How Is Pride Shown In The Scarlet Ibis

The relationship between siblings can often be very complicated. When the older sibling sets high expectations for the younger sibling, it will often conclude in a series of disappointments or misunderstandings if the younger sibling does not reach the expectation that is set. When Brother finds out that his family is expecting a newborn, he is enthusiastic and begins to make plans for the activities Brother was going to do with the newborn. Soon enough, the baby arrives, but Brother realizes that the newborn is physically disabled, which makes Brother is disappointed. All of his plans to teach Doodle, the newborn, different activities were put in jeopardy when Doodle proved that he was incapable of walking on his own. As he sets out to help his brother, Brother shows that he can express both kindness and cruelty towards Doodle. In the short story, The Scarlet Ibis, by James Hurst, the narrator expresses how both affection and cruelty crossroads when helping a loved one, especially a family member.

The only thing that the Brother wanted was a sibling with which he could play with. But when Doodle arrived all of his hopes were shattered. As a result, he makes Doodle pay for it on many occasions. He makes him touch his own casket that was laying in the lay loft being reserved for

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

As Brother’s deadline nears, Doodle is pushed past the zenith of his exhaustion, painfully portrayed in the story as,”School was only a few weeks away, and Doodle was far behind schedule. He could barely clear the ground when climbing up rope vines, and his swimming was certainly not passable. We decided to double our efforts, to make one last drive and reach our pot of gold. I made him swim until he turned blue and row until he couldn’t lift an oar. Wherever we went, I purposely walked fast, and although he kept up, his face turned red and his eyes became glazed. Once, he could go no further, so he collapsed on the ground and began to cry” (4). What Brother believes as improvement is doing far more harm than good, and is even farther from their goal. Too much strain can kill Doodle because of his weak heart; yet Brother is blinded by his own pride as he pushed Doodle to his absolute limit. Brother’s shattered pride is shown clearly in his devious actions displayed in the story such as, “When the deafening peal of thunder had d9ed, and in the moment before the rain arrived, I heard Doodle, who had fallen behind cry out ‘Brother, Brother, don’t leave me! Don’t leave me!’ The knowledge that Doodle’s and my plans had come to naught was bitter, and that streak of cruelty within me awakened. I ran as fast as

He also begins to realize that, “pride is a wonderful, terrible thing, a seed that bears two vines, life and death.” (6). Throughout the story, the narrator also stresses how pride is double-sided as a “wonderful, terrible thing.” Pride has two different outcomes and often leads to unexpected events. It pushes one to achieve one’s goals, but can also be destructive if one loses sight of what the true aim of the task is. As the protagonist’s pride pushes Doodle further from isolation, he becomes obsessed with his desperate need for the “ideal” sibling, resulting in Doodle’s untimely death. The narrator’s thoughts represent the unawareness he has of the disastrous effects of his pride. He compares pride towards a seed, something that grows over time. When he says, “life and death,” the brother is referring to the life of his pride and death of his brother. To allow for his pride to live on, the life of Doodle is

to pride even with the best intentions. The story begins with “Brother” introducing Doodle he

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.

He pushed Doodle to hard emotionally many ways. He made made fun of how Doodle wasn't normal. But one thing brother had done to Doodle that was super mean. Brother took Doodle to see his coffin that was made for him when he was a baby. Another thing he did was made Doodle touch the coffin. And that's what Brother did to push Doodle past the emotionally breaking point.

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

The narrator is ashamed to have Doodle as a brother. For example, he only wants Doodle to walk for his own good, because he is embarrassed of him. In the text it says, “When Doodle was five years old, I was embarrassed at having a brother at that age who couldn’t walk, so I set out to teach him.” The narrator also leaves Doodle in the storm when Doodle claims he can’t run, or he can’t swim. He does this because he doesn’t want a brother that can’t do what he does. This evidence proves that he was embarrassed of

This story shows how close brothers can get to each other, but they can also be very selfish and headstrong. The death of Doodle was a lot of the brothers fault because he made Doodle come with him and left him in the dust. Brother was at fault for his Doodle's death.

“Pride is the parent of destruction; pride eats the mind and the heart and the soul alive.”-Anne Rice. In this story we learn how ruthless pride can be on oneself and how it pushes you to do things that are terrible. The victim of pride here is the narrator who has a brother named Doodle that was born disabled so the narrator does everything in his power to make Doodle normal even if it means death. In fact death of Doodle is the result we get and it is the narrator's fault because he overworked him, he left him in the storm, and the fact that he never even loved Doodle in the first place.

These goals that were set showed that even though Doodle wasn’t competitive and didn’t want to try, he could still succeed with help from his brother. The character of Doodle developed thoroughly throughout this story with the help of these goals. It showed that he was determined to make his brother proud rather then make himself happy. He would rather not hurt himself but instead, he pushed on to make his brother happy. Even though Doodle loved his brother and tried to succeed for him, his brother was still cruel. When Doodle cried out, “Brother, Brother, don’t leave me! Don’t leave me!” his brother still left him alone in the rain, even though Doodle had tried so hard. Because of Doodle’s older brother, he died. Love can bring you up so far, but then you fall so much farther. Love can kill.

The beginning of the story was when the narrator tries to kill Doodle because he was ashamed. The narrator is revealed that he is embarrassed of having a disabled brother and was willing to kill Doodle because he was crippled. The event is linked to the theme because the narrator’s pride towards Doodle was because of embarrassment of Doodle being crippled. Doodle was born with a big head and his body was wrinkly and red like an old person and was disabled. Everyone thought he would die at a young age and the narrator even states Doodle was born out of disappointment. Even if Doodle survived, he couldn’t do anything with the

In Doodle’s early childhood, Brother taunted him by threatening to leave him alone. Because it was his worst fear, he would cry and tell Brother to stay. As the two brothers ran home through the storm Doodle tried his hardest to keep up, as he feared being uncompannied. Doodle cried out, once again, at his brother for him to stop and