The Red Convertible

My short story, The Red Convertible, matched the themes of my topic and even themes we have went over in class. In the story, two brothers go on a drive together and find a red convertible with a fore sale sign on it. The next thing they knew they were driving it home and fixing it up. The car brought these two brothers together and took them on an adventure. The next summer they decided to go on a road trip, nowhere particular, just to drive and enjoy each other and the car. They travel were ever life takes them. The two brothers run into a girl hitchhiking and pick her up. It ends up that she is going home to Alaska. Stephan and Marty enjoy their time in Alaska and admire the natural beauty of the land. However, when it comes time to go home reality sets in. Stephan has to go to Vietnam and he leaves Marty the car. Stephan comes back a changed man, and he has not changed for the better. He doesn’t laugh, doesn’t joke, and is always jumpy because of his experiences in the war. After months of his post traumatic stress, Marty finally decides that the only way to get his brother back was to remind him of the great times they had in the red convertible. Marty takes a hammer and smacks the car left and right; he makes it look like a wreck. A month later, Stephan sees the car and immediately starts working on it. He works every day and almost every night. Fixing the car becomes an obsession for him. However, I believe that it was not an obsession; the car saved his life. It was the only thing that meant something in his life. Fixing the car gave him a purpose and drive to do something. Where as right when he got home from the war, he had no motivation to do anything in his life. Slowly the effects of the war dwindle on him, and when the car is finished he offers Marty a ride. They take the car to the river and start talking about Stephan’s change. Then they start arguing about who gets the car, and just like brothers do, they started fighting. Stephan starts to laugh; this is what Marty has waited for. Marty was successful at getting Stephan back to his old self, and his first laugh since he went to ‘Nam made his transformation back to his old self official and complete. They start to drink a lot and they finish an entire cooler of beer when Stephan decides to go for a swim. Unfortunately the river is very strong and he gets sucked away and drowns. Marty cannot handle this and decides to drive the car into the river. I believe that he does this as a tribute to his brother and their relationship. The car represented the fun that they had together and when that bond was broken he had to end the car too.
Stephan and Marty were able to experience true happiness because of the way they lived that summer. The two brothers had no worries, and experienced life as it came to them. Most people plan an entire trip so they can get every little drop of fun out of it that they could. However, the two brothers “just lived our everyday lives here to there.”(136) They did not care that they were on a trip; they went with the flow. There was no money to worry about, no appointment to attend, and no one to impress. This freedom allows them to truly enjoy life and the company of each other. For example, Marty was sitting in the shade of a willow tree and, “it was comfortable. So comfortable. The branches bent down all around me like a tent or a stable. And quiet, it was quiet.”(136) The comfort of the tree made a natural home for Marty. He was able to feel protected and peaceful because of the beauty of nature. This idea of living day to day and living with nature mimics Emerson’s way of life. Stephan and Marty were able to experience happiness and pleasure from each other and from their trip because of this way of life. If they had planned a route to go on then they would be constantly comparing their trip to their planned trip to see if they were “on schedule.” However, by having no cares about where they are and when they are there, the two brothers are able to truly experience the beauty of life and be carefree.
The red convertible was not just a machine that got them from one place to another but an important piece of the trip that gave them adventure, bonding, and peace. The adventure that they experienced was all due to the car. The car allowed them to be free from their home on the Chippewa reservation. It took them many places, for example almost the entire state of Montana and even up to Alaska for a while. One thing was certain where ever they went it was always better than the last place. The two brothers always traveled “on to greener pastures.”(137) Leaving one place was never sad for the two brothers because they knew that as that chapter ended a new one would start. This amazing adventure that man and machine went on together brought each one of the three closer together. The car was at the center of the brothers bond. This became evident at the end of the short story when Stephan was experiencing post traumatic stress. Marty decided the only way to reverse the effects of the war was to remind him of his former happy days with the red convertible. However, you cannot just jump back into a memory, Stephan needed to get reacquainted with the car just like old friends. Therefore, Marty took a hammer to the car and destroyed it so he could fix it up. After working on the car day in and day out, Stephan started to become himself again. The ultimate success came when Stephan said to Marty, “Lets take that old shitbox for a spin.”(141) It was just like the adventures they shared before the war. The two brothers would finally be back together and enjoying each others company like before. They start to casually talk at the river and when they start arguing about the car Stephan finally laughs. “For some reason this cracks me up and so we’re really laughing for a while then, and then we drink all the rest of the beers one by one and throw them into the river to see how far the current takes them,”(144) This shows their carefree lifestyle is back and they are just enjoying one another’s company. It goes to show that the car can be more than a tool for transportation. The Red Convertible was a symbol of brother hood and adventure.