Red Convertible

3 Pages 663 Words

Unable to Cope in Erdrich’s “The Red Convertible”

In the short story “The Red Convertible” Louise Erdrich writes about two brothers who were Chippewa Indians, living on a reservation in the 1970’s. Lyman, the youngest brother, reveals how an event in his older brothers life, Henry’s, turned him inside out, dwindled from the person he was. Lyman’s story is about how Henry changes, before the war Henry was out going, liked telling jokes and hanging out with his brother. After Henry comes home from being drafted into the Vietnam War; he doesn’t talk or laugh and is to himself, Lyman even destroys the car they shared, trying to bring his brother back.
Henry worked at Jewel Bearing Plant before the layoff. He didn’t seam as lucky with money as his brother Lyman. “But Henry was never lucky in the same way as me.”(409) Lyman became owner of a restaurant at sixteen. “It wasn’t long before the whole thing was mine.”(407) Henry didn’t seam to have a problem with Lyman’s good fortune; he loved his brother, they did every thing together. Lyman and Henry bought a red convertible together and traveled all summer in it. Henry liked having fun and making people laugh. “Then my brother Henry did something funny…he started twirling, this way and that, so her hair was flung out from side to side. “I always wondered what it was like to have long pretty hair,” Henry says. (408) Henry liked to talk; he never met a stranger, “…talking to whoever sat with us…” (409)
After three years of being a prisoner of war, Henry came home. “…Henry was different, and I’ll say this: the change was no good.” (409) Lyman knew that Henry would be different from the experiences he under went in the war, he didn’t know how deep the wounds ran in his brothers mind. The way Henry acted, never smiling or talking and always jumpy, unable to deal with everyday life; even his friends quite coming around. “…now y...