Red Convertible

In Louise Erdrich’s Red Convertible, Erdich tells the story of two Indian brothers. Henry and Lyman, both put in money on a car they would share but things would change between the brothers just as the car would. The car would play a significant role in the tale of these brothers and change their lives forever.

Even in the beginning if the story Edrich, tells the reader exactly what will happen at the end without giving the ending away:

“we owned it together until his boots filled with water on a windy night and he bought out my share. Now Henry owns the whole car, and his younger brother (that’s myself), Lyman walks everywhere he goes.” (943).

As the story begins, Henry and Lyman happen to find a ride to Winnipeg and had brought all their money, when they saw the car and agreed to buy it. When they first got the car they went joyriding all summer and meet a friend named Susy pg 944. The brothers agreed to take her home which just happen to be in Chicken, Alaska. When they returned Henry had to go to Vietnam and things were never quite the same between the brothers.

When Henry was away at war he got captured and when he finally came home he was changed by the experience: “By then I guess the whole war was solved in the government’s mind, but for him it would keep on going.” (946) After Henry returned from Vietnam he was irritable and jumpy. Lyman and his mother both worry about Henry: when Henry was not around we talked about what was going to happen to him. “ They don’t fix them in those places… they just give them drugs.”(947).

Lyman later tries to use the car to help his brother come back to the norm “ I thought and waited for my chance to interest him in the vehicle.”