The Red Convertible

by

Louise Erdrich

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Susy is a young girl that Henry and Lyman pick up hitchhiking on their road trip. Her most distinctive feature is her hair, which is usually tied up in “buns around her ears,” but which reaches the ground when she finally lets it down. Henry and Lyman stay with her family in Alaska happily for a season. The period the brothers spend with Susy is their most happy, youthful, and carefree; in a memorable scene that demonstrates this, she finally takes her hair down and sits on Henry’s shoulders as he twirls her around.

Susy Quotes in The Red Convertible

The The Red Convertible quotes below are all either spoken by Susy or refer to Susy. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Loss of Innocence Theme Icon
).
The Red Convertible Quotes

She was standing on a chair, but still, when she unclipped her buns the hair reached all the way to the ground. Our eyes opened. You couldn't tell how much hair she had when it was rolled up so neatly. Then my brother Henry did something funny. He went up to the chair and said, "Jump on my shoulders." So she did that, and her hair reached down past his waist, and he started twirling, this way and that, so her hair was flung out from side to side.

"I always wondered what it was like to have long pretty hair," Henry says. Well we laughed. It was a funny sight, the way he did it.

Related Characters: Henry Lamartine (speaker), Susy (speaker)
Page Number: 180
Explanation and Analysis:
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The Red Convertible PDF

Susy Quotes in The Red Convertible

The The Red Convertible quotes below are all either spoken by Susy or refer to Susy. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Loss of Innocence Theme Icon
).
The Red Convertible Quotes

She was standing on a chair, but still, when she unclipped her buns the hair reached all the way to the ground. Our eyes opened. You couldn't tell how much hair she had when it was rolled up so neatly. Then my brother Henry did something funny. He went up to the chair and said, "Jump on my shoulders." So she did that, and her hair reached down past his waist, and he started twirling, this way and that, so her hair was flung out from side to side.

"I always wondered what it was like to have long pretty hair," Henry says. Well we laughed. It was a funny sight, the way he did it.

Related Characters: Henry Lamartine (speaker), Susy (speaker)
Page Number: 180
Explanation and Analysis: