The Red Convertible

In Native American culture, the red is the color of faith, and represents communication. The short story The Red Convertible by Louise Erdrich is more than an emotional story about the lives of two Chippewa brothers who grew up together on an Indian reservation in North Dakota. Erdrich uses metaphor, symbol, vivid imagery and a simple writing style to allow the reader to understand the text while also providing the opportunity to read a lot into the story.

Written in the first person by Lyman Larmartine, The Red Convertible follows a typical dramatic development. The story begins in with an introduction of the narrator’s life. Almost simultaneously the reader is introduced to older brother Henry Junior and the shiny red Oldsmobile convertible they bought on the spur of the moment together. The rising action of the story begins when the two take off one summer on a road trip that ends them in Alaska. When they arrived home, it was conveniently just in time for Henry to be drafted for the army. Just months later in early 1970 Henry was fighting in the Vietnam War and Lyman was had the red convertible in his possession. More than three years later, Henry finally returned home three years later only to be a much different person than the one that had left. Henry was distant and lackadaisical for the most part, never really caring about anything. Lyman knew there had been only one thing in the past that really cheered him up, and would do whatever it would take to have Henry back to his old self. Lyman took a hammer to their prized possession one night and soon showed Henry the car. Henry then was angered by the way the car was treated and was soon spend all his days and nights consumed by repairing the car. The climax of the story begins when Henry finally finished refurbishing the car and posing in front of it with Lyman for one last picture followed by a trip to Red River like in the good old days. When they arrived at the river, Henry confessed that he had known what Lyman did to the Olds, and was thankful for it, then offered to give his portion of the car to him. Just when the reader believes the old Henry has come back to life, he dives into the river and is sucked down with the strong current. At the moment Lyman knows Henry is gone, he feels the only way there could be resolution is by driving their car up to the rivers edge and letting it roll in behind Henry.

We can see that title of the story is the main source of communication between the brothers Lamartine, and as mentioned earlier its color only further exemplifies the symbolism. There are many different cultural color associations and although Erdrich has created a Native American story, she wants to draw readers of all backgrounds to find some relationship with colors. In America, there are two specific associations made by the color red. The first are positive associations of the color which include passion, strength, love and energy. These concepts are seen throughout the story, and usually in connection to Lyman. In the beginning, we see Lyman as the lucky one, the one who had "good luck with numbers" (185). He filled with passion for money and was characteristically strong. The way Lyman speaks of his luck makes the reader believe that he must have some positive energy flowing through him. Why else would he have been "the only kid they let in the American Legion Hall"?

The second important connections found with the color red in the story are the American ideologies of the negative things found in association with it. These things included blood, aggression, danger and war. The red convertible went from taking these two brothers on the adventure of a lifetime to returning them to face war. Henry was the stronger (physically) brother, the one "built like a brick outhouse" was never lucky enough to have anything positive to come from his strengths (185). These negative color associations are embodied by Henry in many ways throughout the story. When he returns home from war a changed man, the reader is told several events about Henry’s unnatural behavior, such as the incident with the color TV. Lyman says "once I was in the room watching TV with Henry…I looked over, and he’d bitten through his lip. Blood was going down his chin". This depiction is important because not only does it show Henry’s misdirected aggression, but involves another red. "There was still blood going down Henry’s chin, but he didn’t notice", in this we see how a color once associated with the car that made Henry so happy, has become a body fluid going unnoticed (186).

The use of the color red does not end here. When we take a look at parts of the setting, we see the color used over and over again. During their summer road trip, they meet a girl named Susy from Chicken, Alaska. Although in retrospect Lyman is unsure where they met the girl, one place that crosses his mind is