Pride In Rules Of The Game, By James Hurst

Brother’s pride and obsession with helping Doodle succeed actually takes away from his goals to help Doodle. Brother states “I prepared a terrific development program for him” (4). Brother’s original intentions were to teach Doodle how to walk, run, swim, climb trees, and fight, which was a supportive thing for him to do. Although Brother believes that this all will help Doodle develop his skills, he ends up hurting Doodle by overworking him. Later, Brother says, “I should have already admitted defeat, but my pride wouldn’t let me” (4). Since Brother wants Doodle to succeed, he pushes him over the limit, which was a

A brother who would be his companion, a brother who would always be by his side. But his hope was crushed as he quickly learned that his brother would not reach his expectations. “Although Doodle learned to crawl, he showed no signs of walking, but he wasn’t idle.” (L67-L68) This quote indicates that although Brother had lost hope in Doodle, he pushed to find the bright side to keep him from facing the reality of having a brother that isn’t of any use to him. “Doodle was my brother and he was going to cling to me forever.” (L83) But, one afternoon, Brother’s perspective on Doodle completely flips when he recalls stating that, “[Doodle] looked straight at [him] and grinned.” (L42-L43). Doodle’s grin replaces Brother’s plan to “smother him with a pillow.” (L41) with an unpredicted friendship or

You can see that pride is something that’s extremely harmful to those close to you when you have too much of it. When someone's pride is hurt, most people will do anything to heal and fix it. That is exactly what Brother does when he sees he will have an invalid brother if he doesn’t do anything. So he sets out to teach Doodle how to do everyday things like walking, eating, and talking. Many people in the world can relate to this because they have had their pride wounded before. The big difference between most situations and Brother’s situation is that they wouldn’t go to such extreme measures. They would eventually see that what they are doing is wrong. However, Brother doesn’t realize this until the end of the story where he finds Doodle’s body, broken and exhausted. Brother seems to realize what he had done and that he had become a slave to his pride. Since Brother was so selfish, his pride got Doodle killed by Brother’s non-stop pushing. The morale of this story is not to love everyone for who they are. The real lesson is that you need to keep yourself in line before you get someone

Have your parents ever told you that you needed to improve at something? It could be a sport, activities, or even how well you do in school. This is a vile thing for parents to do to their children. Sometimes parents just need to back up a few steps and let you be yourself. The same can happen with an older sibling! That is the case in The Scarlet Ibis by James Hurst. The narrator of this story has a younger brother called Doodle, who has some health issues. Big brother pushes little brother to be better than he is. In The Scarlet Ibis, Doodle strives for the goals that his brother sets for him for many reasons, which reflects the conflict in the story.

When the Brother was forcing Doodle to learn how to walk, Doodle was in pain and he didn’t want to learn to walk at all. “This time [Doodle] did not lift his face up out of the rubber grass. ‘ I just can’t do it. Let’s make honeysuckle wreath.’”(4) From this quote, Hurst shows that Doodle was giving up, Doodle’s body knew that it could not support Doodle to walk yet, he needed to practice for a long time. As a younger teenage boy, the narrator was not well educated and did not understand the capability of Doodle’s body and he often force Doodle to do things that he don’t want to do. “There is within [the Brother] a knot of cruelty borne by the stream of love, much as our blood sometimes bears the seed of our destruction, and at times I was mean to Doodle.”(3) At the time of the story, the Brother was childish and very irresponsible. Just like what he has said in the quotes above, the Brother was cruel to Doodle. He forced Doodle to touch a coffin and threatened Doodle that he would leave Doodle if he doesn't touch a coffin. The coffin was made originally for Doodle, since everyone thought Doodle was going to die very soon. Later in the training program, the narrator wanted Doodle to run, Doodle’s limited physical ability was overwhelmed, the Brother simply ditched Doodle in the heavy rain since he was mad at Doodle for not reaching the goal that they

On page 350, Brother tries to train Doodle to be able to keep up with the other kids at school. “School was only a few weeks away, and Doodle was far behind schedule … 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. ‘Aw come one Doodle,’ I urged. ‘You can do it. Do you want to be different from everybody else when you start school?’ ‘Does it make any difference?’ ‘It certainly does,’ I said.” page 350. This quote shows that Brother isn’t just afraid for himself. Brother is afraid for Doodle as well. Brother wants Doodle to fit in at school, knowing that the other kids at school could be cruel to Doodle because of his disabilities. Later in the story, after Brother pushes Doodle far beyond his limit causing him to die, he regrets what he did Doodle. “I began to weep, and the tear-blurred vision in red before me looked very familiar. ‘Doodle!’ I screamed above the pounding storm, and threw my body to the earth above his. For a long, long time, it seemed forever, I lay there crying, sheltering my fallen scarlet ibis from the heresy of rain.” pg 354. This quote shows that Brother cares about Doodle and loves him, because seeing Doodle die made him feel very sad and guilty about how he pushed Doodle far beyond his limit, leading to

In a world of empathy and selfishness, one must always prevail. The short story “The Scarlet Ibis” by James Hurst tells a tale of a young boy and his disabled younger brother, Doodle. The narrator, also known as Brother, recalls the life of his brother and how his own actions and emotions affect his brother’s experiences. Brother’s pride determines whether he acts empathetic or selfish towards his sibling. In “The Scarlet Ibis” Hurst uses diction, symbolism, foreshadowing, and imagery to fabricate a remorseful mood as Brother looks back on his past, a compassionate feeling when the ibis dies, and a regretful mood when Doodle dies.

