The electricity of human relationships is a very powerful force. It can change the course of one person's life or the lives of several people in an optimistic or negative manner. The connection between family is particularly strong which is believed it can stand the test of almost anything that is tossed towards the family. However, this isn't always true. A couple of a lot of things that can tear apart relationships and ties within a family group, such as warfare and death. Fatality simply severs the relationship very bluntly and devastates a family group. War can cause a soldier to do something in different ways towards their associations and to never have the ability to become their old selves again. In the report of "The Red Convertible" by Louise Eldrich, the very same happens to brothers Henry and Lyman Lamartine. Henry's appearance, the photo of the brothers, and convertible symbolize the change in their relationship from enough time before and after Henry goes to war.
Henry's physical appearance has changed since approaching home from war, as well as how he serves around his family. After arriving home from warfare, Henry used the same outfit everyday. He wore his army jacket and his military boots, and he never needed them off. This unwillingness to improve out of his military clothes demonstrates Henry feels that he is permanently connected to the warfare. Generally when military wear their army clothes, even once they appeared home, it signifies their need to return into combat because it is all that that they had come to know and that they have no idea anything outside of combat. It is thought that troops wish to go back to combat so that they can die within a predicament that that they had come to learn. Additionally, the soldiers that are able to return back home feel guilty for living and want to go back to battle to die in order to get rid of the guilt they feel.
The military boots that Henry wears constantly brings about his literal loss of life with Lyman talking about, "his boots filled with water on the windy nights" (394) and Henry drowning as the effect. The boots also symbolize the war and since the boots filled up with water and triggered the death of Henry, the battle itself drowned Henry. Henry was not able, or rather was unwilling to save himself from drowning, the weight of the horrors of wars. Henry's personality changed since approaching home from conflict. He used to be always a carefree son that could joke around with his sibling, such as when he went to Alaska and joked, "'I always wondered what it was prefer to have long fairly wild hair. '" (395) when they uncovered that Susy possessed hair that reached the bottom. Lyman recalls this period and notices the change in his sibling from being playful and happy-go-lucky to a man that cannot have a good laugh anymore, saying " He'd always acquired a tale, then, too, and today you couldn't get him to giggle" (396). Henry also could not take a seat still after coming home from conflict, probably fearing that if he sat still for too much time then the images of warfare would creep back into his mind.
The photograph that is used by their youthful sister Bonita implies the change that Henry underwent before the warfare and after approaching home from the warfare. The picture shows the compare in their personalities after Henry dividends. Lyman represents himself to be "right out in the sun, big and rounded. " (398), displaying that Lyman's heart and soul is complete and quite happy with life, while Henry is described as having "shadows on his face as deep as slots. " (398), indicating that is spirit is scarred and busted from what he experienced while at war. This picture taking also introduces the very first time that Henry smiles since approaching home. His teeth is described as if it "looked as like it might have harmed his face. " (398) and this symbolizes the aftermath of the battle and the shortcoming to be truly happy again.
The convertible epitomizes the independence that Henry and Lyman experienced and their marriage between each other. The liberty they experience is shown by the street trip that they had the summer before Henry was drafted to war. This freedom that that they had before the conflict is destroyed by the warfare. Henry's refusal to do anything with the automobile shows his feeling of dropping his freedom and that he seems that he is a slave to the warfare. Both brothers were untroubled by the concerns of the world and traveled around the United States together. Their romance becomes stronger after they bought the convertible, serviced the car, and journeyed around. After returning from warfare, Henry loses desire for the convertible and more importantly, his brother.
The convertible also represents the war-torn connections of troops. Lyman's destruction of the convertible after he had spent a great deal of time and money on correcting it up represents the destroyed relationship between the brothers. When Henry confronts his youthful brother about it, Henry promises, "when I left, that car was working just like a watch. Now I don't even understand I can obtain it to get started on again, aside from get it everywhere near its old condition. " (397). Henry is interacting that he does not know how to fix the damaged relationship along with his brother and that he is uncertain of the future of their romantic relationship. Henry also has learned that he cannot rebuild their relationship back again to just how it was before. When Henry works on mending the automobile, it shows his try to fix his brotherly marriage to the best of his ability and Henry's reasoning for hoping to repair his marriage is his realization of his brother's love. When Henry enters in to the river intentionally drowning, the bond that the brothers shared was severed. Lyman is remaining the convertible, which Henry acquired fixed for him. Lyman forced it into the river to that he doesn't have to carry the guilt of not having the ability to save his sibling.
The marriage between Henry and Lyman is struck a lethal blow by the Vietnam Battle. Henry and Lyman's marriage undergoes a transformation with the importance in change in appearance of Henry, a photograph of the brothers after the conflict, and the convertible that they purchased mutually. Henry's appearance indicates his attachment to the war he left behind in a different country and this affected how he interacted with his brother. His boots were symbolic of the warfare causing his death, even though he was not in Vietnam when he died. The photo of Lyman and Henry compares how the brothers differed after Henry's come back from conflict. The convertible implies the actual marriage between the brothers and how the condition of the automobile reflects the integrity of their relationship.
