Taking it with you.

Louise Erdrich's, "The Red Convertible" is an interesting story of two brothers relationship. It shows how something so simple, yet so complex such as war can change a man and how that change can affect those around him. Erdrich uses foreshadowing at the beginning of the piece by using Marty as the narrator and stating that Stephan took the car with him after he left. I felt that this was a good technique used by the author and a creative line to lead into the rest of the story. As a reader I was very unaware of what was going to happen in the story after Stephan left for war, but the one line had me thinking a million different possibilities, whether he was going to be killed in the line of duty and the memories that he had with his brother and the car would be taken too or even the possibility that he returned home and just took the car.

As I continued to read I started to pick up on the authors hints on how mentally unstable Stephan was after returning from war. I thought back to the line and I started to wonder if there was a possibility that Stephan may go out and drive very recklessly and die in an accident. However, when I got towards the end of the story I was very shocked, Stephan had started to come around and appear to be more relaxed and finally settling in so I figured the line at the begging had to be that Stephan got back on his feet and took the car and went off to find work and a new home. Then I got to the last paragraph and it all made sense. Stephan had committed suicide and although he didn't use the car directly I think that his brother felt that those memories and times he had with his brother and the car should not just stay with him, but go with his brother to a better place were he will one day meet up with the "old" Stephan and "The Red Convertible." (Shawn Parkhurst, 2)