In James Hurst’s short story “The Scarlet Ibis”, Hurst describes the relationship between Doodle, an invalid boy, and his brother. Throughout this story, Hurst shows the brother’s selfishness for his own future. Many would say that this selfishness is the reason the narrator left Doodle behind in the woods on that rainy evening, ending in his brother’s fatality, but was the narrator to blame in this incident? The simple answer to this question is yes, but an explanation is needed. Especially towards the end of the story, the narrator seems to harbor an unjust grudge against his little brother, so the theory that the narrator was the cause of death is not that far off. In the short story, the brother explains his frustrations with having a brother who cannot even do something as simple as walking by the age of 5 years old. This causes the narrator to teach his brother many things out of what seems to be spite. Towards the beginning of the story, it is evident that the narrator wishes to have a better relationship with his brother, but he simply cannot because his brother might not even be “all there”. However, as the story progresses the narrator shows a type of loathing towards his brother because he cannot do the things the narrator wishes he could do. The narrator even expresses his worries about this by explaining, “They did not know that I did it for myself; that pride, whose slave I was, spoke to …show more content…
After begrudgingly attempting to teach his brother to climb, swim, and row a boat with no success, the narrator’s bitterness began to boil over. His final straw was having his heels stepped on by his brother while walking through the woods causing him to run away from his brother in the pouring rain, ignoring his brother’s pleas for help. These events are evidence enough to point the blame towards the narrator for his brother’s
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.
Some people may argue that Brother is innocent and did not kill Doodle since he also taught Doodle how to walk.This argument makes sense because Brother was trying to help Doodle. In the story it says that Brother taught Doodle to walk so that’s where he could be innocent since he was kind enough to teach his disabled brother to walk. It could prove he is innocent since it gives no evidence he killed him because he did something kind for Doodle. However, this argument does not matter because Brother was still planning all along to kill Doodle since he was disabled. Brother showed him the casket he was going to die in, and he left him face down in the rain knowing Doodle couldn’t help himself since he was disabled.
¨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.
Can a person be responsible for some ones death without killing them or if it’s not their intention?
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.
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 narrator knew that his brother could not exert himself too much, yet the narrator constantly pushed his brother over the edge. For example, Hurst writes ¨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¨ (352). Even though the narrator knew this information he pushed his brother to learn how to walk, among other things, knowing that it may very well kill his younger brother. That is not the only example of the narrator pushing his brother too hard, in fact at the end of the story the narrator runs away from his brother, knowing that his brother will try as hard as he can to catch up. Doodle would never have been able to catch up, but he kept pushing himself to get to his brother, which resulted in Doodle's death because he overexerted himself trying as hard as he can to catch up with his brother (Hurst, 361). The narrator must have known that is brother would try his best to catch up to him, even knowing this the narrator sprinted away for Doodle and ultimately causing his death. Most, if not all of the narrator’s motives were to cause harm to his brother or to kill
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 Scarlet Ibis” by James Hurst is a realistic fiction about these two brothers, Doodle, and Doodle’s brother who was the narrator of the story, many symbols are used. A symbol is a materialistic object being put in place for an abstract or complex emotion, or idea. For example the emojis you use when texting are symbols you use to express how you are feeling. In this story, Doodle is being symbolized by the Scarlet Ibis, the Scarlet Ibis is a bird and a symbol for Doodle because of their many similarities. An example of the Scarlet Ibis symbolizing Doodle is when Hurst describes the physical health of Doodle and the Ibis. He describes Doodle as being very sick and weak at the beginning of the story by saying “He seemed all head, with a tiny body which was red and shriveled like an old man's. Everybody thought he was going to die-everybody except Aunt Nicey….” (Hurst page 1). Later on in the story when the Scarlet Ibis is introduced, Doodle’s father describes the bird as: “It looks tired, or maybe sick”(Hurst page 5). By giving Doodle and the Scarlet Ibis such similar physical features, it insinuates that whatever happens to the Scarlet Ibis will more than likely happen to Doodle. Another example of the Scarlet Ibis being a symbol for Doodle is when the Scarlet Ibis dies.” At that moment the bird began to flutter, but the wings were uncoordinated, and amid much flapping and a spray of flying feathers, it tumbled down, bumping through the limbs of the bleeding tree and
In the story of the Scarlet Ibis the brother in the story is being accused of the murder of his little brother Doodle.
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.
The narrator, Brother, tells the story of Doodle, his brother, and his childhood with all his disabilities; starting off by telling about Doodle when he was a baby and toddler, about how he could not do much for himself for a long time, but eventually learns to crawl. He soon moves onto when Doodle got a little older and Brother would have to take him everywhere he went and how the two would take on the mission of teaching Doodle to walk; they spent almost everyday out in the woods making Doodle stronger and stronger. On Doodle’s sixth birthday, they showed the family what he could do;
Symbolism is used to signify ideas and qualities about an object or idea and is used when the author wants to give those objects or ideas meanings different from their literal sense. Symbols are often used in literature to bring a deeper meaning to a story or work. These meanings can emphasize or intensify feelings of anything from love and hope, to danger and sadness. James Hurst uses symbolism in his work, “The Scarlet Ibis”, to convey and emphasize some of these feelings and ideas in his story. “The Scarlet Ibis” centers around the lives of Brother, a very driven and determined child, and his younger brother, Doodle, an innocent and naive individual with a heart condition that causes doctors to believe that he
Some people can get blinded by their pride and engulf them in a world that makes them unaware of other people and controls their actions and for this reason it lead to cold blooded murder. “The Scarlet Ibis,” by James Hurst is a story of a silent war between two brothers. The setting takes place at a farm during World War 1 a caul baby was brought into this world. The Narrator’s little brother was named Doodle, and he was born with a disability. The Narrator was embarrassed to have a brother that was not normal. The Narrator's pride drove him to make Doodle a normal, ordinary brother. Doodle was never expected to live, but he ended up living to the age of six, however, he still had heart
Have you ever wanted to help someone that was not as fortunate in life as you, in the story “The Scarlet Ibis” that is what Brother wished to do for Doodle but sadly it didn’t work and the situation became unfortunate. Brother and Doodle are brothers but they don’t have very much in common because Doodle has disabilities that Brother would never fully understand, no one ever will. When the story first starts Brother and Doodles relationship isn’t very strong and Brother is embarrassed about his brother but as the story continues the bond between the two grows and the love eachother. Many believe that Brother indirectly murdered Doodle because he was ashamed of him; however, Brother was trying to help Doodle and wanted to help him be normal. So the bigger picture of the story is that Brother wanted the best for Doodle and he wanted nothing more to help Doodle become more like a normal kid but it sadly turned fatal.