Doodle's Struggle In The Scarlet Ibis By James Hurst

In the story “The Scarlet Ibis” by James Hurst, the author communicates that in life people tend to treat the ones they love with cruelty. He shows this with the characters Brother and Doodle. In literature authors tend to make a story and characters unique or different so that readers don’t read the same thing but get hooked. The story the “The scarlet Ibis” by James Hurst is fictional and has unique characters that tell the story. The story is about a young boy having a crippled brother and having to deal with his emotions towards him. He feels ashamed of his brother because he can’t walk. Hurst communicates that in life people tend to treat the ones they love with cruelty.

The second reason is the narrator knows he should have appreciated his brother more. Although Doodle did his best to make his brother proud, it was never good enough for the narrator. The narrator wanted to force him to be like a normal, healthy person. Once Doodle learns how to walk, the narrator is too swollen with pride and wants to teach Doodle to run, swim, and many other complicated tasks. The narrator should have valued Doodle more. It was already extraordinary that Doodle even got to walk. That should have been good enough for him. Unfortunately, the narrator kept on pushing him and pushing him.

Doodle screams for him to not leave him, foreshadowing the way Doodle screams out for his brother in the storm, who causes him to die, just like the how the brother is the cause of Doodle touching his coffin, and in a way, his own death. The whole passage foreshadows almost exactly how Doodle dies, and how his brother becomes a factor in his death. It contributes to the mood by foreshadowing his death, keeping the reader on their toes. Readers can sense the eerie mood when the two interact with each other. They can see how superior the brother is, and how he can easily command Doodle to do anything, up to the point where he pushes him past his limit. Readers, in suspense, will then want to keep reading to see how this attribute of the brother will take a toll later on in the story. As the story continues, readers can infer that the brother is a very proud person, a characteristic that can be used for both good and bad. “It seemed so hopeless from the beginning that it’s a miracle I didn’t give up. But all of us must have something or someone to be proud of, and Doodle had become mine. I did not know then that pride is a wonderful, terrible thing, a seed that bears two vines, life and death.” (Hurst 617) This statement foreshadows how the

Doodle, a young disabled boy, is a burden to his Brother . Brother, is very ashamed and embarrassed of Doodle. The story “The Scarlet Ibis” by James Hurst shows how Doodle is like the Scarlet Ibis. Doodle and the Scarlet Ibis have many of the same conflicts and repeating actions in the story. In “The Scarlet Ibis,” Hurst develops the symbolism, which is shown through birds, death, and the color red shows how fragile Doodle really is during his lifetime.

The older brother of Doodle was ashamed of Doodle ever since he was born he actually made plans to kill Doodle when he was a baby. He was rough with Doodle on purpose so Doodle wouldn’t want to go with him. He didn’t do anything for Doodle out of love he did it so he wouldn’t have a crippled brother.

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

The author of “The scarlet Ibis,” James Hurst, suggests through the actions of his characters and his use of language the theme that too much pride can lead people to do things that can have devastating results. James Hurst quoted, “But all of us must have something or someone to be proud of, and Doodle had become mine.” The narrator has a need to make Doodle better to give himself something to be proud of and receive recognition for his actions. The narrator is talking about an event that happened in the past when he tried to teach his brother, Doodle, to walk. He looks back on it with the insight of an adult who has struggled with the consequences of his prideful actions.

In “The Scarlet Ibis”, Hurst demonstrates through indirect characterization the narrator’s selfishness, that being prideful can cause harm for the ones close. Doodle’s brother always wanted someone to play with, but when he found out about his “invalid” disabled brother he was disgusted, disrespectful, and selfish. He had thought of helping his brother as a burden, and his pride was too high too accept the fact. So Doodle’s brother set out to teach Doodle how to walk, only because “[he] did it for [himself]: that pride, whose slave [he] was, spoke to [him] louder than all [the family], and that Doodle walked only because [he] was ashamed of having a crippled brother.”(10) In this quote we see Doodle’s brother show his selfish side when he describes how he helped his brother “for [himself].” What he meant was that he only wanted to help because of his pride.

