The Scarlet Ibis Character Analysis

In the short story, “The Scarlet Ibis”, James Hurst demonstrates that the confidence that comes with pride is an inspiration for growth, however, overconfidence can lead to one’s downfall. Despite a year of seemingly hopeless attempts to teach Doodle how to walk, Brother manages to persist because he has “[Doodle] to be proud of” (Hurst 419). Although Brother teaching Doodle how to walk was not altruistic, it was his pride that allowed it to happen in the first place. If Brother and Doodle did not have their pride to fuel their desire for success then they would have accepted what everyone else said about how Doodle would not be able to walk which even Doodle agreed with at first. Without pride, one would not have the inner desire for success

“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.

The quote exposed the narrator’s true motives and intentions to his younger sibling only by his ambition to normalize Doodle, for his own sake. The narrator thought that “pride […] spoke to [him] louder than all their voices”, and that even though he mostly cared his younger brother, he only invested his time and effort to towards Doodle as well as improving his younger sibling's weaknesses to make his family seem more normal. Doodle was oblivious to this, and thought nothing but love towards Older Brother because he was helping Doodle become less different. Hurst also employs the phrase “that pride, whose slave I was” to imply that Older Brother is also having his struggles, and he was figuratively a “slave” to his thoughts, and he was experiencing a conflict with his own morality and dignity. Previous to the younger sibling walking, it seemed “so hopeless from the beginning that it’s a miracle [he] didn’t give up”. The narrator thought, “But all of us must have something or someone to be proud of, and Doodle had become mine. I did not know then that pride is a wonderful, terrible thing, a seed that bears two vines, life and death” (Hurst

The “Scarlet Ibis” is a short story about a boy born with a medical condition, and his brother, who means well but is self absorbed. The story starts off about a grown man who recalls to the time when his little brother, Doodle is with him. It shows his guilt about Doodle’s death, his sorrow surrounding it, and it reflects on the good times they had together. In the “Scarlet Ibis” Brother is characterized as cruel, caring, and prideful.

The second reason is the narrator knows he should have appreciated his brother more. Although Doodle did his best to make his brother proud, it was never good enough for the narrator. The narrator wanted to force him to be like a normal, healthy person. Once Doodle learns how to walk, the narrator is too swollen with pride and wants to teach Doodle to run, swim, and many other complicated tasks. The narrator should have valued Doodle more. It was already extraordinary that Doodle even got to walk. That should have been good enough for him. Unfortunately, the narrator kept on pushing him and pushing him.

James Hurst is the author of the heart breaking short story entitled “The Scarlet Ibis”. “The Scarlet Ibis” is a short story about two brothers; one brother is healthy, while the other is physically handicapped. The short story is centered on the idea that the older, healthier brother’s selfishness and pride ultimately led to the death of his younger brother, Doodle. Numerous quotes throughout the story demonstrate Hurst’s use of symbolism and foreshadowing to portray and predict Doodle’s untimely and heartbreaking death.

Many years later, later in the story, when Doodle is around five years of age, it occurs to the narrator that it may be a good idea to teach Doodle to walk so that he fits in with his peers. After finally convincing him, they both secretly set out to teach Doodle how to walk. During this process, the narrator thinks, “There is within me (and with sadness I have watched it in others) a knot of cruelty borne by the stream of love, much as our blood sometimes bears the seed of our destruction...” (10). In this part of the story, Hurst again uses indirect characterization through the narrator’s thoughts, to demonstrate, once again, the theme that disabilities are not flaws, and that they should be respected and embraced. By saying, “...borne by the stream of love,” the narrator is trying to bring out what they have in common instead of their differences, and he is saying that Doodle’s disability does not change the fact that they are connected and share the mutual love of two

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.

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.

The despondent mood at the beginning of the story, mirrors the loss of innocence of the narrator because he had to face the responsibility and guilt of Doodle’s death.

Brother gets a little brother and they didn't think he would live long. But after a few months they named him William Armstrong. Then Brother names him Doodle, Doodle was surrounded by death ever since he was born. In “The Scarlet Ibis” Brother was a mean brother who didn't like his little brother at first, than when Doodle got an older, brother wanted to teach him to run, fight, and to swim because of his pride, and then Brother starts to feel regret because he pushed Doodle so hard.

“The Scarlet Ibis” is the story of two brothers and their complicated relationship. The younger of the two, Doodle, is developmentally delayed and struggles with everyday tasks. His eldest brother teaches Doodle how to accomplish these tasks. Brother’s initial intentions to teach his invalid little brother to walk start out of love, but soon are formed from prideful motives. Despite his brother’s pride, Doodle strives to please him by cooperating, because he loves his older brother. After Doodle’s passing, Brother’s tangled web of pride is straightened out again to reveal his pure brotherly love and how much he misses his little brother. In James Hurst’s “The Scarlet Ibis”, the most prominent emotion is love because of the powerful role it plays in the brothers’ interactions with one another.

Throughout the entire story Doodle and his brother are faced with challenges that people believe he won't be able to accomplish, but they show them wrong.

As Brother’s deadline nears, Doodle is pushed past the zenith of his exhaustion, painfully portrayed in the story as,”School was only a few weeks away, and Doodle was far behind schedule. He could barely clear the ground when climbing up rope vines, and his swimming was certainly not passable. We decided to double our efforts, to make one last drive and reach our pot of gold. I made him swim until he turned blue and row until he couldn’t lift an oar. 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” (4). What Brother believes as improvement is doing far more harm than good, and is even farther from their goal. Too much strain can kill Doodle because of his weak heart; yet Brother is blinded by his own pride as he pushed Doodle to his absolute limit. Brother’s shattered pride is shown clearly in his devious actions displayed in the story such as, “When the deafening peal of thunder had d9ed, 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!’ The knowledge that Doodle’s and my plans had come to naught was bitter, and that streak of cruelty within me awakened. I ran as fast as

Failure is accompanied with many negative emotions such as disappointment, despair, guilt, and unworthiness. These emotions can cause individuals to feel unpleasant mentally and physically. When faced with a feeling of unworthiness, an individual may attempt to “make up” for the failure by tackling a nearly impossible task. Doodle felt unworthy because he was different that the other children, he pushed himself to incredible lengths just to be considered normal. In order to achieve this Doodle would “swim until he turned blue and row until he couldn't lift another oar” (5). The risk of being physically harmed did not even occur to Doodle because his priority was to live up to the high expectations his brother had set for him. After being unsuccessful an