Name: Kyara M.

Robles

Prof. Almansa

GEEN 2312

Date: 09/05/2021

Discussion questions for “The Red Convertible”

Answer the questions using complete sentences. Notice the bold section is the main part,

but you must answer the other questions in each number to get the points.

1.  How does the red Oldsmobile function as the story’s central symbol?

Explain the changes the car goes through. How do these changes represent what Lyman

and Henry are going through?

The red Olds mobile is the representation of the connection and relationship they shared

as siblings. For example, when the bought the car it was gleaming and full of life, symbolizing

the first state their relationship as brothers, it was the best one. Then when Henry had to go to the

army and came back as another person, their bonding was not the same, it was the worst, just as

the car in that moment, it was broken, destroyed and didn’t work at all. Once again, these

changes the car went through basically represent their whole emotional bond, either when they

were indifferent to each other or when they were thick as thieves.

2.  Why is Lyman upset at the picture of himself and his brother? Can you recall exactly

when was the picture taken? Name the character who took this picture of the two brothers?

He is upset because after his death he couldn’t bear seeing the picture of his brother

knowing how he died and took most of his happiness with him. The picture was taken by their

little sister named Bonita right after the car was repaired by Henry before their final drive

together.

3.  Why do you think that Lyman sends the car into the river? Why does he leave the car’s

lights on?

I think he did that because he would not bear or stand the thought of having something

that could remind him of his brother, the car was a way of Lyman to get his brother back, which

he could for a few moments. He wanted his brother to have it, even after death. Maybe he let the

car´s lights on for Henry to see it, if he could, and understand that the car was going to be his

after all.

4.  Analyze one of the following scenes and discuss its relation to the story as a whole.

  a) Henry is watching TV

                      or

     b) the trip to Alaska

 Why do you think the author included that particular scene in the story? Another way to

ask this: What point does the scene make?

This part of the story revealed to us his true self before showing us his new self, affected

by the army. In the story we saw the way Henry acted through different times in his life and this

scene showed how outgoing and carefree and funny he was, especially when he got the girl on

his shoulders and started to twirl and play around, this was before changing all of his personality.

I think his true identity was always inside him, hidden somewhere against his own will, but

obviously, he had to do that in order to success in the military. We could see it in the very end

where he started to loosen up a little and started joking with his brother before drowning. Again,

the army affected him a lot.

5. What is the theme of the story? (What point does the story make?)

I believe the theme of the story is about how war can affect an individual and its

relationship with the ones around them, especially affecting their brotherhood and their family in

general.

6. Read about the author’s life. Find an interesting piece of information and write it here.

Make sure to include the source of the info at the end.

With recurring characters and themes, Louise Erdrich's fiction is steeped in the American

Indian cultures of North Dakota, where she was raised. Erdrich, the daughter of a French

Ojibway mother, is a member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa. She studied creative
writing at Dartmouth and at Johns Hopkins University. For 15 years she was married to

writer Michael Dorris, who acted as her agent and sometime collaborator. Erdrich's first

novel, Love Medicine (1984), became a bestseller and won the National Book Critics Circle

Award. The popularity of The Beet Queen (1986), Tracks (1988), and The Bingo Palace (1994)

confirmed her emergence as a major voice in American fiction. Four Souls (2004) continues the

saga of Fleur Pillager, last seen in Tracks and in 2005's The Painted Drum, she lyrically follows

the story of a ceremonial Ojibway drum.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Staff, F. M. (2020, July 1). Louise Erdrich. Fact Monster.

(https://www.factmonster.com/biographies/art-entertainment/louise-erdrich).