The Scarlet Ibis Quote 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

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.”

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.

The author points out, “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.”(32). The tone here is shown by a metaphor which describes the different types of pride. This quote proves that he loves having Doodle to have someone to root for, but when he does not succeed there is no pride. This is when there is a quick mood shift for the reader but the figurative language used explains it. According to the author, “‘What are you crying for?’ asked Daddy, but I couldn't answer. 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.” This quote uses diction like ashamed and slave to show that his brother’s accomplishments were all from his own selfish wants. This creates a mood of being upset because while there is pride for Doodle, the brother is being selfish because he wanted a normal brother. Overall, pride can be a uplifting but can also be for someone’s own selfish reasons.

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

In “The Scarlet Ibis”, Hurst demonstrates through indirect characterization the narrator’s selfishness, that being prideful can cause harm for the ones close. Doodle’s brother always wanted someone to play with, but when he found out about his “invalid” disabled brother he was disgusted, disrespectful, and selfish. He had thought of helping his brother as a burden, and his pride was too high too accept the fact. So Doodle’s brother set out to teach Doodle how to walk, only because “[he] did it for [himself]: that pride, whose slave [he] was, spoke to [him] louder than all [the family], and that Doodle walked only because [he] was ashamed of having a crippled brother.”(10) In this quote we see Doodle’s brother show his selfish side when he describes how he helped his brother “for [himself].” What he meant was that he only wanted to help because of his pride.

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

“I did not know then that pride is a wonderful, terrible thing that bears two seeds, life and death” (Hurst). This quote talks about how pride can be wonderful, good thing. It also talks about how pride can be a bringer of death, and have terrible consequences. The narrator of this story learns some terrible things about pride and the things it does. His own pride ends up killing his brother. In “The Scarlet Ibis” by James Hurst, the author uses symbolism and foreshadowing to teach the audience that pride, and the shame that accompanies it, while it can bring about good, can also be destructive- to both a person, and the people around them.

This is shown in the story on multiple occasions, and really show what the story is about, and who the characters really are. An example of this is how the narrator acts and what he says whilst teaching Doodle how to walk. In this, the narrator seems to become proud of Doodle’s accomplishments, but more of how he, himself, had made them happen. Here, he also started to become irritated when Doodle didn’t do something right, which made him feel like he wasn’t doing well enough. Another example of theme in this story is when the narrator is crying when he and Doodle showed their family that he had taught his brother to walk. When Doodle tells them that his brother taught him all by himself, the narrator bursts into tears because he knew what he had done was wrong. He feels that he is a slave to his own pride, that he had only taught his brother to walk because he was ashamed of him being crippled. Lastly, the story shows theme where the narrator starts to teach Doodle other things beyond walking. These were activities such as running, swimming, and fighting. He starts to believe in his own infallibility, and tries to teach Doodle things that everyone knows Doodle should not be able to do. Also, when Doodle does not do his best, or do something perfect first try, the narrator shows us again that he gets angry or disappointed with not only Doodle but himself as well. In conclusion, James Hurst’s “The Scarlet Ibis” proves to us that whilst pride is good, too much can destroy you, whether it is you directly or through you towards somebody else. The author’s purpose is to teach us that too much pride can harm us, and we need to keep in under our own

Pride is a wonderful terrible thing; this theme is evident many times in the story. To begin, Big Brother’s pride motivated him to teach Doodle to walk, Big Brother also began teaching Doodle to run, climb, row, etc. Finally, Big Brother’s pride made him push Doodle harder than he should have, it also wouldn’t let Big Brother quit. His pride also made him bitter towards Doodle on some occasions. First of all, Big Brother was embarrassed of having an invalid brother. Secondly, he was so embarrassed of Doodle that he began planning to kill him with a pillow.

Without Brother’s pride Doodle never would have evolved. For instance, when Doodle and Brother are sitting at the swamp, Brother narrates, “When Doodle was five years old. I was embarrassed at having a brother at that age who wouldn’t walk, so I set out to teach him” (2). Brother contemplated that if Doodle was incapable

James Hurst, as a result, reveals Brothers admittance to his pride by showing while teaching Doodle to walk. Brother is willing to guilt Doodle into doing what he wants to comfort his pride. As a child with a physical disability, Doodle will likely feel insecure while growing up, as a result, Doodle should feel as secure at home as possible. We are able to concede that pride controls only Brothers actions

The Scarlet Ibis by James Hurst is a powerful story about the consequences of pride and the effect regret has on life. When the narrator says that “ pride is… a seed that bears two vines, life and death,” he means that pride can be a source of great accomplishments and a source of regret, which reinforces the overarching theme of the impact of regret and guilt on people’s lives. At the beginning of the story we learned Doodle, the narrator’s brother, was a disappointment to him. The narrator states in the story “He was born when I was six and was from the outset a disappointment.” The narrator thought Doodle was a burden. He knew Doodle wouldn’t be like the other kids, and the narrator was embarrassed.

The concept of pride can be taken two entirely different ways. The narrators own pride drives him to cruelty towards his own brother. After teaching Doodle how to walk and showing his family, he says “I did not know then that pride is a wonderful, terrible thing a seed that bears two vines, life and death.” This quote begins to become even more relevant throughout the story as the narrator comes to terms with his feelings toward Doodle’s disabilities and the opinions of his own peers. The narrators self-pride drives him to teach Doodle how to walk for the sole purpose of trying to make him seemingly normal. At first walking is even strenuous for Doodle, but the narrator continues to push him. The same goes for teaching Doodle to run, swim and

Everybody has felt disappointment every once and awhile, but not everybody has let that disappointment lead them to kill somebody. In the story, “The Scarlet Ibis” by James Hurst, the author uses three things in the story to develop a theme which are: plot, characters, and symbols and that theme is Pride is a two way street.