The Scarlet Ibis Essay

Doodle’s family cared about him and wanted him to be the happiest and the best person that he could be. Even living with his condition, preventing him from living a “normal” life. When Doodle’s family discovered that he had learned to walk they were overwhelmed

¨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.

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;

The narrator starts off with , “Shut up. I’m not going to hurt you. I’m going to teach you to walk.” that way Doodle can walk like a normal person like everybody else and not have to be seen completely different to everyone else’s point of view at school and that way he can go without being made fun of and that way not be seen as mentally challenged and also he wants to teach

Doodle’s brother taught him these things because he was tired of having a brother who couldn’t do anything. So he taught him, and he pushed Doodle harder and harder so that he didn’t have to deal with him. Showing his family that Doodle could walk, and Doodle’s brother realized what he could accomplish. Doodle’s brother continued to push him until one day, he pushed too hard. He knew a storm was coming, but hesitated at returning home because of Doodle’s failed attempts of running and walking. The brother recognized that a, “streak of cruelty within me awakened. I ran as fast as I could, leaving him far behind” (Hurst 117). This revealed the side of pride that resulted in death. That too much pride will fill you up, and you will keep continuing it until it

Doodle's death Everyone needs to love and appreciate your siblings just the way they are. Unlike the narrator in "The Scarlet Ibis," who teaches Doodle how to walk only you out of selfishness and wants credit for it. Doodle is the narrator's brother in the story "The Scarlet Ibis," written by James Hurst. Doodle has a disability where he can not walk or get overheated or too cold, or he would die.

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

Throughout the story The Scarlet Ibis, Brother slowly kills Doodle; slowly “cutting” him, until the wound was too deep. In the story, mostly for his own greed, Brother exploits Doodle and exhausts him through physical activity that Doodle should not have done. At the beginning of the story, we can see how, through hard work and endless hours of work, Brother managed to make Doodle walk. From page 6: “Every day that summer we went to the... Old Woman Swamp, and I put him on his feet at least a hundred times each afternoon. Occasionally I too became discouraged because it didn’t seem as if he was trying”. This shows how Brother continuously pushes Doodle’s physical boundaries, and, because of the last sentence of the quote, does it for

Doodle’s brother was determinded to get Doodle to do the same physical things as the other boys by the start of schools, so he worked Doodle extremely hard. The boys would go to Horsehead Landing so Doodle could practice his swimming and learn how to row a boat, on hot days. On cool days, the boys went to Old Women Swamp to climb rope vines or practice walking. One afternoon, brother made Doodle swim until he turned blue, and row until he couldn’t lift an oar. Whenever the boys went, brother would walk purposely fast so Doodle would be forced to keep up which always turned his face to a red tint and his eyes would turn a gaze.

At the beginning, Doodle had been very hesitant to go along with his brother’s plans. He tried to argue with his brother. “I can’t walk, Brother,” Doodle said. “Who says so?” He demanded. “Mama, the doctor, everybody,” uttered Doodle. “Oh, you can walk,” The narrator said.” Shortly after that, Doodle began to follow the narrator’s orders and self ambitions. Soon, the narrator had acquired too much ambition, putting Doodle at risk. This is evident with Doodle’s constant cry, “don’t hurt me, Brother.” Little did the narrator know he would be pushing his brother too far. Later in the story, the narrator let his ambition overcome him and decided to keep on pushing his brother. He did not want a brother who could not do what other normal schoolboys could do. He admits to himself, “the knowledge that Doodle’s and my plans had come to naught was bitter, and that streak of cruelty within me awakened.” He believed what Doodle could not do would greatly affect him and his social

Doodle was persistent, since he was motivated and determined. In the story, it says, “Doodle, don’t you want to learn to walk? He’d nod his head, and I’d say, well if you don’t keep trying, you’ll never learn” (Hurst, 598). Being persistent and active played a big role in both of their lives. It isn’t implied that Doodle never gave up, but from what the brother said to keep trying instead of giving up, one may see that Doodle didn’t give up. If Doodle had given up, it would have meant that he would have never learned how to walk. The scarlet ibis traveled around, and it was strange, since it came out of nowhere, and

Another reason is the narrator pushed Doodle too hard so Doodle can fit what he wanted as a brother. He wanted to get Doodle to walk so he can fit in with the other

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

There are multiple themes throughout “ The Scarlet Ibis”.The strongest theme in the story is that you should not do things for the benefit of yourself all the time, you should do things for the benefit of others also.His selfishness is shown in this line of the story “ they did not know that I did it for myself; that pride,[...] and that Doodle walked only because I was ashamed of having a crippled brother” (Hurst 468).Even though Doodle finally walked, his brother helped him for his own good, which shows his need to help himself before others.He taught Doodle how to walk for his own selfish reason that he was “ashamed” of him (Hurst 468). This shows the reader that doing things for your own benefit can have a negative effect on you.

The first time I read it, I could tell from early on that this story was not going to have a happy ending and predicted that Doodle would die. I assumed this just by the tone that the author used and how he talked about Doodle in the past tense using words like “would”. One of the messages that this story proves to make a point out of in my opinion is how dangerous too much pride can be. Doodle’s older brother mostly wanted Doodle to become more physically capable of keeping up not for his brother’s personal improvement, but so that he would not be embarrassed of his little brother. By making him learn to walk and eventually setting the goal of running and climbing trees, he felt accomplished and was proud of himself that he got Doodle to do those things.