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Summary Of The Red Convertible By Louise Erdrich

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In this short story by Louise Erdrich, “The Red Convertible”, the plot which is the changes that Henry undergoes during his time at war. Henrry changes so that Lyman cannot recognize him. From Henry’s smile to his laugh to Henry being social, everything has changed and to the disappointment of Lyman it is for the worse. War is not only a place in which soldiers are deployed, it becomes a state of mind which is so intense that it interupts their daily lives. It becomes so intense that the solider’s family no longer recognize that person. In the beginning of this story, Henry and Lyman are brothers and seem to be the best of friends and are always together being social. The two of them go on a trip to Winnipeg, each of them with money in their …show more content…

He enjoys being with his brother and making new friends.Once Henry comes home from the war, Lyman can see that his brother has changed. Henry becomes distant and is always on edge. The one thing that Henry and Lyman loved was that Red convertible. When Henry went to war he gave the car to Lyman as a present since he knew that Lyman always wanted to “own”. “… Now it’s yours, and threw me his key.” (Erdrich 396) Lyman used the car to take it on a long road trip, so he wanted to make sure that when Henry did get back it was in top notch shape since the convertible took a lot of blows because of …show more content…

It was this reason that Lyman regretted getting the new TV set. Henry was so quiet that it was uncomfortable for Lyman. “But he was quiet, so quiet …” (396). It was as if Henry had become the most anti social person ever, and not that he wanted to be perhaps, it was what the war had done to him, “Henry’s character was jumpy and mean” (396). No one wanted to be around a person like that and unfortunately Henry was no exception. Lyman comes up with a plan to try to get Henry back to his “normal” self. Lyman thought that if Henry could work on the car it would bring back some good memories and it would help him get out of his “army daze”. “One night Henry was off somewhere. I took myself a hammer. I went out to the car and I did a number on its underside. Whacked it up. Bent the tail pipe double. Rippled the muffler loose. By the time I was done with the car it looked worse than any other Indian car …” “Lyman just waited for Henry to notice, and it still took about a month” (397). Henry finally started to work on the car, and when he was done the car was in top notch condition and Lyman was thinking that Henry may be getting back to his old “normal” self. Once Henry got the car cleaned up and ready for the road,

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