Culture Isssues in "The Red Convertible" and "THE Island"
... together. Lyman narrates, We went places in that car, me and HenryEed made most of the trip, that summer, without putting up the car hood at all. (Erdrich P.184, 185,). The convertible was also something that, temporarily, brought the two brothers together. They lived under the influences of White culture, not really realizing what it was doing to them. At the moment that Henry left for the war, Lyman realizes that the Olds is in rather rough shape, and could use a tune up. Lyman tells us, Most of the time I had it (the car) up on blocks in the yard or half taken apart . (Erdrich P. 185) This suggests that Henry having to leave to fight in a war for White Ideologies (not his own) battered their family situation and took him away from his roots in the Chippewa culture. In an attempt to patch up the situation, Lyman fixes the car to what he considers almost perfect shape . (Erdrich P.186). Excited for the reaction of his brother upon his return, Lyman hoped to have the car ready to perform for them once again for their long voyages. After three years of impatiently waiting for his brother, Henry comes home to the Native reservation, but not as the Henry that we knew. According to Lyman, it wasnt the Henry that he remembered either. When he came home, though, Henry was very different, and Ill say this: the change was no goodEe was quiet, so quiet, and never comfortable sitting still anywhere but always up and moving aroundEenry was jumpy and mean. (Erdrich P. 186). Something had changed Henry. Henry had not even looked at the car since hed gotten home . (Erdrich P.187) Henry hadnt looked at the car for a reason. He associated it with the reason for which he was sent to war. He associated it with that which had destroyed him. To fight for the ideologies of the White culture, was to fight for all that epitomized the White culture, including its bright red Olds convertibles. This shows us two perspectives of the brothers. Lyman thought that the car could bring the old Henry back somehow . (Erdrich P.187). To Henry it was a destroyer, because fighting in the Vietnam War for the American ways of life had emotionally destroyed him. Once I was in the room watching TV with Henry and I heard his teeth click at something. I looked over, and hed bitten through his lip. Blood was going down his chinEhere was still blood going down Henrys chin, but he didnt notice it and no one said anything, even though every time he took a bite of his bread his blood fell onto it until he was eating his own blood mixed in with the food. (Erdrich P. 186). For one to bite through a lip, have it bleeding everywhere and not notice it, one must be not with it . He had lost his identity. This is why he didnt pay any attention to the car when he came home. When he came home, though, Henry was very different (Erdrich P. 186). The treatment of HenryE######### service in this story shows the White cultures harmful effects of the oppression of Natives. Henry was sent by the Whites to fight in the Vietnam War. Henry was used by them to kill people who were trying to free themselves from colonization, and who were resisting capitalism. This is ironic in the sense that Henrys ancestors themselves had fought against colonizers. He fought for his own suppressor, as did Red Tomahawk. Red Tomahawk is compared to Henry in that they both fought for the White conqueror. He had a nose big and sharp as a hatchet, like the nose on Red Tomahawk, the Indian who killed Sitting Bull. (Erdrich P.185) Sitting Bull was a Native who was leading the combat against colonization throughout the mid 1800s, and was contemptuous of White promises and culture. Like unto Red Tomahawk, Henry denied the person that he was, and in so doing, he became lost to his own race and creed. After returning from the war in Vietnam, the real Henry had been destroyed. Lyman then went out and whacked the car up so that Henry would notice the car, and would want to fix it. (Erdrich P.187). This shows Lymans anger toward whatever had caused this change to come upon his brother and their relationship. We assume that by this time, Henry had already meditated his suicide, for which he knew the Olds would need to be fixed. To Lymans surprise, Henry noticed the rickety Olds and took the initiative to repair it. By the time it was really melting outside, he had it fixed . (Erdrich P.187). Henrys intentions to fix up the old beast werent what Lyman thought them to be. The two brothers left on yet another trip in the Old red convertible. When they had arrived at the Red River, they began watching the river and thinking. Lyman starts to feel a little of what is about to happen. As I watched I felt something squeezing inside me and tightening and trying to let go all at the same timeE took Henry by the shoulders and I started shaking him. Wake up, I says, wake up, wake up, wake up! I didnt know what had come over me. (Erdrich P. 188). After an argument over the red car, which symbolizes the separation of Native families that the White culture causes, Henry jumps in the deep, cold river. Lyman attempts to save his brother, but to no avail. When he comes back to the bank, he has finally realized what had caused this terrible change in his family. By the time I get out of the river, off the snag I pulled myself onto, the sun is down. I walk back to the car, turn on the high beams, and drive it up the bank. I put it in first gear and then I take my foot off the clutch. I get out, close the door, and watch it plow softly into the water. (Erdrich P. 190). This voluntary destruction of the red Olds symbolizes Lymans realization and rejection of what had been the cause of all of his problems all along. It was Lymans anagnorisis. The very tool he planned to use to restore his life to what it had been, was the weapon that had actually destroyed their lives. This story emphasizes that White culture, though seemingly universal in its ways and means to happiness, is only a destroyer of the culture, and therefore lives of Natives, when its values and morals are forced upon others. The Authors of the play The Island convey the fact that there is no need to have one dominant culture in a society, but that numerous cultures can coexist equally in one society. They communicate this by showing the White oppression of Natives, and by inroducing the Greek Mythological play The trial and punishment of Antigone . An example of how cultural supremacy ca be divisive is the French Presidential elections of April of 2002. The final two candidates were Jacques Chirac, representing the New Union Party, and the haunting Jean-Marie Le Pen and his Front National Party. Jean-Marie Le Pen presented a political platform like unto the late Adolph Hitlers. It was a party supporting the inequality of races, and Arian culture dominion. Mottos such as Franais Dabord (French First) and Pour un avenir Franais (For a French Future) backed their covert plans to take all those considered to be Non-French back to their respective countries on trains. This argument gained some alarming support in a country that is one of the most racially diverse in the world. Peoples from Kinshasa to Bombay have taken up residence there, and have created a wonderful multicultural atmosphere. They have come with the idea of forming a France mosaic of many cultures. They do not come wishing to impose their ideas, religions and rituals on the French, nor to take away the typical image of a Franais with his wine, cheese, baguette, beret and red nose. Some French, as well as many North Americans have a hard time realizing that a mlange of cultures can exist in one country, and that it doesnt have to be a cultural Win/Lose. It is for this reason that Athol Fugard (a Caucasian male) John Kani (Black male), and Winston Nthshona (Black male) came together to write and act the play, The Island . In this play the two black prisoners from South Africa have been unjustly imprisoned on Robben Island by the Whites for protesting the Apartheid. I didnt walk with those men and burn my bloody passbook in front of that police station, and have me a magistrate send me here for life so that he canEake a bloody...