8221; (Pg.461). After Lyman and Henry came back from the road trip, the car was still in good conditions, as so was their bond. However, after Henry returned from the war in Vietnam, the physical condition of the car began to change, and so did their relationship. Lyman, trying to get his brother to be as he used to be, smashes the car to make Henry fix it back “I made it look just as beat up as I could” (Pg.464). Perhaps, Lyman did not do that just so that Henry could fix it, but also to let him see that the condition of the car was similar to their bond. In other words, Henry was smashing their relationship by acting so intolerant and mean. Lyman just wanted Henry to fix their relationship by being the way he used to be before he went to Vietnam. When Henry fixed the car, they both go on a ride as they used to do before. However, Lyman thought that everything was going to be as it was before, and he was wrong. As you can see at the end, when Henry trough himself in the river in an act of suicide, Lyman decided to sink the car also. Symbolically, Lyman was sinking their relationship and their success, which had been destroyed by the white culture. Erdrich, however, associates the notion of sacrifice (blood) with the red race (a white label). Henry is can be seen as a kind of sacrificial lamb sometimes offered in rituals meant to please the gods, although it seems that the god here is the god of war. Henry is associated with blood because he bites through his lip and his own blood runs down into his food, and with the color red because “he has a nose like the Red Tomahawk Indian on all the road signs (Pg. 461), and he ultimately chooses to drown in “the Red River” (Pg 465).As you can see, Lyman is inventive, clever, and hard working but he cannot, eventually, help Henry overcome his damage from Vietnam. Lyman attempts to bring Henry back to spiritual life by the connective link they share in owning a shin...
