The Short StoryScarlet Ibis, By James Hurst

Did a young boy actually kill his own brother? “The Scarlet Ibis” by James Hurst. In this story the main characters are boy named Brother and his younger, disabled brother Doodle. Brother is on trial for killing Doodle. Brother planned to kill Doodle because he always ashamed of having a disabled brother. Brother is guilty of killing Doodle because he didn’t want a brother who was disabled so he always planned to kill him.

In passage 8 of “The Scarlet Ibis” by James Hurst, Hurst prepares the reader for death with the foreshadowing of the storm, creates a mournful mood with the use of descriptive details, and finalizes the plot with a metaphor.

¨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.

In “The Scarlet Ibis,” James Hurst uses symbolism to develop the theme that one can push themselves to overcome things but don't push beyond their limits because one could hurt someone and might not get what had been hoped of. Hurst’s characterization of ‘Brother’ communicates the message that don’t let pride get in the way of ones actions and do what one thinks is right.

Character are often times really the only thing that needs to be interesting for the story to be worth while. Veritably, reading about experiences through a character is far more engaging than directly being told advice or analysis. That is because narratives are almost always based in inherently human ideas/feelings and that is what most take and/or want to take away when they read one. A great example is “The Scarlet Ibis” by James Hurst, where the main focus is the guilt the narrator feels after his actions towards his brother. It’s about a boy who has a brother with health problems, who he’s trying to fix into someone he won’t be ashamed of or have to constantly look after. Throughout the story one can see how the narrator

Could pride take over a person's life? In "The Scarlet Ibis" written by James Hurst, the Narrator was the only son of the family, as far as he was at the age of six, the Narrator had a brother. He loved his little brother, but the Narrator's family has thought that Doodle would not survive the main issue of his life and not being able to do stuff. The Narrator and his family finally had seen that he could talk, and there was no sign of walking. The Narrator had to take his bother everywhere he had to go in his little go-cart. Which though the Narrator had been tired of carrying him around in the the go-cart, which, made him think that he can teach Doodle how to walk. Everyone was amused that Doodle could walk and now the Narrator for his pride of making him walk had consumed his mind and pressured Doodle to do more thinks before summer was over and start school. In the last week, before school started, in the bloody tree there was a Scarlet Ibis and fell down with no coordinated and died fragile, feathers everywhere. After that afternoon the Narrator's pride had vanished and ran home and left his brother who had fallen down.The moment that the Narrator had realized that he had pressured him and look for Doodle, he had died so similar to the Scarlet Ibis, delicate, blood all over ad with no coordination. For this reason, the Narrator is innocent and had not having nothing to do with his brother recognizing

If the narrator wasn't embarrassed by his brother and wasn't scared his pride would be hurt because of Doodle, they wouldn't have bonded and showed their love for each other. The narrator's Pride also leads to him pushing Doodle too hard. This Pride ultimately becomes a destructive force, highlighting the theme of pride: “Now come on, and I helped him up as we slipped through dog days, Doodle began to look feverish” (Hurst 47). Because the narrator was so embarrassed of his brother he tried pushing him to become “normal”, however, while doing this he ended up pushing Doodle too hard and hurt him. This shows how trying to save your pride can lead to cruelty and negative effects.

In “The Scarlet Ibis” James Hurst symbolizes the narrator’s brother, Doodle, as the scarlet ibis, and the narrator as the storm, in order to reveal the theme that challenging someone to go beyond their limits can help in achieving extraordinary results, however pushing the limits too far may prove fatal. As the narrator, Doodle, and their family were eating dinner, they saw a scarlet ibis getting carried by the storm and “[tumbling] down, … landing at [their] feet with a thud”. Doodle’s family doesn’t care much, however, Doodle takes time to respect the bird and to bury it, even though he saw the bird for the first time as if he had some special connection with the ibis. “It’s a scarlet ibis! … South America to Florida. A storm must have brought it here. A scarlet Ibis! How many miles it had traveled to die like this, in our yard, beneath the bleeding tree” (14). The bird, native to South America had flown all the way from “South America to Florida”, which was way beyond its natural capacity. Doodle had also come a long way from being a baby who everyone thought wouldn't survive or a cripple who couldn’t stand. “A storm … brought it here”, somewhat assisting it and somewhat forcing it. Doodle learned to walk, with help from the narrator who pushed him and didn’t let him give up. Now the narrator was pushing Doodle, even more, to learn rowing, swimming, and fighting even though his body and heart were weak. The storm had powered the amazing flight but pushed the bird’s

