Pride In The Scarlet Ibis By James Hurst

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.

The narrator regrets how he pushed Doodle far beyond his limits. Now that the Brother is older, he knows how pride can affect him. “I did not know then that pride is a wonderful, terrible thing, a seed that bears two vines, life and death.”(4) When the Brother got Doodle to stand, he was confident in Doodle to accomplish any physical movement. So he expected more and more out of Doodle. But he didn’t know the pain and the danger of trying to exceed the limit of one’s body. Now, after all the years have passed by, the narrator realize that his love for Doodle. “But sometimes (like right now), as I sit in the cool, green-draped parlor, the grindstone begins to turn, and time with all its changes is ground away--and I remember Doodle.”(1) The years have taken away the cruelty and selfishness in the Brother’s early year and he was sorry for how he forced and threatened Doodle. The narrator looks over the cruel moments he had with Doodle and blames Doodle’s death on himself. “They did not know that I did it for myself; that pride, whose slave I was, spoke to me louder than all the other voices, and that Doodle walked only because I was ashamed of having a crippled brother.”(5) The voice here is very regretful of his sins, and wants to fix what he had already

In the text the narrator 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¨ (Hurst, 351). This quote from the text proves the narrator hated his younger brother, and even went so far as to make plans to kill him because he could not stand to have a disabled brother. The narrator even went so far as to say, “The knowledge that Doodle’s and my plans had come to naught was bitter, and that streak of cruelty within me awakened” (Hurst, 360). This textual evidence helps demonstrate the contempt and anger the narrator felt for his brother. This anger, contempt, and shame that the narrator felt for his brother, Doodle, was the reason that the narrator killed his

Older siblings feel obligated to take authority over their younger siblings. The narrator took the responsibility of teaching Doodle to develop into an ordinary boy; however, he supports Doodle out of selfishness. With this in mind, the narrator changes Doodle’s name from “William Armstrong” to Doodle because he believes Doodle is not strong enough to have that name. He believes “William Armstrong” only “sounds good only on a tombstone,” (595) so changing Doodle’s name was the kindest thing he could have done. Likewise, the narrator selfishly disobeys the doctor’s list of don'ts for Doodle because he doesn’t agree with Doodle’s limitations. In fact, the narrator hauls Doodle carelessly around cotton fields and whips him around corners on two wheels of the go-cart. As a result, the narrator decides to take the next step in teaching Doodle. As school approaches, Doodle falls behind on learning to run, swim, and climb. Therefore, the narrator decides to double his efforts and push Doodle even harder. “I made him swim until he turned blue and row until he couldn’t lift an oar. Wherever we

Pride is a leading theme in most of the short stories in the unit. All show that your pride can endanger you or someone else.

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.

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

The actions of Doodle’s brother are fueled with much disdain towards his younger sibling. Various levels of the narrator’s cruelty are revealed in the

I would like to start by saying that Doodle’s brother could say some hurtful things to Doodle that may discourage him. For example, “One day I took Doodle up to the barn loft, and showed him his casket, telling him how we all believed he would die.” (2) It was a poor choice for his brother to make and it caused Doodle to get scared and worried about whether or not his life has all been a lie. He did not know that his family thought

From the start the Narrator didn't want a brother who wouldn't be able to do anything with him. He thought since the beginning what a disappointment Doodle had been and thinks about how "It was bad enough having an invalid brother, but having one who possibly was not all their was unbearable,so I began to make plans to kill him by smothering him with a pillow"(595). This shows how the Narrator even when Doodle was born never really liked him and was even planing to kill him then. He would be very cruel to Doodle by telling him how everyone thought he was going to die and that he is different from everyone else. He also showes Doodle his mahogany casket and pushes him off the waggon so he wouldn't want to go wherever he went.

Pride, can be either good or bad or maybe both in some situations. Their are many ways to use pride in many situations faced everyday. In the book “The Scarlet Ibis” the narrator uses pride in ways that can be confusing at times and some examples are self explanatory. The story begins with a narrator who has not been assigned a name but we know that he was age 6 when William Armstrong was born. He was born with disabilities and the family even constructed a coffin for him.

When Doodle was alive, he had many rules that had to be followed to ensure his safety and although Brother new of the precautions, he didn't follow them, which made him guilty. Brother would only follow them if he was around the house and possibly being looked after by a family member. "As long list of dont's went with him, all of which I ignored once we got out of the

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

Doodle’s attitude toward fitting in is mild compared to his brother. Doodle does want to fit on and do what others can do. In the story it says, “I made him swim until he turned blue and row until he couldn’t lift an oar”. It means even though Doodle got he still tried to do as his

If the story was told from Doodle’s point of view, the reader would not have a connection to Brother like they do reading the story from Brother’s point of view.