Essay On Relationships In James Hurst's 'A Separate Peace'

Hurst utilizes foreshadowing to demonstrate how the brother’s selfishness and pride leads to the death of Doodle. Not long after Doodle was born, the mother explains to the brother that Doodle might be mentally handicapped as well as physically handicapped. The brother could not accept the fact that his brother is different, so he “began to make plans to kill him [Doodle] by smothering him in his sleep” (Hurst 1). From the very beginning, Doodle’s brother is unable to except the fact that his brother is not normal and never will be. His selfishness and pride leads him to want to kill

In the text the narrator states ¨It was bad enough having an invalid brother, but having one who possibly was not all there was unbearable, so I began to make plans to kill him by smothering him with a pillow¨ (Hurst, 351). This quote from the text proves the narrator hated his younger brother, and even went so far as to make plans to kill him because he could not stand to have a disabled brother. The narrator even went so far as to say, “The knowledge that Doodle’s and my plans had come to naught was bitter, and that streak of cruelty within me awakened” (Hurst, 360). This textual evidence helps demonstrate the contempt and anger the narrator felt for his brother. This anger, contempt, and shame that the narrator felt for his brother, Doodle, was the reason that the narrator killed his

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.

Doodle's initial conflict with his brother leads his brother to patronize him for being different. Brother and his whole family believe that Doodle wasn't going to survive

The narrator in the story causes Doodle's death because he happens to be disappointed. In the story, Brother tries to take advantage of the kind, caring nature of Doodle and is cruel because he thinks of Doodle as a letdown. "He was born when I was six and was, from the outset, a disappointment", Exclaims Brother (416). Be concise, Brother views Doodle as a shame, because Doodle is physically inept and Brother always wanted a little normal brother that he could play

I would like to start by saying that Doodle’s brother could say some hurtful things to Doodle that may discourage him. For example, “One day I took Doodle up to the barn loft, and showed him his casket, telling him how we all believed he would die.” (2) It was a poor choice for his brother to make and it caused Doodle to get scared and worried about whether or not his life has all been a lie. He did not know that his family thought

At the beginning of the story, Brother is hateful. Doodle is born and Brother is extremely disappointed by his disabled brother. He always dreamed of having a brother he could run and play with, and

Doodle was born prematurely, so early that he was severely disabled, which his brother never failed to remind him every chance he got. He was made a casket shortly after he was born, as he wasn’t expected to live for a long period of time. The narrator highly disliked is brother, so much that he made him touch his casket, leading to him to realize how he could use Doodle. ‘Doodle was paralyzed, so I put him on my shoulder and carried him down the ladder, and even when we were

While Doodle walks to the dinner table on his own, Brother says: “They didn’t know that I just did it because I was ashamed of having a crippled brother” (Hurst). The quote shows how big brothers pride overcomes his love and acceptance of Doodle… How Brother felt humiliated of the disability Doodle was born, additionally, how he was a slave to his own pride. He didn’t want to be acknowledged as the boy with a disabled brother. Brother has been encouraged to help Doodle for his own selfish motives, but at the same time he also experienced guilt for doing

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

Brother is ashamed of his crippled little brother and does not want his pride to be hurt by embarrassment. After Doodle showed his family he can walk, Brother was in deep thought thinking, “They did not know I did it for myself...Doodle walked only because I was ashamed of having a crippled brother” (347). Brother is even aware of his selfishness and boldly admits it, to himself. Brother was clouded by the shame and pride he’d been living in to see that Doodle desperately needed to walk for himself. Brother’s reputation was apparently more important than doing the right thing for the right cause. Another moment that reveals Brother’s selfish side is right after Doodle had failed to swim in the water. During the storm, Doodle had fallen and Brother left him there. “For a long, long time, it seemed forever, I lay there, crying, sheltering my fallen scarlet ibis…” (354). This moment ties back to how Brother completely ignored all of Doodle’s risk factors and how fragile he is. Brother was only focused on Doodle’s failed swimming and his future school life humiliation. Throughout the whole time Brother had invested teaching Doodle new things, Brother has never really forgotten his true motive behind all of it. The selfishness of Brother lead to him ultimately letting Doodle

He desires to change and to make his mother to be proud of him. That is why he is becoming less egoistic. He thinks about his mother. At the end, when Doodle dies, “Brother” considers Doodle as his own brother and stops thinking egoistically. “Brother” ends its story with the words “sheltering my fallen scarlet ibis” which shows that he has stopped thinking only about himself because he considers Doodle as a part of him (Hurst 4).

When he reaches Doodle in the pouring rain, he is curled up and seems to have had a heart attack. This is the first time readers see Brother showing love, compassion, and care towards his brother. The narrator explains, “His little legs bent sharply at the knees, had never before seemed so fragile, so thin”(183). Not only emotionally, but Brother also begins to physically see the weakness of Doodle and what he has been doing to him this whole time. Until this moment, Brother’s eyes have never been opened to who Doodle really

Self-pride can control many human decisions. In this case, Brother is the slave of pride. Brother wanted a brother to run, jump, breath, and climb with, but Doodle couldn’t. His expectations for his brother were not met and Brother thought to kill Doodle. During the story Brother realized, “But all of us have something or someone to be proud of, and Doodle was mine... that pride is a wonderful, terrible thing, a seed that bears two vines, life and death” (Hurst 354) He explains that his pride was based on his brother, and this could be a wonderful yet terrible thing because this could lead to life or death. His selfish actions were based on his reputation, and what people would think of him with a crippled brother. Pride is good or bad, destructive or joyful. This symbolizes how people live their lives according to their self-pride. In this story, pride was destructive, his pride was at risk because he had a brother you couldn’t even stand: Therefore it motivated him to push his brother until he died. Embarrassment, and pride both play a factor in how we live our lives; additionally in the story relates to how humans change for better or for

To elaborate, the author creates a great description on how character helps with the overall theme. The story is set in Eastern North Carolina the early 1900s, and it explains on how the character Doodle’s brother feels about his sibling. It was said in the story that Doodle’s brother disliked having his brother with him because he was ashamed of having someone that could not walk or swim with him. In addition, it could be seen that even from the beginning of the main characters story that Doodle’s brother disapproved of his younger brother, "It was bad enough having an invalid brother, but having one who possibly was not all there