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.

Throughout the story The Scarlet Ibis, Brother slowly kills Doodle; slowly “cutting” him, until the wound was too deep. In the story, mostly for his own greed, Brother exploits Doodle and exhausts him through physical activity that Doodle should not have done. At the beginning of the story, we can see how, through hard work and endless hours of work, Brother managed to make Doodle walk. From page 6: “Every day that summer we went to the... Old Woman Swamp, and I put him on his feet at least a hundred times each afternoon. Occasionally I too became discouraged because it didn’t seem as if he was trying”. This shows how Brother continuously pushes Doodle’s physical boundaries, and, because of the last sentence of the quote, does it for

He made doodle walk even though he didn’t have the physical ability. He made Doodle run through the storm which overworked his body. Brother made him show he was capable of doing things like other kids, so Brother wouldn’t be embarrassed.

¨At six years old, when his brother is born, the narrator tells the reader that from the first, Doodle was "a disappointment." When he learns that Doodle is possibly mentally and physically challenged, the narrator begins his plan to kill his brother; however, his plans are soon discarded after Doodle smiles at him¨. (James Hurst) The main conflict of "The Scarlet Ibis" by James Hurst is Brother's inability to deal with Doodle's disabilities.

Finally, in The Scarlet Ibis, Doodle strives for these objectives because he is dependent on his brother. Perhaps he is even scared that if he doesn’t do what his brother asks, then he will no longer have help from him. This is supported when they are in the loft and the narrator says, “And before I’ll help you down from the loft, you’re going to have to touch it.” (Page 387). He is threatening to leave Doodle up in the loft, all alone, until he touches the mahogany box which was to be his coffin. Doodle becomes very frightened by this intimidation, which is probably the cause of his fear later in the story. This causes conflict between Doodle and his older sibling because Doodle basically cannot do anything without his brother, and if he is left, he becomes panicked.

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

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.

At the beginning, Doodle had been very hesitant to go along with his brother’s plans. He tried to argue with his brother. “I can’t walk, Brother,” Doodle said. “Who says so?” He demanded. “Mama, the doctor, everybody,” uttered Doodle. “Oh, you can walk,” The narrator said.” Shortly after that, Doodle began to follow the narrator’s orders and self ambitions. Soon, the narrator had acquired too much ambition, putting Doodle at risk. This is evident with Doodle’s constant cry, “don’t hurt me, Brother.” Little did the narrator know he would be pushing his brother too far. Later in the story, the narrator let his ambition overcome him and decided to keep on pushing his brother. He did not want a brother who could not do what other normal schoolboys could do. He admits to himself, “the knowledge that Doodle’s and my plans had come to naught was bitter, and that streak of cruelty within me awakened.” He believed what Doodle could not do would greatly affect him and his social

Some people can get blinded by their pride and engulf them in a world that makes them unaware of other people and controls their actions and for this reason it lead to cold blooded murder. “The Scarlet Ibis,” by James Hurst is a story of a silent war between two brothers. The setting takes place at a farm during World War 1 a caul baby was brought into this world. The Narrator’s little brother was named Doodle, and he was born with a disability. The Narrator was embarrassed to have a brother that was not normal. The Narrator's pride drove him to make Doodle a normal, ordinary brother. Doodle was never expected to live, but he ended up living to the age of six, however, he still had heart

Could pride take over a person's life? In "The Scarlet Ibis" written by James Hurst, the Narrator was the only son of the family, as far as he was at the age of six, the Narrator had a brother. He loved his little brother, but the Narrator's family has thought that Doodle would not survive the main issue of his life and not being able to do stuff. The Narrator and his family finally had seen that he could talk, and there was no sign of walking. The Narrator had to take his bother everywhere he had to go in his little go-cart. Which though the Narrator had been tired of carrying him around in the the go-cart, which, made him think that he can teach Doodle how to walk. Everyone was amused that Doodle could walk and now the Narrator for his pride of making him walk had consumed his mind and pressured Doodle to do more thinks before summer was over and start school. In the last week, before school started, in the bloody tree there was a Scarlet Ibis and fell down with no coordinated and died fragile, feathers everywhere. After that afternoon the Narrator's pride had vanished and ran home and left his brother who had fallen down.The moment that the Narrator had realized that he had pressured him and look for Doodle, he had died so similar to the Scarlet Ibis, delicate, blood all over ad with no coordination. For this reason, the Narrator is innocent and had not having nothing to do with his brother recognizing

The Narrator didn't help Doodle walk because he wanted to but because "...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"(599). This proves that the Narrator is ashamed of his brother and is only helping him because he doesn't want to be embarrassed. He wantes Doodle to fit in at school and be able to keep up with the other kids. The Narrator always pushes him too far and even though he's helping Doodle do things the doctor thought he could never do he is also making Doodles health

Through out the life of Doodle and Brother , the Brother's pride is guilty of many things. The first thing that shows his guilty when the Brother was 6 years old." 'It was bad enough having an invalid brother, but having one who possibly was not all there was unbearable, so I began to make plans to kill him by smothering him with a pillow' "(595).This shows that Doodle is bad to his brother because he tired to kill because he didn't really exist in his family. Doodle's brother planned to kill him because he wanted a brother that could boy stuff with him. Also Doodle's brother didn't like his brother because he couldn't even talk and play with him. That's one part why Brother is guilty of Doodle's death.

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’s pride in Doodle drove him to help Doodle surpass his physical incapabilities and his mental barriers. Doodle’s condition kept him from walking; however, Brother decides to bring it upon himself to help, as he explains, “When Doodle was five

If you think about it, he never gave up on Doodle. They would go to Old Woman Swamp every day and work on Doodle standing up on his own. When he was finally able to stand up, he helped Doodle to walk. He was so proud when Doodle learnt to walk on his own, and so they decided to surprise their parents at dinner one night. They were so happy that they all started crying tears of joy. He felt so accomplished that he decided that he was going to teach Doodle to run and swim as well. “ I would teach him to run, to swim, to climb trees, and to fight” the narrator said, (Page 356). Even though Doodle did not think he could do these things, he pushed up his confidence ,and he told Doodle that he could learn to run and walk. He was also trying to Protect doodle by teaching him to do these things ,so he would not be made fun of when he went to school. Even though Doodle’s brother was being selfish by teaching him to walk, swim and run, he was also teaching him because he loved his