The Scarlet Ibis Literary Analysis

¨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.

The deaths and pasts of the Scarlet Ibis and Doodle indicate that their hard work proved to be useless. As the family begins to walk out into the yard due to the “strange croaking noise” they see a bird which had gone through a storm that was “the size of a chicken with scarlet feathers” and after a “moment the bird began to flutter, but the wings were uncoordinated”, so the bird “tumbled to the ground”(99). This realization conveys that the bird had determination to survive, otherwise it would have lost its life in the storm. Although the bird went through that much to survive it was still too weak to live due to its displacement and injuries. Just like a weak bird that can not survive in the skies, a weak person like Doodle will fail at things

When Doodle is first born and after about three years he is being taught how to walk like normal people walk and his brother is not to thrilled about it he is just doing it because he does not want to drag him around and be dead weight so he does this so he does not have to deal with him as much.

Towards the middle of the story, the speaker teaches his brother to walk

The author indicates in this quote that Brother was already being controlled by pride, and really only helped his brother for his own pride. Achieving the almost impossible caused Brother’s pride to grow. This was made apparent when it was stated that, “Once I had succeeded in teaching Doodle to walk, I began to believe in my own infallibility, and I prepared a terrific development program for him, unknown to Mama and Daddy, of course. I would teach him to run, to swim, to climb trees, and to fight. He, too, now believed in my infallibility, so we set the deadline for these accomplishments less than a year away…”

“It’s okay to lose your pride over someone you love. Don’t lose someone you love over your pride.” -Unknown. The older brother makes this mistake in the Scarlet Ibis. In the story, The Scarlet Ibis, by James Hurst, the theme, It’s not good to let pride influence decisions and actions, is revealed through flashbacks and metaphors.

What is the definition of pride? If someone were to search the definition they would find that pride is “a feeling or deep pleasure or satisfaction derived from one's own achievements, the achievements of those with whom one is closely associated, or from qualities or possessions that are widely admired.” People can experience pride from many things like success, or intelligence, and even simple petty things being the first to turn in their test in a class. In the story the character Brother has a different type of pride, instead of being prideful of his actions his pride is a character trait. Brother is prideful of himself and having his crippled brother Doodle damaged his pride which is a dangerous thing when pride is a trait instead of a feeling. People often forget about how important a family member, especially siblings, are because they haven’t matured enough to understand the complexity and importance of life and family. In James Hurst’s short story “The Scarlet Ibis” brotherhood is a very big topic throughout it and the character “Brother” demonstrates how complicated and strange being prideful, being a sibling, and being a person, is. Through the story he is characterized as considerate and hurtful through his actions and inner thoughts.

"What are the words that can solder cracked pride?" Have you ever had cracked pride? Or maybe you have just had a bad stormy day. Maybe you have just had bad luck.In the short story “Scarlet Ibis” by James Hurst, Doodle, the narators brother, happens to have one of those bad stormy days. The narrator and his brother had a close relationship, however his brothers disability makes him feel ashamed of himself and his brother. Doodle was born in a small, bland house, surrounded by fields and swamps. Doodle was one of the few disabled babies to make it in the times that the family lived, due to the lack of medical knowledge. The narrator is embarrassed of his brother from the beginning of his life due to his disability. In the beginning of the

To begin, the author teaches pride through the use of point of view. For example, Brother wants a brother to do stuff with. Brother then gets what he asks for by getting a brother named Doodle, but he has a condition that doesn’t allow him to do anything, including to walk. The narrator says “It was bad enough having an invalid brother, but having one that who was possibly was not all there was unbearable, so

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

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.

Think about the word delicate. What comes to mind? To some, it may be a word they use to describe their mom’s glass vase. However, delicate has a greater meaning, a condition of a beautiful, precious, living thing which must be preserved, valued, and cherished. In the short story, “The Scarlet Ibis”, written by James Hurst, the author highlights the life of a young boy named Doodle, who was born disabled, and his older brother, the narrator. The narrator, referred by Doodle as Brother, lacks the understanding of how Doodle is extremely fragile, and often neglects his needs and safety while trying to train Doodle to be “normal.” Hurst uses many literary devices, such as flashback, foreshadowing, and symbolism, which develops the theme, how delicate things are beautiful, and should be cared for with love and respect.

Pride can be positive and can help people overcome the difficult struggles they are going through, and can also lead to bonding or getting closer. In this story, the narrator has a disabled brother whos parents and doctor both don’t believe he is able to learn to walk. The narrator doesn’t think of Doodle as a brother, but as someone who is disabled and tries to fix him by helping him learn to walk. One piece of evidence that shows that pride is positive in the story, is when the narrator shows how he cares about Doodle and wants him to get better by helping him learn how to walk. After he got to know Doodle a little bit more he felt more connected and believed that he would learn to walk and put in the effort to help him learn. “I'm going to teach you to walk, Doodle.’ I said. ‘I can't walk brother,’ He said. ‘Who says so?’ I demanded. ‘Mama, the doctor--everybody.’ ‘Oh you can walk”(Hurst 3). This quote shows how pride can lead to helping someone get through something they are struggling with, because it says “I’m going to teach you to walk, Doodle.” he’s very confident in the way he asserts his ability to teach Doodle to walk he does this instead of saying “I am going to try” or asking it as a question “Would you like me to?” These are both less confident ways he could go about asking. Then another part of the quote that stood out was when the author wrote the narrator saying “ ‘Oh you can walk’ ” to his brother, Doodle. He’s dismissing his mother and the doctor who are both older and more knowledgeable than him. This elaborates on the fact that the narrator shows a tremendous amount of pride and arrogance throughout the story. This shows that the narrator had fueled Doodle’s desire to succeed for his brother because the narrator pushed him to be normal, thus Doodle being able to walk. Before everyone told Doodle he could not walk so Doodle did not believe in himself, until his brother pushed him to

“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.” Even though the doctors said Doodle would never be able to walk. As a result, at Doodle’s birthday party the Narrator did something spectacular for the family; he showed them that Doodle could walk. However, the family did not know what the Narrators motives. The Narrator saying “They did not know that 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.” The motives of this were not fair to Doodle, but the outcome made everyone in the family delighted. Soon he had let the feeling of pride engulf him turning it into something worse. “I did not know then that pride is a wonderful, terrible thing, a seed that bears two vines, life and death” the Narrator said. Now instead of celebrating with his brother the accomplishment they had made, he felt saddened by his own

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.