The Scarlet Ibis Short Story

¨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.

Hurst utilizes foreshadowing to demonstrate how the brother’s selfishness and pride leads to the death of Doodle. Not long after Doodle was born, the mother explains to the brother that Doodle might be mentally handicapped as well as physically handicapped. The brother could not accept the fact that his brother is different, so he “began to make plans to kill him [Doodle] by smothering him in his sleep” (Hurst 1). From the very beginning, Doodle’s brother is unable to except the fact that his brother is not normal and never will be. His selfishness and pride leads him to want to kill

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 Scarlet Ibis” is a short story written by James Hurst that is a short story about adolescent born with a medical condition who is ultimately dead due to his brother’s lack of ability to accept the positive features and alternately focus on the negative features of his brother, William Armstrong, who he later renamed Doodle as he perceived that the fact that his parents “named him Armstrong...was like tying a big tail on a small kite”( Hurst NP). There are numerous subjects in the story such as pride, brotherhood and selfishness that can demonstrate a theme that states that pride and selfishness can interfere with brotherhood by convincing us to commit cruel things to the ones we love. In the beginning of the story,

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

First off, the parents should have watched over the boys more closely. In the beginning of the story, it states, “It was bad enough having an invalid brother, but having one who possibly was not all there was unbearable, so I began to make plans to kill him by smothering him with a pillow.” Doodle was

Sometimes siblings find it difficult to keep each other's best interests in mind. In the story The Scarlet Ibis, characters Brother and Doodle prove just that. The story describes the strife of Brother to teach his disabled sibling Doodle to be more “normal.” Brother’s pride gets in the way and he does not realize that all the teaching he is doing-walking, running, swimming- is taking a toll on Doodle. Brother’s selfishness catches up with his younger brother and results in Doodle’s death. Author James Hurst uses symbolism to show how selfishness between siblings can be fatal.

The reason behind this is Doodle looked up to his brother. This meant anything his brother said, did, or felt he went along with. Doodle was very empathetic and impressionable which is shown through conflict and characterization

Simon Birch and “The Scarlet Ibis” both reveal that pride can have negative effects, especially when the concern for one’s self image is his motivation. When a person tries to save their pride by hiding an aspect of themselves, it will have consequences. Trying to have people perceive oneself as something they are not can lead to feelings of guilt and distrust. In “The Scarlet Ibis”, the narrator teaches his brother, Doodle, how to walk. His parents are proud of Doodle and of him.

The author of the short story “The Scarlet Ibis” is James Robert Hurst. It takes place in the on a farm in the American South. An essay titled “Overview”: “The Scarlet Ibis” feels that “The story focuses on the troubled relationship between two young boys, Brother and his mentally physically disabled brother, Doodle” (Overview 1). Unable to accept his brother as is, Brother pushes Doodle to do things his doctor claims he will never do. Hurst develops the characters of Brother and Doodle through pride, cruelty, and determination, while teaching life lessons along the way.

The reason is because he is young in age as well as having self-doubt due to his disability (until Brother shows him how to live). Doodle believes Brother will leave him behind. He has said "Brother, Brother don't leave me! Don't leave me!" (9) and "Don't leave me, Brother ...Don't leave me," (3) on two separate occasions. Although the second time does end in a death Doodle is still petrified when Brother threatens to flee without him. Secondly, He does not question his parents' and doctor's beliefs on his invalidity, he simply accepts their

The dysfunctionality in Doodle and his brother’s relationship began when Doodle was born with a disability. Despite Doodle being a miracle baby, his brother feels embarrassed of his brother’s disability. Doodle’s Brother always tries to cause Doodle pain and traumatized him by making him touch his coffin and other such terrible things. He made Doodle go above and beyond his limits by forcing Doodle to “run, to swim, to climb trees, and to fight.” inspite of Doodle’s disability (4 Hurst). He only does this for his own selfishness and wish to not have a disabled brother. Doodle was considered to be a burden, even after he learned to walk for the happiness of his elder brother. Doodle always trusted and believed his brother. On the other hand, Doodle’s Brother always felt Doodle was nothing more than a burden. When he tries to run away from his responsibilities, he ends up killing Doodle. Doodle’s loyalty and faith in his brother was not reciprocal by his brother . Doodle trusted his brother blindly but his brother’s hateful emotions towards him cause their relationship to be destroyed. The narrator showed false loyalty and pride for Doodle and allowed his selfishness to destroy their

Starting with the brother in "The Scarlet Ibis", his attitude towards Doodle is bitter, he is ashamed of him and attempts to disown him. "He was a burden in many ways. The doctor had said that he mustn't get too excited, too hot, too cold, or too tired and that he must always be treated gently. A long list of don'ts went with him, all of which I ignored once we got home." The brother thinks if he tries to improve Doodle's physical capabilities it will help him fit in with the other kids in Doodle's class. The brother keeps pushing Doodle every day and trying to improve his physical strength without caring about his physical health. He teases Doodle all the time he even showed Doodle his own casket. "One day I took him up to the barn loft and showed him his casket, telling him how we all had believed he would die." The brother was unappreciative of Doodle he never realized how kind Doodle could be. However, Doodle idolizes his brother, he looks up to him but is afraid of his brother leaving him behind on their adventures. Doodle looked up to his brother for guidance and love while his brother did not accept him for who he was. Unlike his brother, Doodle was grateful to him and always helping him out even though that is not his

In the text it says, “A long list of don’ts went with him, all of which I ignored once we got out of the house. To discourage him coming with me, I’d run with him across the ends of the cotton rows and careen him around corners on two wheels” (pg 131). Brother would purposely try leaving Doodle behind and didn’t care if he hurt him. He would also constantly say and do cruel things to Doodle without feeling bad about any of it. Another example from the story was when Brother showed Doodle the coffin that was made for him when he was born, when everyone thought he was going to die. He forced him to touch the coffin and even threatened to leave him there if he didn’t. It wasn’t even necessary for Brother to show Doodle the coffin in the first place, and it seems like by doing that he wanted him to have died