Summary Of The Red Convertible By Louise Erdrich

Roseli Marti
Garcia, Arlene
TR 8:25-9:50 AM
26 March 2013

“The Red Convertible” by Louise Erdrich Separated by War The short story “The Red Convertible” is told by Lyman Lamartine, one of the two main characters in this short story and one of the many characters that are involved in the novels of “Love Medicine” by Louise Erdrich. That is why the story is symbolic because it is told from the point of view of a true Indian living in the North Dakota reservation. The story is set on a time period of war which reinforces the meaning of the story and the feeling of sorrow that Erdrich was trying to enforce on its readers.
This leads to Erdrich showing us how Henry going to war creates distance between the two brothers. Erdrich shows us the struggles that Lyman and his brother Henry went through due to the war and how it affected their relationship by using symbolism. Erdrich uses the red convertible to illustrate the relationship between Henry and Lyman because it was what they both loved and what brought them close together but at the end so far apart. “We owned it together until his boots filled with water night and he bought out my share” (Erdrich 368), before the war Henry Lyman were inseparable, they did it all together in their red convertible and maybe that is why the separation was so difficult on Lyman. This is the reason why Lyman takes the car apart because the car symbolizes their relationship that no longer existed. When we think about war we think about those soldiers who are out there fighting endlessly for our country but if it does not hit close to home we don’t understand just how much pain and change war can bring to those people and the ones they love. That is what Erdrich was trying to convey in this short story the distance that war can bring between people who love each other not only when in battle but also when returning home. When Henry returns back home from war he is no longer interested in Lyman or the red convertible which according to Erdrich was the foundation of their relationship, “When he came home; though, Henry was very different, and I’ll say this: the change was no good” (Erdrich 370). This brings Lyman to destroy the car which in fact means that their relationship as brothers was torn apart as well. The author uses analogy throughout the whole story by using Henry’s boots and appearance as a reminder that when a person returns from war they are never the same.
“He has his field jacket on and the worn-in clothes he’d come back in and kept wearing ever since”(Erdrich 372), represents how war changed him, the depression that the war brought to him made him change the way he was to the point that he did not even dress the same way anymore. At this same time Erdrich uses a photograph to compare Henry and Lyman, “My face is right out in the sun big and round” (Erdrich 372) which he uses to demonstrate just how peaceful Lyman’s face is. “But he might have drawn back, because the shadows on his face are deep as holes. There are two shadows curved like little hooks around the ends of his smile, as if to frame it and try to keep it there- that one, first smile that looked like it might have hurt his face” (Erdrich 372) described how depressed Henry looked and the emotional problems that war had implanted in him. While Lyman’s calm face represents someone who has not been through the struggles of war, Henry’s face represents the sorrow and pain that war brings into a person’s life. By doing this Erdrich once more lets us see just how far apart and different the two brother are from one another and that the cause of this separation between the two of them is ultimately war and the horrifying events that Henry had to go
through. One day Henry begins to repair the convertible which makes Lyman believe that their relationship was going to get repaired as well. When Henry finally fixes the car he ask Lyman to take a ride with him in the red convertible which gives Lyman false hope that by taking a ride in this car which was what once brought them together their relationship will always reestablish to its former way of being. Then Erdrich gives the short story a dramatic form when Henry unexpectedly jumps into a river and drowns. Erdrich shows comparison once again as Lyman drowns the red convertible into the river as well. The convertible is a way of identifying the relationship between Henry and Lyman and now that Henry is gone and never coming back the convertible has to go too. One of the most effective and essential parts of this shorts story is the fact that Erdrich connected Henry’s appearance to his death, “His boots filled with water in a windy night” (Erdrich 368). This quote from the story shows us just how much war affected Henry to the point that he decided to commit suicide. Erdrich adds a dramatic, heartfelt touch to the story by using this line because he uses the boots which came from war to compare it to his death that in fact was the effect of war. Henry’s boots filling up with water signifies his death. Lyman tries to cover up the fact that his brother died by saying that the boots filled in with water when in reality it was Henry who in his own depression decided to end his life by drowning. Erdrich uses identification of object throughout the whole story from the convertible being the foundation of Henry and Lyman’s relationship, to Lyman wearing the same cloth he did at war and the boots characterizing Henry’s death, Erdrich did his job in insuring that we knew that the main point of this story was not the red convertible or the war but how the war affected the relationship between to people that loved each other and how war made them into two people that hardly said a word to each other. Erdrich was effective in making his readers feel the pain that not only Henry was going through from the effects of war but also Lyman who at first had to emotionally put up with the fact that his brother is not the same anymore physically and emotionally and at the end has to understand the fact that his brother died and is no longer going to be there with him. “The Red Convertible” lets us experience the emotional scars that war leaves not only on those who are in the battle field but also on their loved ones.