In “The Scarlet Ibis,” Hurst narrates how Brother’s pride and selfishness ultimately leads to the death of his disabled brother Doodle. As Doodle grows throughout the story, his brother teaches him how to be normal so he does not feel embarrassed about having a disabled brother. The selfish narrator pushes Doodle to the limits, blinded by his own pride, to have Doodle trained and ready for kindergarten. There are many pieces of text in the story which show the author’s use of foreshadowing and symbolism to portray Doodle’s terrible and despairing death. Primarily, Hurst hides clues in his text which establish that pride and love can end up being harmful.

He experiences the sadness of loss but also extreme anguish for the things he has done in the past. Brother cries and screams for Doodle, covering his body with a fierce protection. This greatly contrasts his behavior in the early sections of the story, where he only had scorn for his brother. This clearly demonstrates Brother’s love for Doodle, which he is only now fully coming to understand. Beyond the immediate aftermath of Doodle’s tragic death, Brother still thinks about Doodle and the mistakes of his past as he grows old: “But sometimes… the grindstone begins to turn, and time with all of its changes is ground away-

The dysfunctionality in Doodle and his brother’s relationship began when Doodle was born with a disability. Despite Doodle being a miracle baby, his brother feels embarrassed of his brother’s disability. Doodle’s Brother always tries to cause Doodle pain and traumatized him by making him touch his coffin and other such terrible things. He made Doodle go above and beyond his limits by forcing Doodle to “run, to swim, to climb trees, and to fight.” inspite of Doodle’s disability (4 Hurst). He only does this for his own selfishness and wish to not have a disabled brother. Doodle was considered to be a burden, even after he learned to walk for the happiness of his elder brother. Doodle always trusted and believed his brother. On the other hand, Doodle’s Brother always felt Doodle was nothing more than a burden. When he tries to run away from his responsibilities, he ends up killing Doodle. Doodle’s loyalty and faith in his brother was not reciprocal by his brother . Doodle trusted his brother blindly but his brother’s hateful emotions towards him cause their relationship to be destroyed. The narrator showed false loyalty and pride for Doodle and allowed his selfishness to destroy their

The short story “Scarlet Ibis” written by James Hurst is about a boy who narrates the adventures of his young brother William Armstrong, otherwise known as Doodle, and himself. Doodle is different than any other brother or you would find in a book, and his physical ability along with appearance in this story are considered a ‘’burden’’. After spending an abundance of time during class reading and extracting examples of figurative language in this story, we were given the task to find the theme of “Scarlet Ibis”. The theme I have found within this story which is that pride and infallibility don’t result in but often regret and despair. Furthermore I have found multiple quotes from the story that back my theme up.

Literary Analysis:”The Scarlet Ibis” Why do people sometimes hurt the ones they love? Some people in life want things so badly they will do anything for it, even if it involves hurting a loved one. In the story “The Scarlet Ibis” by James Hurst, Doodle’s brother pushes him to what seems to Doodle as extreme limits to get him to do physical stuff like walk, swim and play. In the story Doodle is a child who is incapable of walking or really doing anything. Doodle’s brother gets fed up with how Doodles can’t walk and how he has to take him everywhere he goes.

The brother and Doodle proved them all wrong. After Doodle stood up by himself for a few seconds, they were so happy. An example of why this was so exciting to them is “It seemed so hopeless at the beginning that it’s a miracle I didn’t give up.” (Hurst 3) They realize that doodle can do some of the things they were told that he couldn’t do. By helping doodle do this he was able to try other things. Second, He showed doodle his casket and even made him touch it to mess with him even more. Doodle touched it because he didn’t want to be left by his brother. “Doodle was frightened of being left. “Don’t leave me, Brother,” he cried, and leaned toward the coffin. His hand, trembling, reached out, and when he touched the casket, he screamed.” (Hurst 2) He truly grew on the idea of having a brother like doodle. He didn’t want anything to happen to him on purpose. Third, at the dinner they had hyped up had finally came and when they showed

The scarlet ibis attempted to fly, but its “wings were [too] uncoordinated… [and the bird] tumbled down [from the tree]… with a thud” (Hurst 5). Doodle has to crawl, or be pulled in his cart to get from place to place. Both doodle, and the bird are not able to transport themselves successfully.