The Scarlet Ibis Pride Quotes

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.

Even though Brother is being cruel and his motivation for acting that way is bad, it’s proven that brother still cares for Doodle. There are times when Brother is cruel to Doodle and this is present when Brother shows him his casket, “..telling him how we all had believed he would die.... Doodle studied the mahogany box for a long time, then said, ‘It’s not mine.’

In the short story, “The Scarlet Ibis”, by James Hurst, the narrator suffers from an internal battle with his own ego to convey the message that pride blinds any because people are, to a degree, naturally selfish. In the beginning of the story, after the narrator presents his family the miracle of Doodle walking, Older Brother starts crying secretly because he knew he made Doodle walk out of his own selfish reasons. When Doodle took his public first steps for the first time the narrator confesses an important reason from his point of view, thinking, “Doodle told them it was I who taught him to walk, so everyone wanted to hug me, and I began to cry. ‘What are you crying for?’ asked Daddy, but I couldn’t answer. They did not know that I did it for myself: that pride,

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.

This is shown when it says “So I began to make plans to kill him by smothering him with a pillow.”(Hurst 595)Since the beginning he didn’t want an invalid brother. He even thought and male plans to kill him. If Doodle wasn’t bothering him or doing anything to him then why would he want to kill him? Doddles brother was just thinking about himself the whole time.” 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.”(Hurst 599) He did not do it for Doodles good, he never even thought of how Doodle felt. His pride was stronger than him. Because he was ashamed of Doodle , that made him push doodle way too hard for someone like him. Until the end is when he realizes that what he did to Doodle was wrong but it’s too late. The author shows this when he says “I ran as fast as I could, leaving him behind …Finally I went back and found him … “Doodle! Doodle!” I cried, shaking him, but there was no answer…” (Hurst 604) He ran as fast as he could to make

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

The older brother of Doodle was ashamed of Doodle ever since he was born he actually made plans to kill Doodle when he was a baby. He was rough with Doodle on purpose so Doodle wouldn’t want to go with him. He didn’t do anything for Doodle out of love he did it so he wouldn’t have a crippled brother.

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

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

Every big sibling has scared or teased a younger sibling before, however, scaring them even when they are told to be careful of not putting your younger brother under too much stress or he will die, is very risky. When the narrator makes Doodle touch his casket even when he doesn’t want to, the narrator threatens to leave him up there. Doodle was frightened of being left so he touched it. Once he touched it he screamed and was paralyzed. Once the narrator picked him up and climbed out, Doodle was crying and said, “Don’t leave me. Don’t leave me.” (49) With this in mind in the end of the book he had

When Brother set out to teach Doodle to walk and realized he had succeeded he became so proud and was convinced that he could teach Doodle anything. The only thing is Brother didn't teach him anything that he did for Doodle's benefit he did it for his own satisfaction. When Doodle had failed and couldn't get up Brother let his pride control him. "I ran as far as I could, leaving him far behind with a wall of rain dividing us" (604). The only reason Brother left Doodle is because of his pride. He felt he had spent so much time teaching him things so he could be normal all for nothing, and that aggrevated him. Doodle had just shown extraordinary success by rowing against the current and running as far as he did but for some reason that wasn't enough for Brother. The least that Brother could have done was went back and picked him up helping him back to the house considering all of the energy he had exerted. The only thing that Doodle ever asked of his brother was not to leave him and that is exactly what he

I ran as fast as I could, leaving him far behind a wall of rain, dividing us" (604). Then he came back and found Doodle, covered in blood, dead. He was in shock as if he didn't know something like that could happen. He knew that his younger brother had 'problems' that he was born with, and his mother would remind him not to tire Doodle out. Brother had plenty of warnings and yet he still did things to make Doodle tired and he still left him in the storm.

Beyond the Ibis In the story “The Scarlet Ibis” by James Hurst, the Scarlet Ibis portrays how people must learn to leave those they love alone through representing Doodle and his struggles in life. To begin, in the middle of the story the Scarlet Ibis sits on a tree in Doodle's backyard, and his parents think how “a storm must have brought it [there]” (Hurst 473). First of all, this quote shows how the storm pushes the bird physically since it ends up in a different region from where it typically lives; symbolizing how Brother pushes Doodle out of his comfort zone, which would represent the bird's typical habitat. Furthermore, this push causes Doodle to perish; Brother forces Doodle too much with his teaching, when he should be letting Doodle rejuvenate.

At one point in the story, Brother even says to himself, “They did not know that I did it for myself; that pride, whose slave I was, spoke to me louder than all of their voices, and that Doodle walked only because I was ashamed of having a crippled brother,” (pg. 389). This quote shows that he only taught Doodle to walk because he was so afraid of what people would think of him since he had a crippled brother. Even after he had the realization that he was only doing this for himself, he still continued to teach Doodle more physical activities for his own benefit. Later on during the story, Brother says to himself, “Once I had succeeded in teaching Doodle to walk, I began to believe in my on infallibility and I prepared a terrific development program for him, unknown to Mama and Daddy, of course,” (pg. 390). In this quote, Brother describes how he goes on to teach Doodle other activities, but he doesn’t think about how Doodle feels about doing this, he just wants to prove that he can do anything without

“Everyone must have something to be proud of, and Doodle had become mine.” Some may see that in this story, pride was a destructive force, but I see pride as the motivation for brothers actions to help Doodle walk. Doodle was born crippled and very weak. The narrator encouraged and helped Doodle walk, and sometimes he used tough-love when teaching him, be he benefited from it. I believe that brother was innocent because if you are proud of something that you worked so hard on, why would you kill it?