Doodle's Growth In The Scarlet Ibis By James Hurst

As a kid, would you ever get in a fight with your sibling making it seem like you two would never be friends again, but then, hours later, you’re sharing a special moment with each other? Well, in the story “The Scarlet Ibis”, the main character had the same dilemma. He went through phases of being cruel and kind to his brother, Doodle. Doodle was born a weak baby and was not thought to survive for very long. He did, but because of his disadvantages as a child, he was very offbeat from other kids. James Hurst uses Doodle’s brother to exhibit how he is both cruel and kind towards his younger brother, Doodle, in his short story, “The Scarlet Ibis”.

The Scarlet Ibis bird symbolizes Doodle; this symbolism can be seen by the authors description of both Doodle’s and the Scarlet Ibis’s appearance after death. After the Scarlet Ibis fell from the bleeding tree his

Older siblings feel obligated to take authority over their younger siblings. The narrator took the responsibility of teaching Doodle to develop into an ordinary boy; however, he supports Doodle out of selfishness. With this in mind, the narrator changes Doodle’s name from “William Armstrong” to Doodle because he believes Doodle is not strong enough to have that name. He believes “William Armstrong” only “sounds good only on a tombstone,” (595) so changing Doodle’s name was the kindest thing he could have done. Likewise, the narrator selfishly disobeys the doctor’s list of don'ts for Doodle because he doesn’t agree with Doodle’s limitations. In fact, the narrator hauls Doodle carelessly around cotton fields and whips him around corners on two wheels of the go-cart. As a result, the narrator decides to take the next step in teaching Doodle. As school approaches, Doodle falls behind on learning to run, swim, and climb. Therefore, the narrator decides to double his efforts and push Doodle even harder. “I made him swim until he turned blue and row until he couldn’t lift an oar. Wherever we

At the beginning, Doodle had been very hesitant to go along with his brother’s plans. He tried to argue with his brother. “I can’t walk, Brother,” Doodle said. “Who says so?” He demanded. “Mama, the doctor, everybody,” uttered Doodle. “Oh, you can walk,” The narrator said.” Shortly after that, Doodle began to follow the narrator’s orders and self ambitions. Soon, the narrator had acquired too much ambition, putting Doodle at risk. This is evident with Doodle’s constant cry, “don’t hurt me, Brother.” Little did the narrator know he would be pushing his brother too far. Later in the story, the narrator let his ambition overcome him and decided to keep on pushing his brother. He did not want a brother who could not do what other normal schoolboys could do. He admits to himself, “the knowledge that Doodle’s and my plans had come to naught was bitter, and that streak of cruelty within me awakened.” He believed what Doodle could not do would greatly affect him and his social

Sometimes differences can even tare kin apart. Health, looks, and abilities can all result in this divide. James Hurst’s “The Scarlet Ibis” portrays the relationship of between two brothers, Brother and Doodle and the diversities that they face with each other. To create this relationship and story Hurst uses literary elements; character, setting, and symbolism.

When Doodle told them it was I who taught him to walk, Brother is being praised for his actions that appear to be considerate. However, when the narrator mentions he is a “ashamed” of having a crippled brother, Brother’s real intentions are revealed. Additionally, the word “slave” suggests that he is trapped in a world of pride and is unable to gain freedom. This pride has taken control of Brother’s intentions and is preventing Brother’s actual personality to shine through. His intentions are conflicting with his actions that create a feeling of guilt within him.

The Narrator didn't help Doodle walk because he wanted to but because "...I did it for myself; that pride,whose slave I was,spoke to me louder than all their voices,and that doodle walked only because I was ashamed of having a crippled brother"(599). This proves that the Narrator is ashamed of his brother and is only helping him because he doesn't want to be embarrassed. He wantes Doodle to fit in at school and be able to keep up with the other kids. The Narrator always pushes him too far and even though he's helping Doodle do things the doctor thought he could never do he is also making Doodles health

The narrator realizes that similarly to the ibis, Doodle had his own struggles to fit in with the world, due to his physical in capabilities. The narrator perceived these in capabilities as a flaw, while Doodle perceived them as who he was. After Doodle's death, the narrator realizes that instead accepting Doodle's inabilities, he persisted to “fix” them. The narrator feels sorrow after he realizes his selfish desire to change Doodle into the “brother he wanted” rather than cherishing Doodle for who he was during his lifetime. Hurst not only uses the death of the scarlet ibis to foreshadow the narrator's sorrow, but also uses the example of Doodle's name as a name only for a tombstone to foreshadow the narrator's feeling of

At the beginning of the text, we see that Doodle is the Narrator disabled little brother. The main character hate Doodle because he can't do anything for himself and gets all of the attention. Because of this, the Narrator doesn't like Doodle and even stated, “I began to make plans to kill him by smothering him with a pillow.” All of this tells us that the main character doesn't love or even like his brother at all because you wouldn't be hating on your brother or even planning to kill him if you liked him. However, at the end of the story when Doodle dies in

Siblings may not always get along or like each other, but they must love one another. In the short story “The Scarlet Ibis” written by James Hurst. Two brothers Doodle and Brother shared many spontaneous, exciting, and fun filled adventures together, Brother showed Doodle many wonderful things. The actions of Brother, the adventures and sights they shared  had a positive effect on Doodles life.

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

The narrator's pride. Well, first we see that the narrator is embarrassed by having Doodle as his brother. We can see that when he says “When Doodle was five years old, I was embarrassed at having a brother of that age who couldn’t walk, so I set out to teach him” (Hurst 353). Other places he shows his pride is in (Hurst 356) “Once I had succeeded in teaching Doodle to walk, I began to believe in my own infallibility and I prepared a terrific development program for him, unknown to Mama and Daddy, of course.” His pride has gotten too much in his head and started going harder on Doodle.

A short story written by James Hurst, The Scarlet Ibis, tells the story of the narrator and his younger brother who he called Doodle. Throughout the story, the narrator expresses guilt because his whole family never believed his brother would survive long after childbirth. He even planned to kill him once. In the future, he would also decide to teach him to walk simply because he was embarrassed about having a sibling who couldn’t fulfill his purpose as a typical brother. Imagery is “the use of language to represent objects, acts, feelings, thoughts, ideas, states of mind and any sensory or extrasensory experience” (Trombley 5).

A soft bird, standing in the cold wind ready to be one with the small child. The scarlet ibis is lifted from the world, and once again flying free. James Hurst, author of “The Scarlet Ibis” introduces readers to this very image through the life journey of his main character, Doodle. While Doodle is symbolized by a bird, Hurst also uses other symbols and imagery to create a mournful tone throughout his short story. Hurst uses the coffin and scarlet ibis to show symbolism. Hurst also uses the flower garden to create a better tone. Direct words and thoughts from the characters, and images suggests that James Hurst is mournful to the thought of death.

Doodle was crippled and weak physically which prevented him from doing normal things. Doodle “showed no sign of walking” and barely learned to crawl at three years old. Doodle had a weak body which forced him to rely on his brother for transportation. This made the narrator not like him at first, but he learned