The Childhoods Portrayed in My Left Foot and Blue Remembered Hills by Christy Brown

People with physical disabilities have with setbacks that make it harder for them to live normal lives like most of the people around them. Some of these individuals learn to cope with them, try to keep a positive mindset that helps them become better and stronger in their bodies and mind. In the story “The Scarlet Ibis” and the movie Simon Birch, two boys who suffer from growing setbacks, learn to live with their complications and persevere through their short lives while living them to the fullest and navigating their way to accept themselves for who they are. Simon and Doodle are very similar boys who both have the same disabilities and lifestyle, but the way they act on them and the people around them act as a result of it is somewhat different.

“The Scarlet Ibis” is a short story written by James Hurst to illustrate the difficulties of living with impairments. Hurst uses characterization by character’s actions, character’s speech, and character’s thoughts to create meaningful characters. In this story, Hurst uses characterization by character’s actions to demonstrate the life of a small, physically impaired boy. All throughout the story, Doodle works to overcome the obstacles facing him, whether it is simply walking or even running.

In “The Scarlet Ibis,” the author, James Hurst, uses indirect characterization, mainly through the narrator’s internal thoughts and feelings, to convey the theme that disabilities are not flaws in an individual, and that they are mere differences that make each individual unique. Early in the story, the author explains that Doodle, the narrator’s brother, has a deadly heart condition which prevents him from participating in activities such as running, jumping, swimming, and even walking. When Doodle is not expected to live when he is born, the narrator says that he does not want an “invalid” brother, but instead, wants a brother who can run around, jump, and play with him. Even the rest of the family does not believe that he is going to survive, and they do not even name him until he lives for three months. Later in the story, the narrator thinks, “...but he learned to crawl

People all around the world have to deal with different types of disabilities . In “The Scarlet Ibis” There are two brothers, one of the brothers is named Doodle and has a disability that makes it nearly impossible for him to walk. If the brother with the disability tried to push himself off the ground he would fall back down. The reason why he can not hold himself up is because he was born with a weak heart that could cause him to die. Later on in the story Doodle gets taught how to walk by his older brother, the reason that the older brother wanted to teach Doodle how to walk is because he wanted a brother that did not have a disability.

In the short story “The Scarlet Ibis” by James Hurst, Hurst illustrates the struggle of one boy with his disability and his and his brothers expectations.

In “The Scarlet Ibis” by James Hurst, the protagonist tries to help his disabled brother, Doodle, learn to walk and run. It is explained, “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 418). Doodle’s brother helps slightly for personal gain, but has a good heart trying to help his brother learn to walk. After Doodle has begun to walk, his brother tries to get him to do more. The two get caught in the rain one afternoon and trying to get home, the narrator explains that “the faster I walked, the faster he walked, so I began to run...I heard Doodle, who had fallen behind, cry out, ‘Brother, Brother, don’t leave me!’...He didn’t answer so I placed my hand on his forehead and lifted his head. Limply, he fell backward onto the earth” (Hurst 426). The narrator has good intentions, trying to help his brother learn to more dependent, but he pushes Doodle too far, resulting in Doodle’s death. Both Doodle’s brother and Montresor are flawed and have their own problems that wouldn’t be present in the stories of characters like

In the short story “The Scarlet Ibis”, by James Hurst, Doodle was born with many disabilities. The narrator was quite embarrassed about having a little brother who could not talk or walk, so he set out to become a mentor for Doodle. The narrator emerges from an arrogant, self indulgent individual to an affectionate, knowledgeable young adult by experiencing the trauma of losing his brother because of his own selfish desires.

