Tarvin 1
LOUISE ERDRICH’S“THE RED CONVERTIBLE”
This handout was prepared by Dr. William Tarvin, a retired professor of literature. Please visit my free website 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 inAmerican 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 ______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 theyhave 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 adual 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 getsthem their freedom from the hybrid ______; they canroam 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.
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 theAmerican 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 inthe sunlight, and whohangs inthe 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 thatHenry 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).
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? ______; hestruggles 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.