War And The Human Psyche

4 Pages 949 Words

War and the Human Psyche
The experience of war places stresses on the human spirit that cannot even be imagined. In the short story, “The Red Convertible,” Louise Erdrich illustrates the harsh effects of war on one’s character. War can turn even the most free-spirited person into a monster of some sort, where almost nothing will bring the person back to who they once were. In the short story, Henry and Lyman are the main characters in the story.
Henry and Lyman were two free-spirited people, in the beginning. “Then, before we had thought it over at all, the car belonged to us and our pockets were empty. We had just enough money for gas back home.” The two made a major purchase on an impulse. “We went places in that car, me and Henry. We took off driving all one whole summer.” Only uninhibited people would just up and take off driving for no reason. “Some people hang on to details when they travel, but we didn’t let them bother us and just lived our everyday lives from here to there.” It was almost as if the two brothers went wherever the wind blew them to. “We were somewhere in Montana, or maybe on the Blood Reserve – it could have been anywhere. Anyway it was where we met the girl.” These two brothers picked up a perfect stranger! She asked them for a ride to Alaska and they happily obliged. When they got up there, they made themselves at home and got to know the girl more. “You couldn’t tell how much hair she had when it was rolled up so neatly. Then my brother Henry did something funny. He went up to the chair and said, ‘Jump on my shoulders.’ So she did that, and her hair reached down past his waist, and he started twirling, this way and that, so her hair was flung out from side to side.” Both Henry and Lyman were happy people; happy that is, until Henry was sent for to go into the army.
When Henry returned from the army, he was definitely a changed person. “But he ...