showing a similar trust by lying in that position. This changes drastically when Henry comes home from the war. Lyman states, ?Henry was very different, and I?ll say this: the change was no good. You could hardly expect him to change for the better, I know. But he was quiet, so quiet, and never comfortable sitting still anywhere but always up and moving around? (367). The war has turned him into a very cautious man...
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)
It appears that the war in Vietnam has still gotten into Henry. The war may be over in reality but in his mind it is still going on. This can explain all the agitations and discomfort he has such as not being able to sit still. Based on research, what Henry was experiencing was shellshock from the battlefield from the many soldiers being killed to t...
It is said that when a man returns from war he is forever changed. In the short story, “The Red Convertible,” Louise Erdrich demonstrates these transformations through the use of symbolism. Erdrich employs the convertible to characterize the emotional afflictions that war creates for the soldier and his family around him by discussing the the pre-deployment relationship between two brothers Henry and Lyman, Lyman's perception of Henry upon Henry's return, and Henry’s assumed view on life in the end of the story.
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"
Robert 's mom, Mrs. Ross, is incredibly influenced by her child 's decision to join the war abroad. She gradually becomes far off from her crew. She rather lean towards the organization of her companion Mrs. Davenport. Mrs. Ross is effected by Robert going to wars which is seen in,” I’m blind, said Mrs. Ross. I’ve gone blind” (Findley 186). Actually, the relatives of fighters sent to war can be contrarily influenced psychologically and emotionally. Like stated in Canada in Context, “The result is more depression, more stress, and more sleepless nights." Many family members at home worry about the wellbeing their son or husband who is at war. They constantly await for the date they would come home and be safe once again. Subsequent to returning home, soldiers will most likely be unable to conform to their previous day-by-day lives. This outcomes in a change of social demeanour for the family. Findley precisely defines the withdrawal of a few individuals from the family from the rest using the character of Mrs. Ross. Findley 's depiction of the impacts of war on both family and soldier is to a great degree precise when contrasted with issues experienced by genuine soldiers and their
Henry is drafted to go to serve the United States in the Vietnam War. Before the war, Henry was an outgoing and lively person and was very close with his brother Lyman. The two of them bought a red convertible together and drove it across the country. The convertible represented the brotherhood bond the two brothers shared and when Henry went to war, it just sat there. Henry wasn’t there to take car of the car and Lyman didn’t want to mess anything up. After the war, Henry was a changed man. He didn’t smile. He didn’t laugh. He rarely talked. All he did was sit in a chair and stare at the TV. Even though Henry had changed, Lyman knew he had to do something to fix their relationship. He knew the only way to get Henry to snap out of his phase was to mess with the red convertible. Lyman tore apart the car and Henry fixed it. After it was fixed, the brothers went for a joy ride to a river. When they arrived at the river, the brothers started conversing just like old times. This just shows that no matter what happens, brothers will always be brothers. Nothing can separate them
War makes boys into men, as you will discover in the read of Soldiers Heart and Red Badge of Courage. These books have numerous contrasts, like how Henry and Charley differ in age. Although the two boys are different in many ways. However, the young boys have very few similarities. The two books have numerous compare and contrast.
At the beginning, Henry Fleming has an undeveloped identity because his inexperience limits his understanding of heroism, manhood, and courage. For example, on the way to war, “The regiment was fed and caressed at station after station until the youth [Henry] had believed that he must be a hero” (Crane 13). Since he has yet to fight in war, Henry believes a hero is defined by what others think of him and not what he actually does. The most heroic thing he has done so far is enlist, but even that was with ulterior motives; he assumes fighting in the war will bring him glory, yet another object of others’ opinions. At this point, what he thinks of himself is much less important than how the public perceives him. As a result of not understanding
Henry is subject to operant conditioning, classical conditioning, and conditioned response. Henry is taught by giving praise when he does something right and being corrected when he does something wrong. He is taught that if he does a certain thing like walking for example he gets praise. He is taught to associate certain things with others when they are presented like a fork for example to him means it’s time to eat because he has been given a fork before eating a few times before.
In the beginning of the book, Henry felt that the best option for him was to enroll into the war. It was something that he was able to do and something that he could come back with honor. He feels that there’s nothing else for him to do. “He felt that in this crisis his laws of life were useless.” (12) He just lost in himself, he feels like a thrown out a piece of bread. To serve one purpose. “He became not a man but a member. He felt that something of which he was a part- a regiment, an army, a cause, or a country- was in crisis.” (49) After joining the army, he feels that it’s their
...vironment where they can witness the changes in a soldier and horrible mental state for those soldiers with PTSD when they return from war. War affects a person’s relationships with people close to them and their relationships with themselves. Erdrich embodies those changes through the text in “The Red Convertible.” “‘My boots are filling,’ he says. He says this in a normal voice, like he just noticed and he doesn’t know what to think of it. Then he’s gone” (Erdrich 363) shows the reader the last moments between the brothers before Henry is gone forever. Henry is assumed to take his own life, concluding the short story and further enforcing the devastating effects that the war had on Henry.
In the first part of the novel, Henry is a youth that is very inexperienced. His motives were impure. He was a very selfish and self-serving character. He enters the war not for the basis of serving his country, but for the attainment of glory and prestige. Henry wants to be a hero. This represents the natural human characteristic of selfishness. Humans have a want and a need to satisfy themselves. This was Henry's main motive throughout the first part of the novel. On more than one occasion Henry is resolved to that natural selfishness of human beings. After Henry realizes that the attainment of glory and heroism has a price on it. That price is by wounds or worse yet, death. Henry then becomes self-serving in the fact that he wants to survive for himself, not the Union army. There is many a time when Henry wants to justify his natural fear of death. He is at a point where he is questioning deserting the battle; in order to justify this, he asks Jim, the tall soldier, if he would run. Jim declared that he'd thought about it. Surely, thought Henry, if his companion ran, it would be alright if he himself ran. During the battle, when Henry actually did take flight, he justified this selfish deed—selfish in the fact that it did not help his regiment hold the Rebs—by natural instinct. He proclaimed to himself that if a squirrel took flight when a rock was thrown at it, it was alright that he ran when his life was on the line.
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.
In summary, Erdrich makes a statement in her short story, "The Red Convertible": the Vietnam War had a horrendous effect on the soldiers who participated, but also on the people who knew them before. She reveals the horrible effects war has on soldiers as well as on their relationships. She depicts a more realistic view of war; instead of showing soldiers as heroic and unaffected, she shows them for what they really are, human beings with emotions. Erdrich accomplishes her purpose by bringing her audience to the understanding that war affects more than just the soldier. Like death it affects everyone and everything the soldier is involved in.
War changes everyone involved in one way or another. For some it physical changes them because they get physical deformed, but for most people, war changes their mental state. War changes people’s mental state because of the duties that they have to perform and the experiences that they have to see. Tim O’Brien shows how the characters mental states changed throughout the book, because of the war.