Summary Of The Scarlet Ibis By James Hurst

Imagine having a brother who is incapable of doing anything for himself. James Hurst’s short story tells the tale of a young boy in this position and the way his mindset is. In the short story “The Scarlet Ibis,” James Hurst uses imagery, setting, and motif to convey Brother’s feelings of guilt. By using these literary elements, Hurst allows the readers to take a deeper look into Brother’s perception towards Doodle at the time.

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.

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

After Doodle learns to walk, he and his brother are filled with optimistic hope and ask for too much from Doodle’s fragile body. The most climatic part in the story is when Doodle does not live up to the expectations of his brother, causing Brother to run away with his bitter disappointed feelings, abandoning Doodle in the rain who in vain tries to catch up with him. Earlier in the story Brother pretends to abandon Doodle, “‘Then I’ll leave you here by yourself’... ‘Don’t leave me Brother,’(2)” This is foreshadowing when Doodle cried out to his brother when he was running away, “Brother, Brother, don’t leave me! Don’t leave me(7).” As a consequence of Brothers actions, Doodle dies from pushing his delicate body too hard in his attempt to reach his older sibling.

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

In families, it is very typical for the parents to tell their children to never leave your siblings, or family members, behind. Parents do this so the siblings, or family members, will protect each other from harm. However, the parents have not told the brother this since he leaves Doodle behind. In the story, the brother states, “The faster I walked, the faster he walked, so I began to run. The rain was coming, roaring through the pines, and then, like a bursting Roman candle, a gum tree ahead of us was shattered by a bolt of lightning. When the deafening peal of thunder had died, and in the moment before the rain arrived, I heard Doodle, who had fallen behind,cry out,’Brother, Brother, don’t leave me! Don’t leave me!’” He left Doodle on his own while a storm was drawing close to them. After running for a good distance, he turns back to go and retrieve Doodle. He calls his name out, and gets no answer. He gets closer and closer to Doodle, and eventually sees him curdled up. He tries to shake him to see if he will get up— no response. As he stands over Doodle’s body, he sees the blood running down his face. He was dead. Doodle may have injured himself when he fell, he may have had a terrible panic attack because his brother left him there, or both. After all, the parents should have taught the brother to not leave family behind, especially someone like

The narrator did not care about how fragile his brother was, even though Doodle gave him various signs of his debility. The narrator was so determined to end his brother incapacity in order to maintain his pride that he did not give the child a break. In fact, he continued to push his brother harder until the day of his death. The narrator was being selfish because he did not show any concern about the wellbeing of his brother throughout his tough training, he only cared about being able to get Doodle’s incapacity out of the

Doodle’s Sympathy in “The Scarlet Ibis” In James Hurst’s short story, “The Scarlet Ibis”, Doodle is born in a caul and he and his brother have to learn to live with his disabilities. Brother is ashamed of Doodle’s limitations and out of his own embarrassment, teaches Doodle to walk. But Brother’s pride get the better of him and he ends up contributing to Doodle’s untimely death in the end. In “The Scarlet Ibis”, James Hurst uses character development to allow the readers to most sympathize with Doodle.

“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

The story “The Scarlet Ibis” by James Hurst was about the narrator having a disabled brother. The narrator was always embarrassed by his brother for the fact that he couldn’t walk, he couldn’t swim, barely could speak, and much more. Even though he knows he’s not supposed to make him do these things, he still taught him to swim, and walk, just so he could feel less embarrassed in front of his friends. Doodle is being mistreated and his family is not being fair to him. Feeling terrible for Doodle seems to be all this story is about.

Storms and Sorrow “It’s strange that all this is still so clear to me, now that summer has long since fled and time has had its way,” ( Hurst 595). James Hurst’s short story The Scarlet Ibis is full of symbolism. The use of symbolism does a great deal to add to the tone of the story by allowing large concepts to be depicted simply and subtlety, such as the characters’ emotions and the misfortune that befalls Doodle. The symbols that James Hurst uses range from the colors of the settings the characters are in to the scarlet ibis from which the book draws its name, with many others in between. By far the most important symbol Hurst uses is the ibis, because not only does it foreshadow the death of Doodle and his determination to survive, but shows that both it and Doodle were thrust into worlds where they were incapable to live and thrive.

In the short story, The Scarlet Ibis, James Hurst, characterizes the narrator who is a self - centered and an egotistical boy who is ashamed of his brother, however, throughout the novel crucial events that occur with Doodle that transform into a more thoughtful man. When Doodle was born in the family, he had many malfunctions, causing him to live for a couple days. As three months passed the parents named him William Armstrong, which the narrator thought was a great name on a tombstone. The narrator has an invalid brother, which he tries to kill with a pillow because he was embarrassed and thought a brother who is not there is unbearable. Although Doodle failed many times at walking, the narrator never gave up because he was filled with pride

Mahatma Gandhi,a famous boxer, once said, “You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.” Just because one person does something wrong or lacks morals, does not means the whole human race is bad. Sometimes as humans, people make wrong choices, which does not make them horrible, just human. The same way humans can make choices, they also have the ability to experience loss, emotions, relationships, survival, and morality. These traits are what separate humans from other living organisms. These are traits that all humans share, hence the name “shared humanity”. This can be seen in everyday life and in literature and films, such as, The Scarlet Ibis by James Hurst,

“Life delivered me a catastrophe, but I found a richness of a soul.” - Michael J. Fox, famous Canadian-American actor familiarly known for his role in Back To The Future. Michael is expressing how even when handed the worst of a situation you can find something positive. In the story “The Scarlet Ibis” by James Hurst, Brother the main character has a sibling, Doodle born sick lives his life experiencing physical disadvantages leaving him estranged from normal children. This is challenging not only for Doodle but Brother as well, due to his longings for a “normal” sibling that he can do average everyday things with. In the story, Brother is characterized as cruel and loving seen through his words and actions towards Doodle.

The short story ¨The Scarlet Ibis” by James Hurst talks about the narrator who is going to have a baby brother, but there is one problem: his brother has a disability when he is born. When the narrator hears about this, he plans to kill his brother, but then decides not kill him and let him live because the finds out that Doodle can recognize him. In the story, there is a lot of pride in the narrator, but it is the bad kind of pride. The narrator has so much shame in him over his brother’s differences, but he still loves and wants to show him how to do something in life. The author uses the narrator to show his theme that pride can be harmful.