Summary Of Scarlet Ibis By James Hurst

He feels responsible because he believes that he pushed Doodle too hard in making him learn new things. When Doodle can finally walk, Brother does not feel satisfied because he still thinks that Doodle is not normal enough. He teaches him more activities that would make him seem normal. The Brother also feels selfish because he is not satisfied when Doodle learns to walk. Brother likely felt selfish after Doodle dies because he insists that Doodle learn how to walk, run, swim, and climb. Brother felt sad, responsible, and selfish after Doodle’s death. “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”(Hurst, 176). This quote shows that Brother feels very sad when he dies because it says that he began to

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

In “The Scarlet Ibis,” love and pride war in Brother's motivations to help Doodle; his love encourages kindness, but his shame at Doodle's failings results in the cruelty that kills the younger boy. “It is,” I said. “And before I’ll help you down from the loft, you’re going to have to touch it.”

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

When Brother set out to teach Doodle to walk and realized he had succeeded he became so proud and was convinced that he could teach Doodle anything. The only thing is Brother didn't teach him anything that he did for Doodle's benefit he did it for his own satisfaction. When Doodle had failed and couldn't get up Brother let his pride control him. "I ran as far as I could, leaving him far behind with a wall of rain dividing us" (604). The only reason Brother left Doodle is because of his pride. He felt he had spent so much time teaching him things so he could be normal all for nothing, and that aggrevated him. Doodle had just shown extraordinary success by rowing against the current and running as far as he did but for some reason that wasn't enough for Brother. The least that Brother could have done was went back and picked him up helping him back to the house considering all of the energy he had exerted. The only thing that Doodle ever asked of his brother was not to leave him and that is exactly what he

Things like walking and swimming. We find out about Brother’s unacceptance of Doodle when he called him “a burden in many ways.” The main character had been longing for a brother for a long time. When he finally got one, he was disappointed at the way his wish turned out. Another proof we get that Brother isn’t very accepting of Doodle is when Doodle first crawled, and was brought outside the bedroom, Brother thought that Doodle “for the first time, became one of us [them].” This quote indicates that Brother had the idea at first that Doodle wasn’t really part of the family. Doodle was cooped up in a bedroom for three years, and that did detach him from his family, but he was still a part of the family. For Brother, Doodle should’ve always been there emotionally if not physically. Brother also at times comes out as being mean to Doodle because Doodle wasn’t the brother he had expected. An instance was when Brother scared

Later in the story, Brother continues to push Doodle to learn many new skills. After one day of hard work, including rowing against the water and swimming until Doodle turns blue, Doodle still fails to meet Brother’s expectations. In anger, Brother leaves Doodle behind, but when Brother realizes his mistake he turns back and finds Doodle dead. This loss comes over him and he “began to weep, … ‘Doodle!’ [he] screamed above the pounding storm and threw [his] body above [Doodle’s].

In the quote “Once I had succeeded in teaching Doodle to walk, I began believing in my own infallibility , and i prepared a terrific development program for him. I would teach him to run, to swim, to climb trees, and to fight. He, too, now believed in my infallibility, so we set a deadline for these accomplishments less than that a year away, when, it had been decided, Doodle could start school.” Shows that Brother was not only  driven to  help Doodle accomplish  these physical activities, but also gave Doodle hope and that positive mindset that they could do anything they put their minds no matter what anyone

Doodle, the handicapped boy, is mentally developed slower and is challenged to learn how to walk with the help of his brother, six years older than he is. Doodle's brother didn't want to take Doodle everywhere in a go-kart, so the both of them were determined to make Doodle walk by his birthday, and he does.

Brother was disappointed with Doodles progress before the storm had started. “The knowledge that Doodle’s and my plans had come to naught was bitter, and the streak of cruelty within me awakened. I ran as fast as I could, leaving him far behind with a wall of rain dividing us (Hurst 6).” Doodles biggest fear was being left behind and brother knew that. As soon as brother realised that Doodle was not making as much progress as he had hoped, he thought there was no point in going back to help doodle. Brother was not being compassionate to Doodle and only worried about himself. Doodle ended up dying during the storm because he was left behind. Because of brother’s lack of compassion towards Doodle, Brother does not contain the qualities of a good

Brother even said, “Doodle walked only because, I was ashamed of having a crippled brother.” Technically Brother helped Doodle learn how to walk, but not in the right way. He helped him only because he was embarrassed for people to see that his brother couldn’t walk. Brother was so embarrassed of his brother being crippled that Brother had to teach him to walk before school started. On top of Brother being embarrassed and Brother not loving Doodle, he also pushed his brother closer to death than he already

In this quote, Brother shows that he is not considering how Doodle will react in any way, and is only thinking about his side of the story. Therefore, Brother’s mood shows that he is only considering the fact that this would boost his self-pride, while not considering any negative outcomes, physical and emotional, that could end up happening to Doodle and his family. This was all represented through mood. The emotion coming from Brother in this quote gives off a dark, gloomy mood, making the reader somewhat dislike Brother’s character. This quote also represents that he is ignoring Doodle completely and doing this all for himself. Picking up where the story left off, Brother eventually proceeded to teach Doodle how to walk, run and even swim. After succeeding to do so, he shows his family that Doodle can walk, but Brother reveals he only did it for himself! As Brother said in the story, “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 3)” When Brother states that he did this all for himself, and that

He desires to change and to make his mother to be proud of him. That is why he is becoming less egoistic. He thinks about his mother. At the end, when Doodle dies, “Brother” considers Doodle as his own brother and stops thinking egoistically. “Brother” ends its story with the words “sheltering my fallen scarlet ibis” which shows that he has stopped thinking only about himself because he considers Doodle as a part of him (Hurst 4).

Understanding and MmMaturing can beis good orand bad, very much like the pain from exercising, which, in turn, can forceuses one to become stronger. Likewise, the narrator of James Hurst’s “The Scarlet Ibis” experiences this same idea when he pushes his physically handicappedtroubled little brother too far. Afterwards, he learns and matures from the experience. In “The Scarlet Ibis”, the here are two main characters Doodle, the little brother who is physically disabled and the narrator big brother, who is ashamed of Doodlehis little brother’s physical disability. Due to the shame from his little brother, it causes the narrator big brother engages in teachesing his little brother physical activities, bringing both of them to their downfalls.