Nechama Tec’s autobiography Dry Tears: The Story of a Lost Childhood tells the narrative of her experiences as a young Jewish girl in Nazi occupied Poland during the second World War. Nechama was able to survive, and protect her family, through the Holocaust by hiding her true identity and pretending to be Polish. She was able to do this because of her blond hair, light skin, blue eyes, and ability to speak unaccented Polish, which made her physically indistinguishable from an “Aryan” child. Nechama Tec’s story emphasizes the themes of identity, cultural assimilation, and passing, both socially and physically, as something that you are not, while also attempting to convey the entirely contradictory, hypocritical,

James Hurst’s short story “The Scarlet Ibis” is about a kid named Doodle who is disabled and his brother is teaching him how to walk. His brother is ashamed of Doodle for being disabled. Then, his brother sets out to help Doodle how to walk. At the end, Doodle dies because of all that effort his brother made him do just to be like the others. The narrator has too much pride, and it causes him to hurt Doodle.

James Hurst’s “The Scarlet Ibis” tells a tragic story between two brothers. Disabled are seen as a burden. When Doodle was born, he was “from the outset, a disappointment” (Hurst 416). He was born with a weak heart, and his family was told that he would never be able to do everything that normal people were able to do. Even from birth, no one expects much out of Doodle. The narrator has a set idea of what he wants in a brother; “[he] wanted … someone to race to Horsehead Landing, someone to box with, and someone to perch with in the top fork of the great pine behind the barn.... [he] wanted a brother.” (419). Doodle does not fulfill his brother’s requests, however. Because of the failure to live up to his expectations, the narrator teaches

Although much of Henry’s life may have contained several typical experiences, several factors of it make it remarkably different from other children growing up in the

James Hurst, as a result, reveals Brothers admittance to his pride by showing while teaching Doodle to walk. Brother is willing to guilt Doodle into doing what he wants to comfort his pride. As a child with a physical disability, Doodle will likely feel insecure while growing up, as a result, Doodle should feel as secure at home as possible. We are able to concede that pride controls only Brothers actions

In her essay “Lack, Part Two”, Jamaica Kincaid recounts her childhood experiences living in Antigua and how those experiences affected her life. She begins by focusing on the various things she did not have, such as electricity, plumbing, cars, and doctors, and how the absence of those things made life more difficult for her. For example, she describes how she contracted various illnesses, including typhoid fever, and almost died from them.

In 2081, the government has created the position of Handicapper General, whose duty is to add handicaps to those who are above average in any way. While Hazel Bergeron was completely average in mental capacity, her husband, George, was well above average. To compensate, the Handicapper General had placed a radio in his ear to, “keep people like George from taking unfair advantage of their brain.” The idea of treating everyone equal, regardless of physical or mental abilities, as described within the story, is taking satirical shots at liberal ideas in government. Once the government has made everyone equal, those who stand out represent a threat, including the Bergeron’s son Harrison, who was too athletic and handsome to be a part of the general population. He was taken away from his parents, at the age of fourteen, by the Handicapper General, because he was too exceptional. Too promote the ongoing liberal ‘equality,’ the government basically changes into total authoritarian, by eliminating any threat that could lead to

After reading The Liars Club an autobiography by Mary Karr, my interpretation of the reading is that she is telling her story from her point of view as a child and as an adult, utilizing foreshadowing and vivid imagery. For example, the reading states “My sharpest memory is of a single instant surrounded by dark.” “I was seven, and our family doctor knelt before me where I sat on a mattress on the bare floor” (Karr 3). This passage also brought some significance to the story as discussed in class. This helps the reader to understand that a very young age Mary Karr experienced something that was traumatic and it as stuck with her, therefore she labeled is one of her sharpest childhood memories. Usually when things happen to us as children we are not able to remember them exactly in detail, but when they are traumatic events those memories tend to stick with us throughout life. While writing Karr takes the role of two characters, those include the character “Pokey”. In the story this is a representation of Mary Karr a child. Her father Pete calls her Pokey. During this time frame Mary isn’t too aware of what is happening to her, she admires her father, and is also of her sisters. As I continued to read the story the next character that Mary Karr takes on is the narrator or author. This is referenced throughout the story when she looks back on her childhood to try and understand what was happening to her. A good example of this is when the author uses breaking of the fourth