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.

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.

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.

Symbols are used to represent something else deeper than the actual meaning either in real life or in literature. In the story “The Scarlet Ibis”, Doodle who is mentally and physically disabled was not expected to live. Although, he did live, however, he could not do things other children could do such as walk or talk. Therefore, his older brother set out to teach him because he was embarrassed to have an abnormal brother. However, many years later Doodle is soon overworked until he can no longer go on, and he sadly dies. In “The Scarlet Ibis”, James Hurst uses the caul, the oriole nest, and the blood od Doodle as symbols to offer greater insight into abstract ideas that are difficult to understand on their own.

The narrator, Brother, tells the story of Doodle, his brother, and his childhood with all his disabilities; starting off by telling about Doodle when he was a baby and toddler, about how he could not do much for himself for a long time, but eventually learns to crawl. He soon moves onto when Doodle got a little older and Brother would have to take him everywhere he went and how the two would take on the mission of teaching Doodle to walk; they spent almost everyday out in the woods making Doodle stronger and stronger. On Doodle’s sixth birthday, they showed the family what he could do;

Character are often times really the only thing that needs to be interesting for the story to be worth while. Veritably, reading about experiences through a character is far more engaging than directly being told advice or analysis. That is because narratives are almost always based in inherently human ideas/feelings and that is what most take and/or want to take away when they read one. A great example is “The Scarlet Ibis” by James Hurst, where the main focus is the guilt the narrator feels after his actions towards his brother. It’s about a boy who has a brother with health problems, who he’s trying to fix into someone he won’t be ashamed of or have to constantly look after. Throughout the story one can see how the narrator

How far would you take your ‘love’ for someone? Would you kill them? Would you work them till they turn black and blue, or make them touch their own casket just to punish or scare them? Brother seemed to have no limits for Doodle, in “The Scarlet Ibis” by James Hurst. In this short story, Hurst showed the relationship between a crippled child and his older, forceful brother. Brother pushed Doodle to his maximum, trying to get him to walk, swim, run, and become a ‘normal’ child. Yet, becuase of his embarassment, Brother took his training to great lengths, killing Doodle in the end. This passage uses several important literary devices that advance the story, such as help the readers gain a better meaning of the symbols and what Hurst is trying to convey.

In “The Scarlet Ibis” James Hurst symbolizes the narrator’s brother, Doodle, as the scarlet ibis, and the narrator as the storm, in order to reveal the theme that challenging someone to go beyond their limits can help in achieving extraordinary results, however pushing the limits too far may prove fatal. As the narrator, Doodle, and their family were eating dinner, they saw a scarlet ibis getting carried by the storm and “[tumbling] down, … landing at [their] feet with a thud”. Doodle’s family doesn’t care much, however, Doodle takes time to respect the bird and to bury it, even though he saw the bird for the first time as if he had some special connection with the ibis. “It’s a scarlet ibis! … South America to Florida. A storm must have brought it here. A scarlet Ibis! How many miles it had traveled to die like this, in our yard, beneath the bleeding tree” (14). The bird, native to South America had flown all the way from “South America to Florida”, which was way beyond its natural capacity. Doodle had also come a long way from being a baby who everyone thought wouldn't survive or a cripple who couldn’t stand. “A storm … brought it here”, somewhat assisting it and somewhat forcing it. Doodle learned to walk, with help from the narrator who pushed him and didn’t let him give up. Now the narrator was pushing Doodle, even more, to learn rowing, swimming, and fighting even though his body and heart were weak. The storm had powered the amazing flight but pushed the bird’s

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

Therefore he was a minor wanted to play with someone, though he has a divergent brother. " ' ... And I wanted more than anything else someone to race to Horsehead Landing, someone to box with, and someone to perch with in the top fork of the great line behind the barn, .... I wanted a brother.' " (p.295). Doodle's brother is wishing to have someone to be able to play with him. His mother is tells him that he has a dangerous issue and can't do things as he plans to do with him. Thinking that his brother is weak and won't be part of the

Doodles brother was very selfish throughout the story. He had a crippled brother that could not walk,so he was embarrassed by him. “When Doodle was 5 years old, I was embarrassed at having brother of that age who couldn’t walk” James Hurst page 353. Since he was so embarrassed to have a crippled brother, he was selfish enough to teach him how to walk. He would take doodle to the Old woman swamp everyday and teach him how to stand up, then walk. His mom would make him take Doodle with him wherever he went and he hated that. He would have to pull his brother in a wagon everywhere he went which made him feel

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

of the story when “Brother” is teaching Doodle how to swim, after doodle has given up “Brother”

James Hurst wrote a short story entitled, “The Scarlet Ibis” In “The Scarlet Ibis” the narrator tells the story of his brother Doodle. Doodle began his life with everyone having low expectations for him. As the story progresses Doodle’s growth is described through his brother’s eyes. The author uses characterization and conflict to reveal Doodle’s empathy and impressionability.