The Cleansing

John Booty Greg Feather

Essay #1 English Composition 2

The Cleansing 10/09/07

In the story, "The Red Convertible," Louise Erdrich introduces 2 Native American brothers. The younger brother Lyman is a friendly person and has had very little problems in the financial aspect of life. At the age of sixteen he works his way up to be owner of the Joliet Cafй. Then Lyman looses the Cafй due to a terrible tornado that came sweeping through. After that he and his brother Henry buy a red Oldsmobile convertible. The moment they sit in that car, for the whole summer they drive all over America without a schedule in mind. Soon after that summer, Henry flew off to fight in the Vietnam War. During this time Lyman began to write him in which he talks about the condition of the car. Once Henry came back from the war he acts much different then who he use to be. He's very quite, and can never sit in one place for any period of time. Lyman tries to snap Henry out of it, but it seems to be getting him nowhere. For old times sake they take the car for one last spin. But before they take the car home Henry goes crazy and dives into the river, which is the last time Lyman will see his brother. After that Lyman takes the car and drives it right into the same river Henry dives into, and he watches the car as it dies and sinks under the water. "The Red Convertible" portrays that material items are always easily fixable but the human emotions take much more effort to try and fix, in this case the person dies before that happens.

One other thing, "The Red Convertible" portrays is the psychological idea that tragedies