At the beginning, Doodle had been very hesitant to go along with his brother’s plans. He tried to argue with his brother. “I can’t walk, Brother,” Doodle said. “Who says so?” He demanded. “Mama, the doctor, everybody,” uttered Doodle. “Oh, you can walk,” The narrator said.” Shortly after that, Doodle began to follow the narrator’s orders and self ambitions. Soon, the narrator had acquired too much ambition, putting Doodle at risk. This is evident with Doodle’s constant cry, “don’t hurt me, Brother.” Little did the narrator know he would be pushing his brother too far. Later in the story, the narrator let his ambition overcome him and decided to keep on pushing his brother. He did not want a brother who could not do what other normal schoolboys could do. He admits to himself, “the knowledge that Doodle’s and my plans had come to naught was bitter, and that streak of cruelty within me awakened.” He believed what Doodle could not do would greatly affect him and his social

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

The Scarlet Ibis by James Hurst is a story between a boy and his little brother. Doodle is helpless, and is required to be assisted by his older brother. At first, his older brother was irritated about taking him where ever he went, but he grew with it as it went on. Doodle’s brother was tired of having a crippled brother so, “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 112). What the brother did was caring and compassionate, but it resorted back to evil since it was done for the wrong reasons. Doodle’s brother was tired of Doodle being different, and wanted to have a normal brother, which he knew he couldn’t have. He finally figured out when he showed his family that Doodle could walk that his actions were for the wrong reason. In that moment Doodle’s brother realized the truth about pride, “I did not

At one point in the story, Brother even says to himself, “They did not know that I did it for myself; that pride, whose slave I was, spoke to me louder than all of their voices, and that Doodle walked only because I was ashamed of having a crippled brother,” (pg. 389). This quote shows that he only taught Doodle to walk because he was so afraid of what people would think of him since he had a crippled brother. Even after he had the realization that he was only doing this for himself, he still continued to teach Doodle more physical activities for his own benefit. Later on during the story, Brother says to himself, “Once I had succeeded in teaching Doodle to walk, I began to believe in my on infallibility and I prepared a terrific development program for him, unknown to Mama and Daddy, of course,” (pg. 390). In this quote, Brother describes how he goes on to teach Doodle other activities, but he doesn’t think about how Doodle feels about doing this, he just wants to prove that he can do anything without

He happens to be jealous of the attention Doodle gets and remains embarrassed by Doodle's difference and also annoyed at the fact that he had to take Doodle everywhere with him. Barely tolerating the fact that Doodle was different from everyone else and strived to teach him "normal" things but not for Doodle's own good. "So I began to make plans to kill him by smothering him with a pillow", Brother says (417). This arises the source of deep shame for Brother. This shows Doodle's extreme vulnerability, while showing just how disturbed Brother is by the idea of Doodle's difference.

After Doodle learns to walk with the aid from his brother, the narrator thinks, “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” (Hurst 419). This statement conveys how the embarrassment felt by Doodle’s brother is at such a level that he would teach Doodle to walk, due to his shame. Doodle’s sibling thinks so highly of himself, that he wants his brother to not affect his reputation. Another event bringing out the prideful nature of Doodle’s brother happens while teaching Doodle to run, swim, climb trees, and fight.

Could having too much pride actually kill someone? As "The Scarlet Ibis" by James Hurst moves deeper into the plot, pride came to mind after Doodle's death. Brother had much pride. He learned that sometimes it's not such a great thing to have that much pride all the time. Brother's actions and statements told that he was guilty of Doodle's death throughout the story.

James Hurst in “The Scarlet Ibis” discusses the transformative relationship between two brothers. The narrator, referred to as Brother, is insecure and is embarrassed by his younger brother, Doodle. As of these traits, he emits harmful behaviors on Doodle and addresses the situation with a development project, to try and change him into something far from himself. Throughout the short story, The Scarlet Ibis, by James Hurst, the narrator expresses unspoken shame and pride, however, at the end, when his traits cause extreme measures on his younger brother, Doodle, he recognizes the mental instability he had. The primary characterization of the narrator in the short story shows his absolute embarrassment and disappointment with having Doodle