Quotes In The Scarlet Ibis

When Doodle becomes weak one afternoon during a thunderstorm, Brother being selfish decides to run as fast and as far as he could away from him. “The knowledge that Doodle’s and my plans had come to naught was bitter, and that strength of cruelty within me awakened.” (Hurst 563) In this part of the short story, the reader can tell that Brother had taken on a cruel personality, which he would later learn to regret. “One day I took [Doodle] up to the barn loft and showed him his casket, telling him how we believed he would die.” (Hurst 557). Brother admits he was cruel to Doodle and now proves it when he forces Doodle to touch his own casket, threatening to leave him in the loft if he did not. Though Brother was cruel to Doodle, nothing he did could compare to the brutality Montresor inflicted on Fortunato. The anger and jealousy Montresor shared with Fortunato causes him to act in such a way unacceptable by the general public. “A moment more and I had fettered him to the granite.” (Poe 9). This scene shows how unaware Fortunato was and how Montresor took advantage of his drunken state. As the night grows on, Montresor starts to taunt him. “’Pass your hand,’ I said, ‘over the wall; you cannot help feeling the niter,’” (Poe 9) Fortunato has still not caught on to Montresor’s plan, and that Montresor is hinting at it. The niter pulls at Fortunato’s lungs causing him to wheeze and gag. The vindictiveness Montresor shares with Fortunato does not compare to

Some people may argue that Brother is innocent and did not kill Doodle since he also taught Doodle how to walk.This argument makes sense because Brother was trying to help Doodle. In the story it says that Brother taught Doodle to walk so that’s where he could be innocent since he was kind enough to teach his disabled brother to walk. It could prove he is innocent since it gives no evidence he killed him because he did something kind for Doodle. However, this argument does not matter because Brother was still planning all along to kill Doodle since he was disabled. Brother showed him the casket he was going to die in, and he left him face down in the rain knowing Doodle couldn’t help himself since he was disabled.

The quantities of pride hidden behind Brother’s “good deeds” would not end successfully. From page 5: “There is within me (and with sadness I have seen it in others) 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.” This suggests that Brother knows he can be cruel to his brother, and he knows this relates to his love for Doodle. It also demonstrates how he was mean to Doodle plenty of times. How much could he have loved Doodle to do what he did to him? There is no answer, but one thing is true. It was mean. Very mean. From page 12: “I heard Doodle, who had fallen behind, cry out, ‘Brother, Brother, don’t leave me! Don’t leave me!’ My 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 I could, leaving him far behind... Soon I could hear his voice no more” This implies that Brother did indeed have a sense of cruelty, and a very bad one at best. It also shows that his plans to “help” Doodle were only driven by pride and greed. How could someone leave their brother to die only because they could not reach their

Brother states in the text, ¨ 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.¨(pg.4). Brother only wanted to teach Doodle how to walk because he was embarrassed for himself, not Doodle, and that is the only reason why he set out to teach him. Another piece of evidence for this topic is, the narrator was ashamed that he only taught Doodle how to walk for his own satisfaction.(pg.6). In this evidence the narrator is admitting that he did wrong and only cares about himself. The last piece of evidence is, ¨School was only a few weeks away, and Doodle was far behind schedule.¨(pg.8). Brother was only teaching Doodle so many skills only because he wanted to look like he had a normal brother at

This is shown when it says “So I began to make plans to kill him by smothering him with a pillow.”(Hurst 595)Since the beginning he didn’t want an invalid brother. He even thought and male plans to kill him. If Doodle wasn’t bothering him or doing anything to him then why would he want to kill him? Doddles brother was just thinking about himself the whole time.” 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 599) He did not do it for Doodles good, he never even thought of how Doodle felt. His pride was stronger than him. Because he was ashamed of Doodle , that made him push doodle way too hard for someone like him. Until the end is when he realizes that what he did to Doodle was wrong but it’s too late. The author shows this when he says “I ran as fast as I could, leaving him behind …Finally I went back and found him … “Doodle! Doodle!” I cried, shaking him, but there was no answer…” (Hurst 604) He ran as fast as he could to make

The second reason is the narrator knows he should have appreciated his brother more. Although Doodle did his best to make his brother proud, it was never good enough for the narrator. The narrator wanted to force him to be like a normal, healthy person. Once Doodle learns how to walk, the narrator is too swollen with pride and wants to teach Doodle to run, swim, and many other complicated tasks. The narrator should have valued Doodle more. It was already extraordinary that Doodle even got to walk. That should have been good enough for him. Unfortunately, the narrator kept on pushing him and pushing him.

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

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

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.

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

Guilt is a horrible burden to carry. In "The Scarlett Ibis" by James Hurst, Brother is guilty for the death of Doodle because he let his pride get the best of him. His pride leads him to push Doodle to limits he can not with stand. Doodle is born premature, and begins to crawl at the age of 3 and walk at the age of 5 with the help of his brother. As Doodle progresses, Brother begins to push him more and more. One day a Scarlett Ibis lands on their land and dies. On a stormy day they go out to row a boat and Doodle has to row back against the tide and then collapses when they get to shore. When the storm begins they rush home and as they are on their rush Doodle falls and calls out for his brother but Brother leaves him and later goes back when

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

“Everyone must have something to be proud of, and Doodle had become mine.” Some may see that in this story, pride was a destructive force, but I see pride as the motivation for brothers actions to help Doodle walk. Doodle was born crippled and very weak. The narrator encouraged and helped Doodle walk, and sometimes he used tough-love when teaching him, be he benefited from it. I believe that brother was innocent because if you are proud of something that you worked so hard on, why would you kill it?

The story explains, “... Doodle walked only because I was ashamed of having a crippled brother.” (347). This to me means that brother only taught Doodle how to walk and swim and other things only because he was embarrassed of having a brother with disabilities. Brother also says, “ It was bad enough having an invalid brother, but having one who was not there at all was unbearable.” (345). This proves him guilty because he said having an invalid brother was unbearable. This is because of pride being a destructive

Brother stated,"They did not know that I did it for myself; that pride, whose slave I was..., and that Doodle walked only because I was ashamed of having a cripple brother" (599). He was embarrassed of Doodle because he was dissabled. The only way Brother would be satisfied was that Doodle would be enough so Brother would not be embarrassed. By pushing Doodles health limits, Brother will do whatever it takes so himself will look good. Even though the doctor specifically told the family that Doodle could not get too exited, too hot, too cold, or too tired because of how weak Doodle was. By doing all the opposite Brother was slowly killing