Never Leave My Father: Doodle Family

People with physical disabilities have with setbacks that make it harder for them to live normal lives like most of the people around them. Some of these individuals learn to cope with them, try to keep a positive mindset that helps them become better and stronger in their bodies and mind. In the story “The Scarlet Ibis” and the movie Simon Birch, two boys who suffer from growing setbacks, learn to live with their complications and persevere through their short lives while living them to the fullest and navigating their way to accept themselves for who they are. Simon and Doodle are very similar boys who both have the same disabilities and lifestyle, but the way they act on them and the people around them act as a result of it is somewhat different.

The narrator’s brother, affectionately nicknamed Doodle, wasn’t supposed to live for much more than a day after he was born. “Everybody thought he was going to die- everybody except Aunt Nicey,” (Hurst 1) Doodle was born with a specific disability that perhaps was untreatable then. Yet, they called him a disappointment, and no one believed that he had a single choice. “He was born when I was six, and was, from the outset, a disappointment.” (Hurst 1)No one else tried to find a way to support him even after he lived beyond Aunt Nicey’s expectations. Neither of his parents cared to help or even attempt to love him, presumably they just avoided him all the time. Doctor’s assumed that Doodle wasn’t going to make it, because his heart was too small and his body too big to be supported by it. “The doctor said that with his weak heart this strain would probably kill him, but it didn’t.” (Hurst 2) The narrator tried to treat his brother like a normal kid and make him learn things, to make him closer to normal than

In James Hurst’s short story “The Scarlet Ibis”, the Brother pushed Doodle to learn how to walk, swim, run and various activities so that Doodle would not seem to be crippled. Through the Brother's characterization, conflicts and eventual resolution, Hurst suggested that one's overwhelming selfishness, pride and cruelty can result in the death of a loved brother.

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

The narrator, Brother, tells the story of Doodle, his brother, and his childhood with all his disabilities; starting off by telling about Doodle when he was a baby and toddler, about how he could not do much for himself for a long time, but eventually learns to crawl. He soon moves onto when Doodle got a little older and Brother would have to take him everywhere he went and how the two would take on the mission of teaching Doodle to walk; they spent almost everyday out in the woods making Doodle stronger and stronger. On Doodle’s sixth birthday, they showed the family what he could do;

His brother Doodle/William Armstrong is fated to die or be a vegetable because of how weak he is and is not what the narrator wants for a brother, “...and I wanted more anything else someone to race to Horsehead Landing, someone to box with, and someone to perch with in the top fork of the great pine behind the barn, where across the fields and swamps you could see the sea. I wanted a brother. But Mama, crying, told me that even if William Armstrong lived, he would never do these things with me.” (464). Hurst shows what he thinks of disability when the narrator had almost killed his brother out of shame before seeing that he was sentient after all, “...so I began to make plans to kill him…‘Mama, he smiled. He’s all there!’” (464). At this point he

William Armstrong was born with a disability where he has a big head and a small body. His brother wanted a “normal” brother that he could play with, so he was very upset when his brother was born and looked different. His brother renamed William to Doodle bacuse he thought no one would ecxept much from someone named Doodle. By the time Doodle was 5 he could not walk on his own, his brother was very embarrassed by this so he decided that he would take doodle down to the old woman swap to practice walking. A couple weeks later Doodle learned to walk on his own.

Doodle’s Brother’s selfishness causes him to be ashamed of Doodle’s disabilities. Doodle’s brother felt “embarrassed of having a crippled brother of that age who couldn’t walk so (he) set out to teach (Doodle). (132)” Doodle was born with a tiny body and a bigger head. Everyone believed he would die. Brother is embarrassed of Doodle because he is different than others. He wants Doodle to fit in society and does not accept Doodle for how he is. Brother is selfish because he was an only child, he never learned the correct way to share and accept others. Brother’s parents put a lot of pressure on him, so he

Crawling backward made him look like a doodlebug,7 so I began to call him Doodle, and in time even Mama and Daddy thought it was a better name than William Armstrong. Only Aunt Nicey disagreed. She said caul babies should be treated with special respect since they might turn out to be saints. Renaming my brother was perhaps the kindest thing I ever did for him, because nobody expects much from someone called Doodle. Although Doodle learned to crawl, he showed no signs of walking, but he wasn't idle. He talked so much that we all quit listening to what he said. It was about this time that Daddy built him a go-cart and I had to pull him around. At first I just paraded him up and down the piazza,8 but then he started crying to be taken out into the yard, and it ended up by my having to lug him wherever I went. If I so much as picked up my cap, he'd start crying to go with me and Mama would call from where she was, "Take Doodle with you." He was a burden in many ways. The doctor had said that he mustn't get too excited, too hot, too cold, or too tired and that he must always be treated gently. A long list of don'ts went with him, all of which I ignored once we got out of the house. To discourage his coming with me, I'd run with him across the ends of the cotton rows and careen him around corners on two wheels. Sometimes I accidentally turned him over, but he never told Mama. His skin was very sensitive, and he had to wear a big straw hat whenever he went out.

The pride of one brother leads to a cousin’s demise. In the short story “The Scarlet Ibis”, Doodle’s development of his body is irregular: He cannot walk, or do anything physical. Doodle and his mother live with his aunt, uncle, and his cousin; he considers his cousin as a brother, so he calls him brother. Though it is said the brother’s pride was the thing that killed Doodle, the parents’ way of parenting could have lead on to Doodle’s death.

The narrator throughout the story was ashamed that Doodle his brother was paralympic so he tried to help Doodle walk for the benefit of his self-esteem. For example, in the story, the narrator says,¨ They did not know that 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.” The narrator expressed himself to help his brother in the way that it would seem as if he is the hero, but he did it so that he wouldn't have to go through life with a paralympic brother. The narrator knew what he was doing was bad, but didn't care enough to make it all about Doodle.

James Hurst’s tragic coming-of-age story, “The Scarlet Ibis”, starts out with the narrator, who is unnamed, telling us about his recollections of his brother, Doodle. When the narrator is six years old, his brother is born. However, when the narrator’s brother is born, he is unhealthy and frail. Their parents name him William Armstrong, but later nicknamed him Doodle. At first, the narrator is immensely upset and disappointed that his younger brother is disabled. The narrator is athletic and had high hopes that his brother be able to play and compete with him, but Doodle, being disabled, could not do any physical activities. His pride causes him to be too proud to accept having a disabled brother. As the story progresses, the narrator tries

Doodle’s family didn’t even name him until he was three months old. The only one in the family close enough to care was his brother, and he was constantly hurting and teasing Doodle. “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 353). His brother took him wherever he went in a little go cart, and Doodle loved it, but because Doodle’s brother hated that Doodle was disabled, he would take Doodle places and do dangerous things with him just to be mean. His family did not know how to love him.

The story “The Scarlet Ibis” by James Hurst was about the narrator having a disabled brother. The narrator was always embarrassed by his brother for the fact that he couldn’t walk, he couldn’t swim, barely could speak, and much more. Even though he knows he’s not supposed to make him do these things, he still taught him to swim, and walk, just so he could feel less embarrassed in front of his friends. Doodle is being mistreated and his family is not being fair to him. Feeling terrible for Doodle seems to be all this story is about.

We are now reviewing the death of William Armstrong,or to his peers Doodle,we believe his brother is responsible.He is deserving of these charges after he left Doodle alone in a thunderstorm,he never liked Doodle to begin with,and with all of Doodle’s disabilities,he still pushed him around and was cruel to him.