Doodle Dialectical Journal

Hurst’s diction at the beginning of the short story foreshadows the later death of Doodle. Hurst starts by setting a gloomy scene as the narrator is speaking. The narrator, Doodle’s old brother, soon states, “But sometimes, as I sit in the cool…I remember Doodle” (Hurst 1). Hurst uses the word “remember” to emphasize the fact that Doodle is no long around. Readers do not know what happened to Doodle, but begin to suspect the answer. In the next paragraph the narrator says, “Doodle was just about the craziest brother a boy ever had” (Hurst 1). In this quote, Hurst uses past tense words such as “was” and “had” to once again show that this was in the past. Hurst’s word choices foreshadow Doodle’s death and sparks interest in the readers at the very beginning. Foreshadowing is used at the beginning of the story to draw readers into the story and help keep their interest.

The author’s use of flashback is most effective. First, Hurst employs it to evince the narrator's actions of guilt in retrospect to Doodle. The narrator recollects a scene where he had done a cruel injustice to Doodle where he has felt “ within [him]” something he has seen only from others before “ a knot of cruelty borne from the stream of love” (557). In addition, there is an admission of his

The older brother didn’t love Doodle at all he only did those things for Doodle

The narrator always had strong opinions about Doodle. Ever since the day Doodle was born, the narrator’s pride was much too high for having him as a brother, saying, “he was born when I was six and was, from the outset, a disappointment.” Not even giving his brother a chance to grow up and prove himself. Since the narrator did not know how to handle having a

In the end it began to rain, signifying that Doodle was pure and innocent. All of his worries were washed away in the rain and put on the shoulders of his brother. I think this is actually pretty fair because Doodle is dead because of his brother. Granted he was born prematurely and has several heart issues that were a huge part of his death.

The story explains, “... Doodle walked only because I was ashamed of having a crippled brother.” (347). This to me means that brother only taught Doodle how to walk and swim and other things only because he was embarrassed of having a brother with disabilities. Brother also says, “ It was bad enough having an invalid brother, but having one who was not there at all was unbearable.” (345). This proves him guilty because he said having an invalid brother was unbearable. This is because of pride being a destructive

Brother’s pride in Doodle drove him to help Doodle surpass his physical incapabilities and his mental barriers. Doodle’s condition kept him from walking; however, Brother decides to bring it upon himself to help, as he explains, “When Doodle was five

This allows Doodle’s body conditions worse and eventually lead to his death. Although Brother thinks that others will make fun of his younger brother, in reality, brother is the one making the most deal out of Doodle’s handicaps. The two boys realizes that a storm is imminent, silently heads home; “I ran as fast as I could, leavinf him behind with a wall of rain dividing us…soon I could hear his voice no more” (Hurst 475).

(pg. 1) Because Doodle’s appearance was disappointing topped with the chances of him surviving were incredibly slim, his family had already begun to make plans to prepare for his death. This was a common reaction during that time period because of high child mortality

Doodle’s fragile condition could very well cause him to die of exhaustion during the training the brother required of him. This act of carelessness could, and eventually did, prove fatal for young Doodle, even though the brother’s intentions were good, the result was horrible. Towards the end of the story, when Doodle and the brother are walking home in a thunderstorm, the narrator says this, "The faster I walked, the faster he walked, so I began to run. The rain was coming, roaring through the pines, and then like a bursting Roman candle, a gum tree ahead of us was shattered by a bolt of lightning...I heard Doodle, who had fallen behind cried out "Brother, Brother, don't leave me don't leave me!" The brother was putting Doodle through a very stressful situation, where he was overexerting himself, which is exactly what the doctors had warned was not healthy for Doodle. The running, sound of the exploding tree, in addition to the pouring rain and deafening lighting overwhelmed Doodle as his brother, the one he looked up to as his mentor, sprinted away from Doodle to a point where he couldn’t keep up. He was stranded in the middle of nowhere in the cold pouring rain at the tender age of 5 years

Doodles brother was very selfish throughout the story. He had a crippled brother that could not walk,so he was embarrassed by him. “When Doodle was 5 years old, I was embarrassed at having brother of that age who couldn’t walk” James Hurst page 353. Since he was so embarrassed to have a crippled brother, he was selfish enough to teach him how to walk. He would take doodle to the Old woman swamp everyday and teach him how to stand up, then walk. His mom would make him take Doodle with him wherever he went and he hated that. He would have to pull his brother in a wagon everywhere he went which made him feel

The narrator also states “I made him swim until he turned blue and row until he couldn’t lift an oar. ”(Hurst 357).Only after Doodle turned blue would the narrator allow Doodle to come into the boat. This just further proves the earlier statement, that the narrator is responsible for the death of

Doodle running may have been a cause of his death, in which Brother made him run knowing Doodle couldn't even walk. Since brother was disappointed and ashamed of doodle he obviously didn't love, much less like his brother or he wouldn't really be

Doodle’s family didn’t even name him until he was three months old. The only one in the family close enough to care was his brother, and he was constantly hurting and teasing Doodle. “One day I took him up to the barn loft and showed him his casket, telling him how we all believed he would die (Hurst 353). His brother took him wherever he went in a little go cart, and Doodle loved it, but because Doodle’s brother hated that Doodle was disabled, he would take Doodle places and do dangerous things with him just to be mean. His family did not know how to love him.

I blame the narrator for Doodle’s death. If it wasn’t for the narrator, Doodle wouldn’t have been pushed to do the things that were holding him back. The narrator had insightful and awful intentions. He helped his brother for all the wrong reasons, and in the end they both suffered. Although, after Doodle was able to walk the narrator felt he could further challenge him with better intentions.