The Red Convertible

In Louise Erdrich’s “The Red Convertible”, she takes us on a journey through the lives of two brothers, Lyman and Henry. As these two brothers grow together, they experience things together as well as separately. The things that they experience together do not really let them grow as individuals, but when they are separate, they experience change in their lives. The main character in the short story, Lyman grows up at a very early age. He is very mature for a young age and had more responsibility than most young people do at his age. He also carried this responsibility very easily and never seemed to complain. He was mature and grateful for what he had because he was motivated, carefree and spontaneous, and family oriented.

From a very young age, Lyman always found that making money was no problem for him. As a young boy, he would make money by shining shoes and doing door-to-door sales for nuns. By the time he was fifteen years old, he began busing tables at a local cafй. It didn’t take very long for young Lyman to climb the ladder. Before he knew it, he was moving up the ranks from cook to manager, and finally owner. “I soon became part owner, and of course there was no stopping me then. It wasn’t long before the whole thing was mine” (407). This shows the confidence that he had. He was not satisfied working under anyone, and wanted the cafй to be his own. All of these jobs helped Lyman learn independence and responsibility. He did not rely on anyone else for things and went out and did it himself. This independence and responsibility led Lyman to be able to make quick decisions although some may have been risky.

“We were walking down Portage anyway, seeing the sights, when we saw it. There it was parked, large as life. Really it was alive. I thought of the word repose, because the car wasn’t simply stopped, parked or whatever. That car reposed, calm and gleaming, a FOR SALE sign in its left front window. 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” (407). This scene right there just shows how carefree and spontaneous he was. His cafй had just been totally wrecked by a tornado, yet he goes ahead and buys a car with the insurance money. His primary source of income is gone but he still does not really care. After purchasing the red convertible, Henry and Lyman spent a whole summer basically just driving around. They were not particularly interested in any minor problems or consequences they could face but continued living their normal lives. During their road trip, they come across a girl and picked her up. She lives all the way in Chicken, Alaska but they still tell her that they will drop her off. After their long summer of fun, they decide to come back home. As the season changes, things back home begin to change also. Once they get home, it was enough of the carefree life and things began making a change for the worse.

When they got back home Henry joined the army, but was quickly turned into a Marine. He was soon off to Vietnam for the war. While he was in Vietnam, the enemy captured Henry, but fortunately he was able to return home safely. When he came home though, Henry was completely changed from how he was before. “You could hardly expect him to change for the better, I know. But he was quiet, so quiet, and never comfortable sitting still anywhere but always up and moving around. I thought back to times we’d sat still for