War in The Red Convertible Essay

In our lives, we can have a lot of joyful and beautiful moments, but we must not forget that sooner or later, challenges appear on our way. Louise Erdrich's "The Red Convertible" gives an example of life's most difficult challenge: Lyman must accept that his brother, Henry, has lost the will to live after fighting in war. The purpose of this essay is to use Erdrichs story to show how much war can change someones life for worse.

When young men go off to war, they painfully become aware of their own mortality. Many 18-year-old boys are drafted off to fight for their country-when most had never picked up a gun. These young men are not ready to deal with war or with death. In lives so young, death is a topic that goes untouched. Erdrich, in the beginning, describes a close relationship between two young brothers, Henry and Lyman. She looks at two chapters in the lives of these boys: before Henry went to Vietnam, they were very close and shared a red convertible, which in the story stands for their youth and wish to live; the main change is when Henry comes back home after three years fighting. Rather than focusing on the impact of the war during the war, Erdrich looks at the effects of coming home after Vietnam. When Henry returns he is no longer the same person, he is almost like a robot, without feelings. Lyman describes his brother being a totally different person: they were not anymore as close as they were before, he did not laugh anymore, he remained in silence in front of the television and made some strange things, apparently without being aware of them, like when he bit his lips and they became bleeding but he continued eating anyway. With pain, Lyman sees his brother dying little by little.

At this point, Lyman starts hammering the red convertible they had loved. He feels that what he is doing is his only hope at getting his brother back into reality. Henry would be restored when the car was restored. At least that is what Lyman believed. Henry repairs the car and goes on a road trip with Lyman. Nevertheless, he is not as fine as Lyman thought. Even though his brother did his best to help him, Henry could not accept the new awful things he was going trough, therefore he took his own life.

Watching someone you love suffering is heart wrenching, especially when nothing can be done to help the situation. Erdrich looks at the trauma of a soldier returning home from war and how their family must cope with his emotional change. The effects of war not only affect the soldier, but also cause an effect on families and loved ones. It is hard for the family to accept what had done war to Henry, but it is even tougher for Henry, who is blind by the terrible things he saw and lived at Vietnam, and does not see another way out than committing suicide.