Short Story : An Empty Casket In 'Scarlet Ibis'

Doodle was persistent, since he was motivated and determined. In the story, it says, “Doodle, don’t you want to learn to walk? He’d nod his head, and I’d say, well if you don’t keep trying, you’ll never learn” (Hurst, 598). Being persistent and active played a big role in both of their lives. It isn’t implied that Doodle never gave up, but from what the brother said to keep trying instead of giving up, one may see that Doodle didn’t give up. If Doodle had given up, it would have meant that he would have never learned how to walk. The scarlet ibis traveled around, and it was strange, since it came out of nowhere, and

Brother decides to help Doodle learn how to walk. He helps him be a “normal brother” by teaching him how to swim, walk, run, and etc. When Doodle dies, Brother shields his body from the rain. He cries when Doodle dies.

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

Even though Doodle is just an infant, the narrator tries to kill him. Once Doodle gets a little older, the narrator forces Doodle to touch the coffin he was going to be buried in and was threatening him that if he did not do it, the narrator would leave him by himself. The narrator and Doodle’s parents make the narrator take Doodle wherever the narrator goes; pushing Doodle on a wagon. Therefore, the narrator desires to teach Doodle how to walk, so he will not have to take Doodle along everywhere he goes. Therefore, it is obvious that he teaches Doodle how to walk for his own benefit; not Doodle’s.

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

In the scene where the narrator has finally disclosed to his parents that Doodle is now able to walk, he “ began to cry” and the father asks him why he was crying. He keeps to himself that he “ did it for himself” and he “was ashamed of having a crippled brother” (559). Hurst also utilizes flashback in order for the narrator to recall his past actions which he now regrets doing. In the story, the narrator constantly performed cruel actions on his brother which he does not realize himself until that scene where notices that the only reason Doodle was actually able to walk was because he was ashamed of his incompetence. This results in him having flashback later on and led to him realilzing this

When Doodle is first born and after about three years he is being taught how to walk like normal people walk and his brother is not to thrilled about it he is just doing it because he does not want to drag him around and be dead weight so he does this so he does not have to deal with him as much.

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

Without delay the narrator took Doodle to accomplish more than walking; he taught him swimming, rowing, climbing, and swinging. They would work until Doodle could not do anymore, till he couldn’t left an oar or lift his arm to take another stroke. The only reason Doodle did it because his brother would always say, ‘“Aw, come on, 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.’’. (52) In the beginning of the story it talked about how Doodle would turn blue and almost black in the face as he was straining just to get up and crawl. Likewise when in the ending he said he knew that he was pushing his brother to run faster and Doodle had never done that before so he was struggling and ended up dying.

"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" (597). Brother didn't teach Doodle to help him, he did it because he was embarrassed. When Doodle finally showed his family that he could walk, Brother cried when everyone praised him for showing him how to walk. Brother felt guilty for knowing that he did it because he had so much pride and was so embarressed, He did it for

Doodle is characterized as sickly in the short story, “The Scarlet Ibis”. The author writes,“When he was two, if you laid him on his stomach, he began to move himself, straining terribly.” (Hurst 464) Usually by the age of two kids have learned to walk. Doodle cannot even crawl because of how unhealthy and weak he is. Doodle’s brother complains, “When Doodle was five years old, I was embarrassed at having a brother of that age who couldn't walk…” (Hurst 466) Usually kids, by the age of five, can walk, unless they have some sort of problem. Doodle’s legs cannot hold him up because they are weak, so it takes a while for doodle to learn to walk.

“Fall seven times, get up eight times,” is a japanese proverb. Throughout the stories, Ally struggles to make her way upstairs. Doodle, who was not able to walk for many years after his birth, makes many futile attempts at walking under demands from his brother. “He collapsed onto the grass like a half-empty flour sack” (pg 49). This is one example of how Doodle, even though he is determined, still falls short.

Doodle is incapable of being as active as the narrator. “Everybody thought he was going to die- everybody except Aunt Nicey, who had delivered him.”(-pg. 1) Doodle was born with health condition that make him weaker and incapable of extreme activity. The narrator continued to push him beyond what he could do. “When he was two, if you laid him on his stomach, he began to move himself, straining terribly.”-(pg.2) Doodle couldn't run because if he fell, he wouldn't be able to get up and he would begin straining terribly, but this didn't stop the narrator from forcing him to run and do everything he wanted him to do. “Crawling backward made him look like a doodlebug, so I began to call him Doodle, and in time even Mama and Daddy thought it was a better

Another reason is the narrator pushed Doodle too hard so Doodle can fit what he wanted as a brother. He wanted to get Doodle to walk so he can fit in with the other

A significant aspect of life is being confronted with obstacles that restrict the ability to achieve success. As displayed in James Hurst’s short story, The Scarlet Ibis and as well as in the movie The Man in the Iron Mask, the main characters Louis and Doodle face the reality of being confined by their physical and mental inabilities, which hinder their progress. Each character is also greatly influenced by their surroundings, leading to poorly made decisions. Additionally, both characters face unrealistic standards set by the individuals around them and are pushed past their capabilities, resulting in failure. The lack of ability possessed by Louis and Doodle prevent them from overcoming barriers due to their physical and mental limitations,