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LOUISE ERDRICH’S “THE RED CONVERTIBLE”
This handout was prepared by Dr. William Tarvin, a retired professor of literature.
Please visit my free website www.tarvinlit.com. Over 500 works of American and British
literature are analyzed there for free.
Text used: Ann Charters, ed. The Story and Its Writer, 6th ed. Boston: Bedford, 2003.
1. COLOR IMAGERY: In the second sentence, color imagery is introduced; the
narrator says, “And of course, it was red, a red Olds” (Charters 475). Why “of course”?
The color “red” is an affirmation of the brothers’ _________ American (Indian)
heritage.
2. What other uses of the “red” imagery are there in the story?
(1) If the color of the car is a symbol of Native American culture, the automobile
itself is a symbol of ________ American culture.
(2) “Red ____________________” (478). He was one of the Indian
policemen on the Standing Rock reservation who, on December 15, 1890,were sent to
arrest the aged Sitting Bull for inciting rebellion against whites. During the arrest,
Sitting Bull was shot and killed by Red ________________, who came to be regarded
as a traitor among Indians, although his profile is on all signs along North Dakota
highways.
The infamous Wounded Knee massacre occurred shortly after the
assassination of Sitting Bull.
(3) The blood on __________ lips (478-79).
(4) Red _________, where Henry drowns himself (482).
3.
THEME: The imagery indicates the alienation which _______ Americans
experience in American society and that theirs is a divided existence. Other aspects of
divisions dealt with in the story suggest that the _________________ is tormented
because he or she must live with one foot in the Indian world and one in the American
world. List some of these contrasting divisions:
(1) The Reservation setting is an artificial hybrid creation: It is not the
natural world which _________ had before whites came and, although created by
Americans, it is not the American __________ world.
(2) The word “repose” (476)—which is italicized and which also signals
the Inciting Moment of the story—has two meanings:
(1) “to lie at rest,” as
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_________ and __________ do at the bottom of p. 476 and the top of p. 477 and
also on p. 481; (2)
“to rest in death or in a grave,” a meaning the
______________ of the story reveals.
(3) The brothers are not ________ brothers, since they have different
_________ (477).
(4) Henry before the _________ and Henry after the __________.
After Henry returns, what other major American symbol replaces the red car for a time?
(478) The ______________ television.
(5) The car broken down (on purpose) and the car fixed up by
___________ (479). On _________ part, this ritual seems to be an attempt to
return to the innocence which the brothers knew before the _____ destroyed Henry.
(6) The photograph (480) in which Lyman is captured in the ______, but
Henry in the ________________.
(7) At the _______ River, there are moments of peacefulness and
moments of ____________. Henry's comment, “__________ Indians” (482),
symbolizes what trying to live in a dual world will do. His dance is a mixture of an
Indian ___________ dance and an American ___________ hop dance.
(8) The suicide of ________ and the “killing”
of the red
_____________: Henry dies in his own culture (the _____ River); Lyman's
decisions to push the _____ into the river and to “___________” (476, variant tense)
wherever he goes suggest he knows that ____________ culture killed his brother.
4. PLOT: The ending brings the story back to the beginning: thus the story has a
circular plot.
5. BEGINNING (475-76): INCITING MOMENT: Their decision
to buy the
_________. Question: Will the red _______________ bring them “repose”
(476), allowing them to regain the unity of their ____________ heritage.
6. MIDDLE (476-480): At first it seems to. It gets them their freedom from the hybrid
_________________; they can roam the plains and mountains as their
_______________ did. Summarize the episode involving Susy (477), telling its
importance in the story.
The
_________________
brothers,
in
their
red
________________, pick up a female ___________________ in Montana.
They drive her to her native tribe in _________________, where they
spend an entire summer with Susy’s family.
Before they leave, Susy shows them her long uncut hair. Henry puts her
on his ____________________ and twirls her about.
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This episode symbolizes the unity of ______________ Americans,
whose heritage is as long and uncut as Susy’s ____________.
7. However, COMPLICATIONS must occur in the middle of the story.
_____________ is yanked out of this Indian paradise by the American
war in ___________________. The war (and his captivity) change Henry.
To change him back, Lyman comes up with the “trick” of using the _____
_________ (the symbol of their harmony or brotherhood before) to reunite them as a
family.
It seems to work because Henry begins to ___________ or _______
_______ the red convertible.
8. Who is Bonita? In the photograph scene (480), who is in the sunlight, and who
hangs in the shadows? How is this the CLIMAX of the story?
__________ is their eleven-year-old sister.
In the photograph Lyman’s face “is right out in the ___________”
(480).
However, Henry’s is in “the shadows” (480):
“There are two
______________ curved like little hooks around the ends of [Henry’s]
___________” (480).
The photograph suggests that the fixed-up car and their trip will not bring
Henry back to the way he was. Living in a divided world is too much for him.
Before he and Lyman leave, Henry has made the decision to commit
_______________ at the ___________ River.
This is the CLIMAX because the photograph reveals that Henry will never
recover the “___________” (476) he knew earlier.
It is only later that Lyman realizes the importance of the photograph:
“The picture, I ______________ look at it anymore” (480).
9. END (481-82): At the Red River, Henry confesses that he knows
about
______________ “trick.” They fight over the ___________, each insisting the
other take it.
Henry begins to do his strange ______________. Afterwards, he runs
to the ________ _________.
Lyman realizes that Henry had fixed up the car to serve as his hearse. He
has long planned his _____________, as his face in the ______________ showed.
10. REVERSAL: Lyman thought he had tricked Henry, but it is ____________ who
had tricked him. Neither gets the car (the ________ gets it).
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11. RECOGNITION: How is Henry’s “crazy Indian” (482) comment a major moment
of Recognition? It is Henry’s revelation to Lyman that the divided state in which
Indians must exist will drive an Indian “___________.”
12.
What two CATASTROPHES occur at the end of the story?
(1) Henry’s _____________
(2) The “killing” of the red ________________
13. CHARACTERS: Who is the PROTAGONIST? _____________; he struggles to
try to adapt to the dual life thrust on him, but finally gives up.
14. Who are some possible ANTAGONISTS?
American society, partially
(and
ironically) represented by the money-making ___________________, who was
better able than Henry to adapt to American culture
15. What POINT OF VIEW is used in the story? First Person, Major Character.
The story is told by _________________.
The point of view is effective since ______________ does not know
what is going on in _____________ mind until the end; thus we the readers also do
not.