The Scarlet Ibis Theme

When some people are born they have disabilities like being weak or missing a limb. The Scarlet Ibis by James Hurst is about a young boy named Doodle who has a weak heart and body and has a small chance of living. In the story Doodle displayed strength and perseverance

In “the Scarlet Ibis” by James Hurst, Brother’s motivation to teach Doodle to walk and to try and teach him to run, climb, swim, and row a boat is because of his pride- he’s ashamed to have a crippled little brother. Brother was pride’s slave, “Doodle walked only because I was ashamed of having as crippled brother” (Hurst, 319). This shows that Brother only taught Doodle to walk because he was ashamed of having a crippled brother. Brother cries when people hug him for teaching Dooble to walk because he’s embarrassed that he was embarrassed of Doodle and that’s the only reason that Doodle can walk. Brother successfully taught Dooble to walk but felt shameful that pride was the only reason that Doodle knew how to walk but when he fails to teach

The short story "The Scarlet Ibis" was written by James Hurst. This story is about a boy and his younger, disabled brother. Doodle was born and diagnosed as an invalid. Not being able to do certain things affected his life. The narrator set out to teach Doodle the things he never thought he could do. The narrator is described to be a prideful and determined person.

At the beginning of the text, we see that Doodle is the Narrator disabled little brother. The main character hate Doodle because he can't do anything for himself and gets all of the attention. Because of this, the Narrator doesn't like Doodle and even stated, “I began to make plans to kill him by smothering him with a pillow.” All of this tells us that the main character doesn't love or even like his brother at all because you wouldn't be hating on your brother or even planning to kill him if you liked him. However, at the end of the story when Doodle dies in

Brother is guilty for Doodle's death because his first dissapointment lead to a dark thought. Brother thinks that," It was bad enough having and invalid brother..., so I began to make plans to kill him by smothering him with a pillow" (595). Even though Brother was six years and Doodle was barely born, Brother already felt disappointed in Doodle. Brother knows that Doodle could not be the younger sibling Brother wanted, he decided that killing Doodle would be the only solution. Maybe, throughout both of them growing up, Brother

Doodle’s fragile condition could very well cause him to die of exhaustion during the training the brother required of him. This act of carelessness could, and eventually did, prove fatal for young Doodle, even though the brother’s intentions were good, the result was horrible. Towards the end of the story, when Doodle and the brother are walking home in a thunderstorm, the narrator says this, "The faster I walked, the faster he walked, so I began to run. The rain was coming, roaring through the pines, and then like a bursting Roman candle, a gum tree ahead of us was shattered by a bolt of lightning...I heard Doodle, who had fallen behind cried out "Brother, Brother, don't leave me don't leave me!" The brother was putting Doodle through a very stressful situation, where he was overexerting himself, which is exactly what the doctors had warned was not healthy for Doodle. The running, sound of the exploding tree, in addition to the pouring rain and deafening lighting overwhelmed Doodle as his brother, the one he looked up to as his mentor, sprinted away from Doodle to a point where he couldn’t keep up. He was stranded in the middle of nowhere in the cold pouring rain at the tender age of 5 years

In the short story, “The Scarlet Ibis”, James Hurst writes about a troubling tale of two brothers, older and younger, living together on a small farm and the older brother trying to help his younger brother fit in with the world around him. Doodle, the younger brother, is a very sickly child, whom no one is expecting to live. As a result, the older brother is disappointed, since he wanted a brother that he could have fun with. Angered by the condition of his younger brother, the older brother becomes determined to change him, and he constantly pushes him toward becoming the brother that he had originally expected. Doodle learns a great deal of things from his brother, but all his learning comes at a dangerously high price to Doodle in the

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.

The narrator was cruel to Doodle, pushed Doodle too hard, and lastly because he left Doodle in the end of the story. The narrator is to blame for Doodle’s death because he was cruel to Doodle throughout the whole story. He made forced Doodle touch his own coffin without asking (Hurst, 353), which made Doodle scared and showed that the narrator didn’t actually care about Doodle’s feelings. He threatened to leave Doodle in the barn where the coffin was if he didn’t.

