Answer TWO questions on this story

(you can pick whatever two you want to answer from the list below)

I attached the story

Read “The Red Convertible” This is one of 14 stories that make up a 1984 novel, Love Medicine which follows two Native American families living on a North Dakota reservation. This story is set in 1974 when Henry Jr. returns from his three-year Vietnam service. Questions:

 How does the red convertible function as the story’s central symbol? What changes does it go through? How do these changes stand for what Lyman and Henry are going through?

 Why is Lyman upset by the picture of himself and his brother? When does the picture begin to bother Lyman?

 Why does Lyman “drown” the car? Why does he leave the headlights on?

 Comment on the brothers’ relationship.

 Analyze a single episode in the story (the visit to Alaska, Henry’s watch TV) and comment on its relation to the story as a whole.

 Compare this narrator to another male narrator.

 Look up post traumatic stress disorder: what symptoms does Henry exhibit? Is there anything about his ethnicity that might impact his experience? Explain. http://acweb.colum.edu/departments/literature/intr… nise1.html http://www-personal.ksu.edu/~lyman/english320/wa-Erdrich-RC.htm http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/a_f/erdrich… http://www.austinchronicle.com/issues/dispatch/2001-03- 23/books_feature.html