The automobile is both a means of transportation and a symbol of American freedom, and it is used as a symbol of various aspects of American society by different authors. It becomes an explicit statement of freedom and a symbol of false American values in a story by Louise Erdrich, while its freedom is false in a story by Flannery O'Connor. John Steinbeck makes use of the automobile as a metaphor for control and power in "The Chrysanthemums."
In "The Red Convertible" by Louise Erdrich, the automobile of the title becomes a central symbol for the relationship between the two Chippewa brothers and for the relationship of the American Indian to the modern world. The story subtly evokes ideas and attitudes about the plight of the Native American without actually addressing these issues overtly. The narrator is the younger brother, Lyman, and he describes himself as unusual in some respects for a Chippewa. He says for one thing that he has always found it easy to make money, and he details a number of ways in which he has been able to do this, often simply because the ruling white society allows him to do so--he was the only kid allowed to shine shows in the American Legion Hall, for instance, and he sold bouquets at the mission door at Christmas time, encouraged by the nuns. He was so good at making money and at being lucky that he earned enough to open his own cafe, but there is no certainty or security in this, either, as the place is trashed by a tornado. Nature in this story is something to be reckoned with and is both benign and malevolent. The tornado destroys the cafe, but Lyman is at his most contented when he is lying under the willows:
The branches bent down all around me like a tent or a stable. And quiet, it was quiet, even though there was a powwow close enough to see it going on (Erdrich 451).
Lyman and his bother Henry represent the contemporary Native American generation, rootless, aimless, and always...