The Automobile as Transportation & Symbol of Freedom

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 th

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is a trap. The family has an accident when the old woman's cat jumps on her son, Bailey, causing him to veer off the road. The evil they encounter comes from another vehicle, a car driven by three escaped convicts. News of the convicts has been brought to the family prior to this by way of another machine--the car radio. The family extricates itself from one wreck only to run right into something much worse. The title of the story is ironic. The old woman faces death at the hands of the Misfit, the leader of the gang, as he has each member of the family taken off into the woods and shot. He does so mechanically, having become a machine himself, and he has done so, as he himself indicates in different ways, because of his conviction religion has thrown the mechanics of the world off balance. He has no humanity left. When the old woman keeps saying that she can see that he is a good man, and that a good man is hard to find, the irony is that he is neither good nor a man any longer. More than this, there is a sense that it is just as hard to find an evil man, and yet here the old woman stands face to face with one. The mass of humanity is neither good nor bad, and much of it is as spiritually lacking as this family and pe
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Some common words found in the essay are:
John Steinbeck, East Tennessee, Lyman Henry, Legion Hall, Native American, War II, Flannery O'Connor, Jesus Jesus, , Henry Lyman, red convertible, woman saying, society automobile, louise erdrich, john steinbeck, white society, erdrich 450, neither nor, native american, live life,
Approximate Word count = 1751
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)

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