Brother was disappointed with Doodles progress before the storm had started. “The knowledge that Doodle’s and my plans had come to naught was bitter, and the streak of cruelty within me awakened. I ran as fast as I could, leaving him far behind with a wall of rain dividing us (Hurst 6).” Doodles biggest fear was being left behind and brother knew that. As soon as brother realised that Doodle was not making as much progress as he had hoped, he thought there was no point in going back to help doodle. Brother was not being compassionate to Doodle and only worried about himself. Doodle ended up dying during the storm because he was left behind. Because of brother’s lack of compassion towards Doodle, Brother does not contain the qualities of a good

James Hurst’s “The Scarlet Ibis” is a fictional short story about a boy with a disabled brother named Doodle. He is ashamed of Doodle’s physical errors, so he teaches his brother to walk not for Doodle’s sake but so that he will have more pride in himself. He gives Doodle several challenges and pushes him too hard. When Doodle fails these challenges, the narrator leaves Doodle behind out of anger, and as a result, Doodle dies. The theme of this story revolves around the narrator’s pride and how it influences his actions.

The first reason Brother is guilty is because he was always rude and vicious to Doodle. On page 2 it states, ¨I began to make plans to kill him by smothering him with a pillow.¨ Brother was always planning on killing Doodle since the beginning, this incident could have been his chance to get rid of Doodle without getting in trouble. The second evidence I have is that Brother made Doodle touch his own coffin.(pg.4). Brother was being cruel to Doodle by telling him that he was supposed to die and scaring him by making him touch his own coffin from when he was younger! The last piece of evidence I have for this reason is that the night of the death Brother knew that Doodle had tripped in the mud

Brother was guilty for Doodles death because of his pride. Brother taught Doodle how to walk and thought to himself "... I did it for myself; that pride, whose slave I was, spoke to me louder than all their voices, and that Doodle only walked because I was ashamed of having a crippled brother " (599). While Brother was teaching Doodle how to walk he was also hurting him. Brother would lift Doodle up and just let him fall to the hard ground. Doodle had weak legs and he could have broken a bone. Although learning to walk hurt really bad, Doodle wanted to make his brother proud. Many thought that Brother was helping Doodle but in reality he was slowly killing him.

The setting of “The Scarlet Ibis” helps prepare the readers’ state of mind from the very beginning. In the first place, the story takes place at the end of World War I and represents the internal conflict the narrator has as he struggles between guilt of his younger brother’s death and the acceptance of his brother’s disabilities. With this in mind, the narrator is abashed over Doodle’s inability to walk because he thinks disabilities are shameful, and he wanted a brother who was athletic, outgoing, and adventurous. For this reason,”When Doodle was five years old, I was embarrassed at having a brother of that age who couldn't walk, so I set out to teach him (Hurst 417).” The narrator admits to going out of his way to train Doodle to walk because he has so much pride that it is getting in the way of more important goals, meaning he would rather have a “normal” brother than a happy one. The poor treatment of his brother ultimately leads to Doodle’s death. Furthermore, he forces Doodle to do things unwillingly, such as touch his own coffin and train him to be “normal”. The narrator traumatizes his little brother to think a certain way in order to become accepted by society. Even

In “The Scarlet Ibis” by James Hurst, the protagonist tries to help his disabled brother, Doodle, learn to walk and run. It is explained, “When Doodle was five years old, I was embarrassed at having a brother of that age who couldn’t walk, so I set out to teach him” (Hurst 418). Doodle’s brother helps slightly for personal gain, but has a good heart trying to help his brother learn to walk. After Doodle has begun to walk, his brother tries to get him to do more. The two get caught in the rain one afternoon and trying to get home, the narrator explains that “the faster I walked, the faster he walked, so I began to run...I heard Doodle, who had fallen behind, cry out, ‘Brother, Brother, don’t leave me!’...He didn’t answer so I placed my hand on his forehead and lifted his head. Limply, he fell backward onto the earth” (Hurst 426). The narrator has good intentions, trying to help his brother learn to more dependent, but he pushes Doodle too far, resulting in Doodle’s death. Both Doodle’s brother and Montresor are flawed and have their own problems that wouldn’t be present in the stories of characters like