Flashback In The Scarlet Ibis

Hurst uses imagery to show how Brother feels guilt for causing Doodle to die. “I ran as fast as I could, leaving him far behind with a wall of rain dividing us.” Brother remembers when Doodle says “Brother, Brother, Don’t leave me! Don’t leave me!” Brother feels guilt for leaving Doodle once before. When Brother runs away from Doodle, he is not actually running away from him, he is running away from the guilt which Doodle causes him to feel. Brother looks at Doodle and feels guilty for leaving him at a time of trouble before. Hurst uses the rain as a way to symbolize guilt and sorrow. “‘ What are you crying for’ They did not know that I did it for myself, that pride, whose slave I was, spoke to me louder than all their voices.” In this scene, Hurst shows the guilt in this scene using imagery by showing us Brother crying. This is Hurst’s way of showing us guilt. When Brother cries, it is because he feels guilty of his motivation. His only reason for helping Doodle was because he was ashamed of “having a crippled brother”.

In this passage, the eldest brother says, “...I put him on his feet at least a hundred time each afternoon.” This quote from the story is an example of hyperbole which Hurst uses to emphasize how many times Doodle fails. The amount of times that he fails is what causes him to feel weak. At the end of the story, the narrator says “‘Yes, yes,’ I cried, and he cried it too, and the grass beneath us was soft and the smell of the swamp was sweet.” In this portion of the story, Hurst uses subtle imagery to show the boys’ feelings of

The author uses flashback to show how the narrator felt guilty of his own pride. The narrator wanted to teach Doodle to walk because he was “ashamed of having a crippled brother” (559). He “[begins] to cry” as he realizes that he “did it for himself”

In conclusion, the narrator feels terrible of what he has done to Doodle; which possibly lead to Doodle’s death. Near the end, the narrator gets really disappointed with Doodle, because he did

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.

Many years later, later in the story, when Doodle is around five years of age, it occurs to the narrator that it may be a good idea to teach Doodle to walk so that he fits in with his peers. After finally convincing him, they both secretly set out to teach Doodle how to walk. During this process, the narrator thinks, “There is within me (and with sadness I have watched it in others) a knot of cruelty borne by the stream of love, much as our blood sometimes bears the seed of our destruction...” (10). In this part of the story, Hurst again uses indirect characterization through the narrator’s thoughts, to demonstrate, once again, the theme that disabilities are not flaws, and that they should be respected and embraced. By saying, “...borne by the stream of love,” the narrator is trying to bring out what they have in common instead of their differences, and he is saying that Doodle’s disability does not change the fact that they are connected and share the mutual love of two

The narrator regrets how he pushed Doodle far beyond his limits. Now that the Brother is older, he knows how pride can affect him. “I did not know then that pride is a wonderful, terrible thing, a seed that bears two vines, life and death.”(4) When the Brother got Doodle to stand, he was confident in Doodle to accomplish any physical movement. So he expected more and more out of Doodle. But he didn’t know the pain and the danger of trying to exceed the limit of one’s body. Now, after all the years have passed by, the narrator realize that his love for Doodle. “But sometimes (like right now), as I sit in the cool, green-draped parlor, the grindstone begins to turn, and time with all its changes is ground away--and I remember Doodle.”(1) The years have taken away the cruelty and selfishness in the Brother’s early year and he was sorry for how he forced and threatened Doodle. The narrator looks over the cruel moments he had with Doodle and blames Doodle’s death on himself. “They did not know that I did it for myself; that pride, whose slave I was, spoke to me louder than all the other voices, and that Doodle walked only because I was ashamed of having a crippled brother.”(5) The voice here is very regretful of his sins, and wants to fix what he had already

By using imagery, Hurst is able to give the reader a clear picture of what Doodle’s deformities appear like. The reader also gets to learn clear and cruel thoughts Doodle’s brother has in relation to Doodle, which is saddening.

In the beginning of the short story, as Brother reflects on Doodle’s life, the author uses personification and foreshadowing to create a mood of remorse. As he gazes out of the window into his backyard, Brother states that “the graveyard flowers were blooming. ...speaking softly the names of our dead” (Hurst 1). The flowers provide flashbacks of the past, and foreshadow a loss of life. The loneliness felt by Brother causes readers to consider how they would feel if their loved one was gone. As Brother observes the seasons, it is noted that “summer was dead but autumn had not yet been born” (Hurst 1). The personifications of the seasons as stages in the cycle of life and death creates an unsure and uncertain mood. The shift between seasons creates an idea of change and uncertainty of events to come. Hurst creates a mood of remorse through

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 color red symbolizes a strong motif throughout this short story. “The Scarlet Ibis,” and scarlet is a shade of red. Doodle and the scarlet ibis are connected to each other. They both are damaged and die in a windstorm. As the ibis fell and hit the ground, he had blood coming from it’s mouth. When Doodle dies in the storm his brother treats him as if he were sick. Then Doodle symbolically overtakes the Scarlet Ibis.

The first and one of the most important literary devices you can detect in this writing, is the usage of flashback. Hurst uses flashback to develop the whole story, relationship between Doodle and Brother, and explain what happened to Doodle. A majority of “The Scarlet Ibis” is told through this flashback and past tense. The flashback improves the story and is used in a way to show Brother at the beginning and how much his past with Doodle still affects him. We really get to see that guilt and even his maturity when he is older, because he goes back to all these places where him and Doodle played and grew up. Yet even though it's so far in the past, going to his old home and fields brings back painful memories. *

The despondent mood at the beginning of the story, mirrors the loss of innocence of the narrator because he had to face the responsibility and guilt of Doodle’s death.

James Hurst foreshadows Doodle’s death in many ways.An example of foreshadowing in the story “The Scarlet Ibis” happens when the narrator says “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 466).This is not a coincidence written by the author, he made this a part of the story to bring up the topic of Doodle dying.The author said that “we all believed he would die” to show how he was weak and could not possibly survive (Hurst 466).There was more foreshadowing when James Hurst killed off the red bird saying “ Even death did not mar its grace, for it lay on the earth like a broken vase[… ]we stood around it, awed by its exotic beauty” (Hurst 473). This

The first literary device the author uses to build the theme is flashback. The reader knows how the story is based on one lengthy memory, written in first person point of view by the narrator, who is now a grown man reminiscing about his childhood days with his younger brother. The narrator recalls, “But sometimes (like right now), as I sit in the cool, green-draped parlor, the grindstone beings to turn, and time with all its changes is ground away- and I remember Doodle” (416). This point of view is based purely on memory of the past, which enables the reader of having the ability to understand and recognize Brother’s mistakes and how to not make the same mistakes of hurting the ones we love. The reader feels a genuine atmosphere of remembrance, reminiscence, and guilt. Thus, the reader experiences a sense of growing up with Doodle and Brother, since the story ranges through a number of years. Flashback lets the reader know that Doodle is no longer alive, lets them be empathetic, and the atmosphere of the narrator talking about his past experiences as a child leads one to believe his lesson being taught. Therefore, flashback adds a special element of trust, since the reader is aware of about the character’s past, personal emotions, and regrets.