The Red Convertible

Content Warning: This section contains references to war-related trauma.

The narrator’s full knowledge of the story allows for him to forecast events and shifts in mood. The most striking example is Henry’s boots. In the first paragraph, the narrator says his “boots filled with water on a windy night” when he bought out Lyman’s share (177). The strange detail is colorful but isn’t yet loaded with meaning; the reference is also somewhat hidden in the middle of a sentence. At the end of the story, the image returns in Henry’s last words, highlighted by their presence on their own line in quotation marks. The words make literal sense in the context of the final scene, but the déjà vu adds a level of strangeness. The boots are made both strange and familiar with their use in and out of context.

Subtler forms of foreshadowing underscore this strangeness and familiarity. Susy’s hair buns—the first thing Lyman notices about her—become her sweeping hair a page later when the brothers are saying goodbye, revisiting her lovely strangeness. Although Henry is smiling in the photograph, Lyman comes to see it as a dark and hollow expression, one that looks “like it might have hurt his face” (186).