“The Red Convertible”, by Louise Erdrich is the story of two brothers who buy a red convertible. The story is told in the first person by the main character Lyman. Lyman seems to have all the luck. Lyman became a restaurant owner at age 16. Money seems to come easy to him. Henry is not lucky and is called to go fight in the war. Lyman commented, “I've always been lucky with numbers and never worried about the draft. But Henry has never been as lucky as me” (Erdrich 1030). The two have always been close and the thing that still brings them together is more is the red convertible. The boys hitchhike and head to Winnipeg, which is the largest city they live in. When they arrive by car, like anyone who has fought in war, war makes a very different person we know if Henry was tortured while fighting, but the way he acted leads us to believe that he was. He is very quiet and restless. He doesn't joke or laugh and if he laughs it scares people. Henry seems only interested in watching color television. The furthest thing from Henry's mind is the red convertible. Another sign of symbolism is when Lyman destroys the car and makes it look like junk. She does this to try to get Henry out of the mood he's in and so they can ride and spend time together. The hope is that Henry will come out of the depression he's in and notice the car. Henry is messed up by his experiences during the war. His plan works perfectly. It gets his brother's attention and Henry says, "that red car looks like shit" (Erdrich 114). He notices how bad the car is and starts fixing it himself. He blames Lyman for how bad the car is and hopes he can make it work