Brotherhood
At the center of this story is the relationship between two members of the Chippewa tribe who share the same mother, but were born of different fathers. Though only half-brothers and looking so unalike physically many are surprised to find they are related, Lyman and Henry share a bond as close as any full-blooded siblings. They enjoy a spectacularly wonderful summer driving the title vehicle across the top of the country before war tears them apart and changes Henry forever. Lyman won’t give up so easily, however, and in his innocence does the most he can think of to try to get his brother back.
Loss of Innocence
Lyman and Henry are both carefree young men at the beginning of the story. When Henry is drafted to serve in Vietnam, his already meager written replies to his brother’s letters dry up immediately due to becoming a POW. While that experience has not just stolen Henry’s innocence, but his spirit and will to live, Lyman has remained essentially unchanged over the same three years. It is that innocence which allows him to fervently belief his scheme to get Henry interested in fixing up the car he has since caused to run down on purpose will transform the now mean and jumpy Henry into the brother he remembers. Henry’s loss of innocence still has a way to go, however, and the consequences of that completion will finally bring about Lyman’s own.
Vietnam
The specter of the Vietnam War hangs over the entire story even though none of the narrative is actually set there or describes what took place to Henry. The story’s theme of innocence lost is quietly juxtaposed with the divisive impact the war had on America during which society transformed from the simplicity of 1950’s conformism into the fractured and difficult complexity marked by the 1960’s. The change of Henry of carefree, fun-loving boy into an edgy, alienated and incurable victim of PTSD mirrors the changes the war made in society at large.
