What Is The Scarlet Ibis Essay

Pride is a boomerang that will eventually come back to hit you. In John Hurst’s short story, “The Scarlet Ibis,” Brother’s pride changes how he sees Doodle as his brother, and negatively affects the outcome of the story. Throughout the story, one learns how the relationship between two brothers can break apart due to one’s pride. Pride can derail one from achieving goals while destroying relationships.

“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 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;

Pride can be a good thing at times, but never have to much of it. It could get in the way of many things. Which is what happens in Scarlet Ibis by James Hurst, when Brother's pride gets in the way of excepting his little brother Doodle. Doodle was born premature and can't do the things that Brother can do. Brother doesn't like the fact that Doodle is so slow at doing things. He threatens him, makes him feel bad for the way he is, pushes him to limits that could really hurt Doodle. Have pride but not so much to where it starts effecting the people around you. Reason #1

After Doodle learns to walk, he and his brother are filled with optimistic hope and ask for too much from Doodle’s fragile body. The most climatic part in the story is when Doodle does not live up to the expectations of his brother, causing Brother to run away with his bitter disappointed feelings, abandoning Doodle in the rain who in vain tries to catch up with him. Earlier in the story Brother pretends to abandon Doodle, “‘Then I’ll leave you here by yourself’... ‘Don’t leave me Brother,’(2)” This is foreshadowing when Doodle cried out to his brother when he was running away, “Brother, Brother, don’t leave me! Don’t leave me(7).” As a consequence of Brothers actions, Doodle dies from pushing his delicate body too hard in his attempt to reach his older sibling.

The Scarlet Ibis is a story about quietus and certain topics that symbolize death. The story helps the reader process the nature of death, understand that death is at every corner, and furthermore show the uncertainty of knowing when death will come. Thesis: In this essay, I will discuss how the scarlet ibis and the coffin represent moments of close death finishing in an unexpected end.

The narrator teaches Doodle how to walk. Everyone is overjoyed when they find out- but no suspects that the narrator’s motives might have been less than pure. The narrator laments, “‘What are you crying for?’ asked Daddy, but I couldn’t answer. They did not know that I did it for myself, that pride, whose slave I was, spoke to me louder than all their voices, and that Doodle walked only because I was ashamed at having a crippled brother” (Hurst). In this passage Doodle’s brother tells us that Doodle only walked because he is ashamed of having a disabled brother. The narrator calls himself pride’s slave- suggesting that terrible things may come about because of it. He uses slavery as a metaphor for his pride. He’s a slave to it, it goes around with him, it controls him. He does awful things because of it, and it provides a less than honorable reason for the good he does. These are examples of metaphors used to show devastating pride in “The Scarlet

The narrator throughout the story was ashamed that Doodle his brother was paralympic so he tried to help Doodle walk for the benefit of his self-esteem. For example, in the story, the narrator says,¨ They did not know that I did it for myself; that pride, whose slave I was, spoke to me louder than all their voices, and that Doodle walked only because I was ashamed of having a crippled brother.” The narrator expressed himself to help his brother in the way that it would seem as if he is the hero, but he did it so that he wouldn't have to go through life with a paralympic brother. The narrator knew what he was doing was bad, but didn't care enough to make it all about Doodle.

The short story, “The Scarlet Ibis” by James Hurst, shows pride in both a positive and negative way. This can be seen in the beginning of the story when the narrator describes his motivations to help teach Doodle how to walk. The narrator states, “I was embarrassed at having a brother of that age that couldn’t walk, so I set out to teach him” (Hurst 557). This is a negative portrayal of pride. This shows that the narrator’s pride got in the way of his love for his brother, and because he was worried about how other see his brother, he couldn’t be proud of what his brother truly was. His pride forced him to change his brother. Though this is a negative portrayal of pride, the author also incorporates positive pride as well. This is shown when

Another event that demonstrate how excessive pride can lead to one’s downfall is how the narrator taught Doodle how to walk. The narrator taught Doodle to walk because he wanted a normal brother and didn’t want to be carrying him around. In addition, the narrator taught Doodle to walk for himself, not Doodle.   An event that also demonstrates the theme toward the end of the story is, “The knowledge that Doodle’s and my plans had come to naught was bitter, and that streak of cruelty within me awakened.

In the passage, the Narrator was very brutal. The Narrator’s “bitter cruelty came back to {him} while {he} was running away from the storm leaving Doodle behind.” Also, Doodle has some conditions including a weak heart, disabilities, and he is paralyzed. Which, Narrator didn’t show compassion towards. The Narrator taught Doodle how to walk but in the worst way! He taught him how to walk because he was embarrassed that he had a brother that couldn’t walk at age five. In the passage the Narrator was embarrassed, “When Doodle was five years old, {he} was embarrassed at having a brother of that age who couldn't walk, so {he} set out to teach him.” (Hurst 2) The narrator felt self-contious because of Doodle’s disability of

School was starting pretty soon and Doodle’s brother was tired of him not being able to walk, so he decides to teach Doodle to walk. Which is a hard task because doctors say that Doodle shouldn't even be alive let alone know how too walk. Doodle finally learned how to walk and explained to everyone that his older brother taught him too. Everyone congratulates Doodle’s brother for teaching him how to walk but the narrator is embarrassed, because he didn't teach Doodle how to walk because he wanted too, he taught him how too walk to save him from the embarrassment and the pity of having a disabled brother, he is filled with guilt.

Too much pride in a person's heart, can lead him or her to a life of regret. The narrator from The Scarlet Ibis has a little brother who is physically disabled, Doodle. The narrator is embarrassed of having a disabled brother so he sets out to teach him how to do things like other regular kids. Eventually the narrator pushes Doodle a little too hard and the Doodle dies. James Hurst sets up a theme of pride and regret in The Scarlet Ibis.

The theme in short story “The Scarlet Ibis” by James Hurst is being too prideful can hurt your loved ones because of your selfishness. This theme is shown throughout the short story, and is first introduced when the narrator begins to help his brother because he is ashamed of the disabilities he has. Doodle, the narrator’s brother, was not born healthy and normal as he should’ve been. No one had hope that Doodle would survive past three months. The narrator had thought “It was bad enough having an invalid brother, but having one who was possibly not all there was unbearable” (Hurst 2). This begins the embarrassment that the narrator has of his brother. Later in the short story, the narrator decides to teach his disabled brother how to walk after

To elaborate, the author creates a great description on how character helps with the overall theme. The story is set in Eastern North Carolina the early 1900s, and it explains on how the character Doodle’s brother feels about his sibling. It was said in the story that Doodle’s brother disliked having his brother with him because he was ashamed of having someone that could not walk or swim with him. In addition, it could be seen that even from the beginning of the main characters story that Doodle’s brother disapproved of his younger brother, "It was bad enough having an invalid brother, but having one who possibly was not all there