Summary Of The Scarlet Ibis By James Hurst

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.

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.

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.

“There is within me … a knot of cruelty borne by the stream of love, much as our blood sometimes bears the seed of our destruction.” James Hurst. Hurst points out that when people love someone, they have the ability to hurt the ones they love, and they are also capable of doing things that can cause them to harm themselves. This idea is complicated, because people are complicated. People can be cruel as well as kind. People can do cruel things yet have caring intentions. “People are complicated. People have secrets. It doesn't make them good people or bad people.” David Zayas. In the story “The Scarlet Ibis” by James Hurst, the narrator, called “Brother” shows this mixed side of being human. In the story, Brother

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

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.

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.

It also demosttates how precarious Brother is about Doodle’s limitations. After many days of failing to walk, Doodle finally able himself to walk by himself; “ they did not know that I [brother] did it for myself; that prude, whise 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 468). The narrator’s egoism is forcing Doodle and himself to push further than what Doodle can do. Prsseured by how others think of “him”, Brother tries his best change Doodle’s ability.

Brother is ashamed of his crippled little brother and does not want his pride to be hurt by embarrassment. After Doodle showed his family he can walk, Brother was in deep thought thinking, “They did not know I did it for myself...Doodle walked only because I was ashamed of having a crippled brother” (347). Brother is even aware of his selfishness and boldly admits it, to himself. Brother was clouded by the shame and pride he’d been living in to see that Doodle desperately needed to walk for himself. Brother’s reputation was apparently more important than doing the right thing for the right cause. Another moment that reveals Brother’s selfish side is right after Doodle had failed to swim in the water. During the storm, Doodle had fallen and Brother left him there. “For a long, long time, it seemed forever, I lay there, crying, sheltering my fallen scarlet ibis…” (354). This moment ties back to how Brother completely ignored all of Doodle’s risk factors and how fragile he is. Brother was only focused on Doodle’s failed swimming and his future school life humiliation. Throughout the whole time Brother had invested teaching Doodle new things, Brother has never really forgotten his true motive behind all of it. The selfishness of Brother lead to him ultimately letting Doodle

age that can’t walk, so he teaches him. Before Doodle is expected to go to school, “Brother”

“The Scarlet Ibis” by James Hurst compares one of the protagonists, Doodle to a bird called the Scarlet Ibis. Doodle has heart problems and during the 1900s medical care is not as advanced as it is today so he is not able to receive the proper medical care that he needs. Despite popular opinion, Doodle survives and constantly falls behind all of his classmates. Doodle’s brother always dreamed of playing catch and games together is determined have a “normal” brother. Brother pushes and pushes until Doodle can’t take it anymore and sadly dies alone on the side of the street similar to the Scarlet Ibis. This bird arrives in their family’s yard and is too weak to continue which can be compared to Doodle. Through appearance and symbolism the Scarlet

Motivations solely based on pride can affect others negatively is a dominant theme shown through the literary element of characterization in the short story “The Scarlet Ibis” by James Hurst. Hurst uses the literary technique of characterization to not only aid the readers in inferring the older brother’s traits, but to support the dominating theme. The text follows the story of an older brother as he lives with his young brother, Doodle, who was born with a disability. The older brother pushes Doodle to surpassing the restrictions his disability has created, and passing what his parents figured to be impossible such as walking. The brother’s actions were mainly influenced by his pride throughout the text and later, it is that same pride that

“...I began to believe in my own infallibility and I prepared a terrific development program for him…”(150).His infallibility states a negative influence on his brother because making Doodle do more will be bad for his health. The narrator’s actions suggest that he is making Doodle prosaic because he is ashamed of having a crippled brother. Additionally, the narrator maintains a negative influence on Doodle by showing him his coffin. “One day I took him up to the barn loft and showed him his casket, telling him how we all had believed he would die”(146).This action by Brother informs us that a spark of cruelty awakened in him. As a result, Doodle is in a quandary state.