The Red Convertible Analysis

The Red Convertible Louise Erdrich tells us a story about two Native American brothers, Lyman and Henry Lamartine, and their developing and ongoing connection as brothers. Erdrich uses literary imagery in this story to help describe the relationship between the two brothers. The focus of this story is the red convertible, and what it represents; the bond between the two brothers and the hardships the two boys face when Henry goes into the Marines to fight in the Vietnam War, and when he returns home after he is held as a prisoner of war.
In the beginning of the story, Lyman as the narrator tells us “I was the first one to drive a convertible on my reservation. And of course it was a red, a red Olds. I owned that car along with my brother Henry
It is at this point the reader begins to think the boys are starting to repair their relationship as the two brothers take the newly repaired red convertible for a ride to the river. “It’s not that he smiled or anything. He just said, ‘Let’s take that old shitbox for a spin.’ Just the way he said it made me think he could be coming around.” (Erdrich, 311) As Lyman and Henry fill the cooler with beer and load it into the trunk of the car, Lyman is feeling encouraged. At the river, the boys get into a scuffle over who will keep the car, “I jumped to my feet. I took Henry by the shoulders and I started shaking him. ‘Wakeup,’ I says, ‘wake up, wake up, wake up!’” (Erdrich, 312) The fight ends as abruptly as it began, and the brothers continued to laugh and drink their worries away by the river. “Got to cool me off!” (Erdrich 313) Henry shouts as he jumps into the river. The writer leaves it up to the reader’s imagination if Henry truly meant to take his own life, but soon, as his voice becomes more and more distant, it is clear to Lyman that his brother wasn’t attempting to save himself. As Lyman runs to the river’s edge, he hears “My boots are filling” in a calm voice and he goes in. When he returns to the bank of the river, Lyman understands why Henry took him to the river that day. “I walk back to the car, turn on the high beams, and drive it up the bank, I put it in first gear and then I take my foot off the clutch. I get out, close the door, and watch it plow softly into the water. The headlights reach in as they go down, searching, still lighted even after the water swirls over the back end. I wait. The wires short out. It is all finally dark.” (Erdrich,