The Scarlet Ibis Literary Analysis

In “The Scarlet Ibis,” love and pride war in Brother's motivations to help Doodle; his love encourages kindness, but his shame at Doodle's failings results in the cruelty that kills the younger boy. “It is,” I said. “And before I’ll help you down from the loft, you’re going to have to touch it.”

You can see that pride is something that’s extremely harmful to those close to you when you have too much of it. When someone's pride is hurt, most people will do anything to heal and fix it. That is exactly what Brother does when he sees he will have an invalid brother if he doesn’t do anything. So he sets out to teach Doodle how to do everyday things like walking, eating, and talking. Many people in the world can relate to this because they have had their pride wounded before. The big difference between most situations and Brother’s situation is that they wouldn’t go to such extreme measures. They would eventually see that what they are doing is wrong. However, Brother doesn’t realize this until the end of the story where he finds Doodle’s body, broken and exhausted. Brother seems to realize what he had done and that he had become a slave to his pride. Since Brother was so selfish, his pride got Doodle killed by Brother’s non-stop pushing. The morale of this story is not to love everyone for who they are. The real lesson is that you need to keep yourself in line before you get someone

The older brother was pushing through with teaching Doodle to walk since he wanted so much to become proud of him. “Pride is a wonderful, terrible thing, a seed that bears two vines, life and death.” The older brother thinks. -Hurst 2. This metaphor compares pride to a seed that has two vines, one life and one death, meaning that sometimes good can come from pride, and sometimes bad can come from pride. In this story, the older brother has bad come from his pride, which he unfortunately lets cloud his judgment, and lets his pride make his decisions. He later realizes that pride does not always lead to the best path. They showed their family that Doodle could walk, and instead of feeling happy, the older brother felt guilty because he had not done it for Doodle, he had done it for himself, and his pride. “I did it for myself, that pride, whose salve I was.” Doodle’s older brother thought. -Hurst 3. He compares himself to a salve that belongs to pride, as if he was promoting pride. He was, because he had let it take over his actions,like when he taught Doodle to walk. In The Scarlet Ibis, the theme, it is not good to let pride influence decisions and actions, is shown another way through

The narrator in the story causes Doodle's death because he happens to be disappointed. In the story, Brother tries to take advantage of the kind, caring nature of Doodle and is cruel because he thinks of Doodle as a letdown. "He was born when I was six and was, from the outset, a disappointment", Exclaims Brother (416). Be concise, Brother views Doodle as a shame, because Doodle is physically inept and Brother always wanted a little normal brother that he could play

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.

He made Doodle touch the coffin that would have been his. Brother was going to smother Doodle with a pillow. Brother leaves Doodle behind and is ultimately the cause of his death.

We understand well enough how a person with a choice between pride and responsibility, will almost always choose pride. In James Hurst’s short story “The scarlet ibis", brother chooses his pride over responsibility and love. William Armstrong, who was born disabled, was nicknamed “Doodle” by his older brother for the way he crawled backwards like a Doodlebug. He had a hard life due to of his disability, he could not run or play alike any other able-bodied child. When he was born, his family was disappointed and they assumed he wasn’t going to live that long. Brother attempts to train him to be like everyone else on the contrary, he pushes him too hard and expected too much from him. Doodle doesn’t live a long life because overestimated his

Identity Hidden in Pride In “The Scarlet Ibis,” James Hurst uses internal conflicts between Brother’s pride and intentions to demonstrate that actions influenced by pride are an imperfect reflection of one’s identity. Early in the story, the protagonist, Brother, is embarrassed by Doodle, his little brother, who cannot walk at the age of five. Without letting his parents know, Brother successfully teaches Doodle to walk.

Is pride powerful enough to come between two brothers? "The Scarlet Ibis" by James Hurst showes that the Narrator is thinking more about his own pride and less about his brother Doodle. He didn't like the facts that he would have a brother who wasn't all there or who is different from everyone else. Even when he showes Doodle how to walk he didn't do it to help Doodle but for his own pride. The Narrators pride taking over is what killed Doodle in the end and is why the Narrator is guilty of his brothers death.

The allegory ‘The Scarlet Ibis’ by Hurst, James is about a kid name doodle and his older brother . Doodle isn't normal like regular people he is crippled. His older brother wanted to kill him, but he decided to teach him everything to try to be a normal person like him. First, you should know that his older brother isn’t that nice at first, but he starts to care for doodle. He starts being nice to him when he starts to teach him everything so he can be a normal kid for a 5 year old. Doodle was doing well after a week or so, but he barely could of stand for seconds, but remember he never use to walk. A storm was happening after a while they saw it coming there were running through the forest and Doodle couldn’t run after a while cause remember

In most cases people view pride as something bad, but in this case, pride becomes the incentive for Doodle’s brother and motivates him to push his younger sibling during the process. While pride and shame motivate the narrator to teach his younger brother, Doodle benefits by learning to walk. All of the narrator’s nasty comments shape Doodle, making him a stronger person in the end. Doodle’s brother believes he will find contentment if Doodle could only run, swim, climb trees, and fight like other boys.

Brother was sometimes cruel to Doodle during his life, and Brother knew he had been mean to Doodle at times. Being cruel to Doodle helped accuse Brother of Doodle's death. It wasn't that Brother was actually trying to be mean to Doodle, he just wanted a normal brother. "There was within me (and with sadness I have watched it in others) a knot of cruelty borne by the stream of love, as much as our blood sometimes bears the seed of our destruction, and at times I was mean to Doodle" (597). Brother had been cruel to Doodle because he knew that Doodle wasn't the average child and Brother wanted an average younger brother that could do normal things with him. Brother still made Doodle do things he was not completely capable of doing, which made Brother cruel and guilty of Doodle's death. No one knows all of what Brother made Doodle do behind everyone's back and no one ever will know it all. Doodle was the type of person to not complain or tell anyone if what they were doing was hurting him or causing him distress and definitely wouldn't tell Brother because Doodle loved his brother and always wanted to be with him. If Brother had truly cared about the well being of Doodle he would've asked if what he was doing was okay with Doodle, not just kept on going while Doodle was

Pride is a feeling or satisfaction derived from one’s own achievements, the achievements of those with whom one is closely associated. The older brother in James Hurst’s short story “The Scarlet Ibis” tries to teach his younger brother Doodle, who has a weak heart and cannot do much of what other children his age can do, to be “normal” and later regrets it. Hurst uses flashback, symbolism and foreshadowing to establish the theme; Pride can cause us to do terrible things to the people we love.

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.

Brother was embarrassed at having an invalid brother since the beginning. He only helped doodle learn how to walk so he wouldn't be embarrassed and so he could say he had a normal brother. An example of this is when Doodle and Brother showed the family that doodle could walk, brother was more excited that he was getting the credit for teaching doodle how to walk than he was for doodle walking. “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