The Scarlet Ibis Short Story

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.

Did a young boy actually kill his own brother? “The Scarlet Ibis” by James Hurst. In this story the main characters are boy named Brother and his younger, disabled brother Doodle. Brother is on trial for killing Doodle. Brother planned to kill Doodle because he always ashamed of having a disabled brother. Brother is guilty of killing Doodle because he didn’t want a brother who was disabled so he always planned to kill him.

¨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.

Even though Doodle is just an infant, the narrator tries to kill him. Once Doodle gets a little older, the narrator forces Doodle to touch the coffin he was going to be buried in and was threatening him that if he did not do it, the narrator would leave him by himself. The narrator and Doodle’s parents make the narrator take Doodle wherever the narrator goes; pushing Doodle on a wagon. Therefore, the narrator desires to teach Doodle how to walk, so he will not have to take Doodle along everywhere he goes. Therefore, it is obvious that he teaches Doodle how to walk for his own benefit; not Doodle’s.

James Hurst is the author of the heart breaking short story entitled “The Scarlet Ibis”. “The Scarlet Ibis” is a short story about two brothers; one brother is healthy, while the other is physically handicapped. The short story is centered on the idea that the older, healthier brother’s selfishness and pride ultimately led to the death of his younger brother, Doodle. Numerous quotes throughout the story demonstrate Hurst’s use of symbolism and foreshadowing to portray and predict Doodle’s untimely and heartbreaking death.

People all around the world have to deal with different types of disabilities . In “The Scarlet Ibis” There are two brothers, one of the brothers is named Doodle and has a disability that makes it nearly impossible for him to walk. If the brother with the disability tried to push himself off the ground he would fall back down. The reason why he can not hold himself up is because he was born with a weak heart that could cause him to die. Later on in the story Doodle gets taught how to walk by his older brother, the reason that the older brother wanted to teach Doodle how to walk is because he wanted a brother that did not have a disability.

“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,

When Doodle dies, he is being compared to the scarlet ibis, who died in a similar way. This creates a connection between the reader and the characters.

When a person feels remorseful, he feels guilty from actions he has done. This leads to self-reflection and then ultimately to one’s admission of his mistakes. In the short story "The Scarlet Ibis" written by James Hurst, the author employs the elements of flashback and foreshadowing to manifest the narrator's emotion of remorse surrounding Doodle's life and death. Hurst conveys the use of flashback in the story when the narrator is constantly having recollections of his actions, which evokes the remorse he feels surrounding these actions. Foreshadowing is utilized by setting descriptions and symbolisms related to Doodle's death and to also to convey the narrator's feelings surrounding death.

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.

Without delay the narrator took Doodle to accomplish more than walking; he taught him swimming, rowing, climbing, and swinging. They would work until Doodle could not do anymore, till he couldn’t left an oar or lift his arm to take another stroke. The only reason Doodle did it because his brother would always say, ‘“Aw, come on, Doodle,’ I urged. ‘You can do it. Do you want to be different from everybody else when you start school?’ ‘Does it make any difference?’ ‘It certainly does,’ I said.’’. (52) In the beginning of the story it talked about how Doodle would turn blue and almost black in the face as he was straining just to get up and crawl. Likewise when in the ending he said he knew that he was pushing his brother to run faster and Doodle had never done that before so he was struggling and ended up dying.

According to Karl A. Menninger, “Love cures people - both the ones who give it and the ones who receive it.” In “Scarlet Ibis”, Brother and Doodle shared a special bond by the activities and lessons Brother taught Doodle. Brother out of love taught Doodle how to walk, run, and jump even though Doodle was never supposed to be able to do any of those activities. Doodle recieved Brothers love through his actions and Doodle grew in his abilities. In “Scarlet Ibis” by James Hurst, Brother feels love, pride, and guilt for how he treated his brother Doodle.

In the story The Scarlet Ibis a baby was born and it was a sickly baby. The baby wasn’t meant to live because the baby was born very sickly. The baby’s older brother was planning on smuggling him with a pillow one night but as he went to him, the baby looked and smiled at him.

I had killed him. I pulled his limp body into my arms in the midst of the strong, pulsing rain. Throwing my body over his, I tried to protect him from the violently slashing rain. Hardly remembering anything after Doodle’s death, weeks passed; I was numb. I had no emotion; felt nothing, and until school started, I couldn’t tell just how much time had passed. When I started school, the rumors were flying around like bats from an attic. I could almost fell the acquisitions of me killing Doodle, cutting deep into me from all angles. Going home at night, I would cry after hearing these awful things, however; mama and papa weren’t sympathetic either, for they seemed to hate me more than anyone at school. Because I didn’t want to go to school or home, I decided to run away. It sounded like the best option of all. I was going to run away on Monday, before school. I only packed two outfits and a pair of thick wool socks. While packing, I packed a small supply of food, using incredible caution to avoid things that could possibly spoil. In fear of being caught by mama and papa, I threw my bag together quickly. Stashing it in the dust covered coffin, which was meant for baby Doodle, I ran back to the house and stayed in my room until mama said supper was ready. I ate today, knowing it would be one of my last hot meals for a while. Moma made a ham so pink it looked like a piglets skin and biscuits so rich they were like a delicious dessert. We had our meal in

James Hurst foreshadows Doodle’s death in many ways.An example of foreshadowing in the story “The Scarlet Ibis” happens when the narrator says “One day I took him up to the barn loft and showed him his casket, telling him how we all believed he would die” (Hurst 466).This is not a coincidence written by the author, he made this a part of the story to bring up the topic of Doodle dying.The author said that “we all believed he would die” to show how he was weak and could not possibly survive (Hurst 466).There was more foreshadowing when James Hurst killed off the red bird saying “ Even death did not mar its grace, for it lay on the earth like a broken vase[… ]we stood around it, awed by its exotic beauty” (Hurst 473). This