The Red Convertible by Louise Erdrich
In the Red Convertible by Louise Erdrich, the main character Henry loses his hold on reality. The story takes place in North Dakota on an Indian Reservation where Henry lives with his brother Lyman. Henry and Lyman buy a Red Convertible that later in the story illustrates Henry’s lack of ability to stay sane. The brothers take a summer trip across the United States in the car. When they return, Henry is called to join the army, which turns out to be the transitional point in Henry and Lyman’s personal life. The Vietnam War changed Henry’s appearance, psyche, and his feelings about the Red Convertible.
Before the Vietnam War, Henry’s appearance was cheerful and energetic. Henry enjoyed the time he had with Lyman, working on the Red Convertible, and traveling across the U.S. during the summer. They went from Little Knife River to Alaska without a worry in the world. Henry was talkative and friendly to even strangers. For example, when they pass a woman on the side of the road Henry says, “Hop on in”, indicating his friendliness and confidence (975). Henry’s appearance before war suggests that his life was complete.
However, after war, Henry’s appearance was one of depression and dishevelment. When Henry returned Lyman said “[he] was very different, and I’ll say this: the change was no good (977).” Henry was 180 different than he was before the war. “He was quiet, so quiet…,” said Lyman, not talkative and cheerful like he was before (977). Henry and Lyman had went on a long trip in the Red Convertible before the war, but now Henry is “never comfortable sitting still anywhere (977).” They used to sit around the whole afternoon before, but now Henry is always ...
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...y’s feelings soon changed. Henry one day comes home and says, “the red car looks like *censored*”(978). This one point in the story where Henry’s past actions before war were still there after war, completely surprise Lyman.
As the Red Convertible progresses Henry’s appearance, mental state, and feelings about his once cherished car change because of the Vietnam War. The war had extreme effects on Henry and his brother throughout the story. 57,000 men and women died in Vietnam, and the soldiers that survived suffered the same post-war feelings that Henry did. Seeing death causes every person to change in some way, but when it is as gruesome and seen as repeatedly as some soldiers did, it changed their lives forever.
Work Cited
Erdrich, Louise. "The Red Convertible." The Story and Its Writer. 5th ed. Ed. Ann Charters. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 1999.
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)
...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 Louise Erdrich's "The Red Convertible," the two main characters start off doing seemingly well. However, there are many changes that these two young men go through during the story. Henry experiences the largest transformation due to his involvement in the Vietnam War. This transformation also alters Henry's brother, Lyman, although not for the same reasons. As the story progresses, and these certain events take place, the brothers' innocence is soon lost.
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...
In the story of “Red Convertible” Henry owns a red convertible, which is his pride and joy. But after his departure and return from the Vietnam War, both he and the convertible have changed. Henry, as noticed by the narrator, Lyman, “was very different, and… the change was no good.” So Lyman, thinking “the car might brin...
Henry and Lyman are two brothers which developed a nicely bond whey got the red convertible. The story is written in first person, we get to know about Lyman and his emotions than they do about Henry. But the author, Louise Erdrich, has tried to go farther and deeper feelings into the character of Henry by means of the red convertible. Throughout this story, the course of “The Red Convertible” becomes the life story of Henry and everything it represents is somehow affiliated with Henry and his changing condition. At the beginning when the two brothers saw the car “Really as if it was alive. I thought of the word repose, because the car wasn't simply stopped, parked, or whatever. That car reposed, calm and gleaming” (359). It can be see that this is a mental condition of Henry who is calm and happy is and delighted with this car.
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.
The reaction of one soldier to another is the basis of war, as camaraderie is the methodology by which wars are won. Henry gave witness to the horrors of war, the atrocities of battle, the deaths of his friends, and later a life of victory. The ultimate transformation in Henry's character leading to a mature temperament was found by finding himself in the confusion of war and companionship.
Henry's first-person narrative is the most important element of these stories. Through it he recounts the events of his life, his experiences with others, his accomplishments and troubles. The great achievement of this narrative voice is how effortlessly it reveals Henry's limited education while simultaneously demonstrating his quick intelligence, all in an entertaining and convincing fashion. Henry introduces himself by introducing his home-town of Perkinsville, New York, whereupon his woeful g...
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"
War changes a person in ways that can never be imagined. Living in a war as well as fighting in one is not an experience witnessed in everyday life. Seeing people die every time and everywhere you go can be seen as an unpleasant experience for any individual such as Henry. The experiences that Henry had embraced during the Vietnam War have caused him to become an enraged and paranoid being after the war. It has shaped him to become this individual of anxiety and with no emotions. The narrator says:
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.
In Louise Erdrich’s “The Red Convertible” chronicles both the erosion of childhood innocence and the dissolution of a particular sibling relationship. In order to suggest these themes, the narrative foregrounds imagery of movement and stasis, conveying their meanings in complex ways. As such, it’s no surprise that the title of the story itself not only describes the symbolic importance of the convertible to their brotherhood, but also embodies freedom to transcend one’s societal confinements, which, in this case, imparts the literal power of movement. The car gives both of them a kind of agency that lifts them from their economic and social disadvantages as Native Americans. Hence the story establishes the joyful memories of Lyman and Henry’s brotherhood with an extended description of their movement throughout the land, going as far up to Alaska. Not surprisingly, Lyman thinks that making Henry focus on the car, an agent and symbol of freedom, will ultimate save his brother’s soul and regain his spirit. Unfortunately, this turns out to be a false assumption.
The reader also meets Henry, Lyman’s brother who is older than he is. Unlike Lyman, the reader is given a physical description of Henry. Erdrich writes, “He was built like a brick out house anyway. He had a nose big and sharp as a hatchet” (128). One may conclude that a physical description was given for Henry and not Lyman because he was ...
"The Red Badge of Courage" is the story of how war changes a boy into a man. It shows how you will do things you will later forget. How you may have the wrong idea of just how brave and courageous you are. This book shows how one event can change a man forever.