Essay Topic about The Red Convertible

Symbolism is an element present in writing.

“The Red Convertible,” a short story written by Louise Erdrich, tells the story of the destructive nature of war. With the name in the title, it is only natural that the convertible plays a very important role in the short story. The condition of the car throughout the story shows the stages of a relationship between two brothers. The main characters in the story, Lyman and Henry Lamartine, develop an inseparable bond through a red convertible. Their relationship changed drastically when Henry, the oldest of the two, was drafted into the Vietnam War.

Upon returning from the war “Henry was very different” and “the change was no good” (327). Despite what many may think, the convertible is not the only symbol in the story. Henry’s clothes and boots show the permanent effect of war, and the power of a photograph show the effects that war can have on a person’s soul. Erdrich’s ultimate purpose in “The Red Convertible” is communicating the emotional and physical pain war creates for a soldier and his family.

Although many symbols drive the story, the most obvious is the red convertible.In the beginning of the story Henry and Lyman buy, restore, and travel around the country in the convertible together. This shows a normal relationship of two brothers before the effects of war. When Henry goes off to war, the relationship changes, and not for the better.

Lyman took care of the car and made it almost perfect while Henry was away. When Henry returned from war he lost all interest in the convertible, as well as in Lyman. Lyman beats up the car as a result of feeling neglected by Henry and so Henry would emerge from his pain and fix it.The car portrayed the broken relationship that Lyman feels between him and his brother. Henry was so consumed with other thoughts and memories he was unable to function properly. It took Henry nearly a month to discover the car had been damaged and to confront Lyman, “ That car’s a classic! But you went and ran the piss right out of it, Lyman, and you know it don’t deserve that.

I kept that car in A-one shape. You don’t remember. You’re too young. But when I left that car was running like a watch.

Now I don’t even know if I can get it to start again, let alone get it anywhere near its old condition” (328).Erdrich uses symbolism here to show Henry’s concern about the future of his relationships after war. Henry fears that life will never be the same, or even worse, that the relationship between him and his brother itself will become a casualty of war. Soon Henry began to reconstruct the convertible, which was significant.

He was finally showing interest in something other than the TV. This made Lyman believe that Henry was getting back to his normal self. After Henry fixed the car, he asked Lyman to go for a ride with him to a river so he could watch the high waters.It was at that very river that Henry would eventually take his last breath.

This is a crucial moment in the story because here one gets the full understanding of the importance of the relationship between the brothers and the car. When Henry drowns, Lyman plunges the car in the same water. He placed the car in “first gear,” “took his foot off the clutch,” and watched the car “plow softly into the water” (331). Not only does his brother die, so does the object that carries so much emotional weight and memories.Erdrich uses this symbolism here to represent relationships affected by war. They start out healthy, the war transforms them, there is the hope of a return to normal, but in the end, the war destroys the soldiers as well as their relationships.

The clothes that we chose to wear is a form of self expression and throughout history have been know to stand for a certain social or economic status. After Henry returns from Vietnam, he constantly wears "his field jacket and worn-in clothes he'd come back in" (329).His refusal to change shows Henry's permanent connection with the war and that he will always carry the horrors of war with him, even in the comforts of his own home. The uniform also expresses Henry's feelings of loneliness. He experienced something that nobody can understand and that he cannot even begin to explain; therefore, he uses his military clothes to set him apart and make himself appear different as an expression of how he feels.

He does not wear the clothes he wore before because he doesn't feel like the same person.Another significant garment that Henry was wearing was his combat boots. The boots acted as the anchor that caused him to be pulled down by the water. Even then Henry showed no emotion, simply stating “my boots are filling” (331). His boots represent the war, not only as a part of his uniform, but also as the cause of his death.

Many people say that a picture is worth a thousand words. Pictures play a big role in what we remember and how our memories are portrayed. In “The Red Convertible,” a picture was taken of Henry and Lyman by their sister a few months before Henry’s death.Lyman had a very hard time looking at the picture and could not manage to keep the picture up for very long. The picture represents an already dead Henry.

It seemed that although he was going through the daily tasks of human existence, he was already dead on the inside. While Lyman's face "is right out in the sun, big and round", Henry is drawn back and has "shadows on his face as deep as holes" (329). The picture shows Lyman's soul as whole and content, and represents a person's soul before war. In contrast, the picture shows Henry's soul as scarred and troubled with "shadows as deep as holes" (329).In the photograph, Henry smiles for the first time since returning from war and it "looked as like it might have hurt his face" (329).

Henry represents a soul during the aftermath of war. Erdrich uses the picture of the brothers to show the wounds a soldier carries emotionally for the rest of his life; while physical wounds may heal, the wounds of the soul last forever. In conclusion, Erdrich’s use of symbolism goes deep into the story’s characters by showing what they are experiencing and the bonds that they share. Erdrich’s work shows the dangers of war and the effects that it can have on its witnesses.The red convertible’s condition was very much related to the condition of the brothers’ relationship and Henry himself.

The red car represented Henry as a red man on a reservation that had no way of being fixed after the war. Clothes show Henry’s inability to remove himself from war. His garments act as a force and a memory that will torture him until death. The picture serves as a reminder of the past that continues to haunt Lyman, so much in fact, that he “put the picture in a brown bag and folded the bag over and over tightly, then put it way back in the closet” (329).Erdrich shows that life is not everlasting and that we will not live forever but our memories will. In “The Red Convertible” we are able to see a more realistic view of war.

Instead of showing soldiers as heroic and unaffected, Erdrich shows them for what they really are, human beings with emotions. Erdrich accomplishes her purpose by bringing her audience to the understanding that war affects more than just the soldier; like death it affects everyone and everything the soldier is involved in.