As Brother’s deadline nears, Doodle is pushed past the zenith of his exhaustion, painfully portrayed in the story as,”School was only a few weeks away, and Doodle was far behind schedule. He could barely clear the ground when climbing up rope vines, and his swimming was certainly not passable. We decided to double our efforts, to make one last drive and reach our pot of gold. I made him swim until he turned blue and row until he couldn’t lift an oar. Wherever we went, I purposely walked fast, and although he kept up, his face turned red and his eyes became glazed. Once, he could go no further, so he collapsed on the ground and began to cry” (4). What Brother believes as improvement is doing far more harm than good, and is even farther from their goal. Too much strain can kill Doodle because of his weak heart; yet Brother is blinded by his own pride as he pushed Doodle to his absolute limit. Brother’s shattered pride is shown clearly in his devious actions displayed in the story such as, “When the deafening peal of thunder had d9ed, and in the moment before the rain arrived, I heard Doodle, who had fallen behind cry out ‘Brother, Brother, don’t leave me! Don’t leave me!’ The knowledge that Doodle’s and my plans had come to naught was bitter, and that streak of cruelty within me awakened. I ran as fast as

The narrator did not care about how fragile his brother was, even though Doodle gave him various signs of his debility. The narrator was so determined to end his brother incapacity in order to maintain his pride that he did not give the child a break. In fact, he continued to push his brother harder until the day of his death. The narrator was being selfish because he did not show any concern about the wellbeing of his brother throughout his tough training, he only cared about being able to get Doodle’s incapacity out of the

On page 350, Brother tries to train Doodle to be able to keep up with the other kids at school. “School was only a few weeks away, and Doodle was far behind schedule … Wherever we went, I purposely walked fast, and although he kept up, his face turned red and his eyes became glazed. Once, he could go no further, so he collapsed on the ground and began to cry. ‘Aw come one Doodle,’ I urged. ‘You can do it. Do you want to be different from everybody else when you start school?’ ‘Does it make any difference?’ ‘It certainly does,’ I said.” page 350. This quote shows that Brother isn’t just afraid for himself. Brother is afraid for Doodle as well. Brother wants Doodle to fit in at school, knowing that the other kids at school could be cruel to Doodle because of his disabilities. Later in the story, after Brother pushes Doodle far beyond his limit causing him to die, he regrets what he did Doodle. “I began to weep, and the tear-blurred vision in red before me looked very familiar. ‘Doodle!’ I screamed above the pounding storm, and threw my body to the earth above his. For a long, long time, it seemed forever, I lay there crying, sheltering my fallen scarlet ibis from the heresy of rain.” pg 354. This quote shows that Brother cares about Doodle and loves him, because seeing Doodle die made him feel very sad and guilty about how he pushed Doodle far beyond his limit, leading to

In the short story, “The Scarlet Ibis,” James Hurst indirectly characterizes the narrator as prideful and sadistic through his thoughts and actions, to convey the idea that an excessive amount of pride causes someone to be deceitful, and act for their own personal gain at someone else’s cost. The abundant amount of pride the narrator has blinds him, ruining his perspective of his brother, Doodle. “The Scarlet Ibis” revolves around the narrator reminiscing on his past memory of Doodle, his “invalid” younger sibling. The narrator longs for someone to run with, play with, and fight with; a brother to be proud of. However, the birth of a frail and severely disabled younger brother is a disappointment. The narrator’s pride along the storyline leads him further into believing in his own infallibility, after been emboldened by the success of Doodle.

The narrator took pride in teaching his brother how to walk. Later on, he began to teach Doodle other abilities. But the narrator had only taught his brother how to do other activities for his own benefit. During a storm the narrator and Doodle got trapped in, the narrator left Doodle behind. The narrator was too prideful to turn around and help his brother, and his brother ended up dying. The narrator was selfish in teaching his brother how to walk and more out of embarrassment, and since he got paraded for teaching his brother he continued to help his brother, only to have his brother die. Having too much pride can hurt your loved ones because you are not aware that you have become too selfish to care for others, like your own

After admitting that Doodle had been a disappointment from the start and expressing his longing to have a brother he could run and climb trees with, the narrator (who is only referred to as in the short story as “Brother” by Doodle; a name is never mentioned) then announces his plan to kill his infant brother. The older brother demonstrates his shame at having a disabled brother by revealing: “I began to make plans to kill him by smothering him with a pillow.” (pg 1). Thankfully, the attempt had not been successful, as Doodle had leaned up to beam knowingly at his brother, but the incident had been enough to condemn both the narrator and his shame. While “Brother” may have loved Doodle at some point, this incident had demonstrated that his pride had led him to immediately detest Doodle’s existence. In addition,

Symbols are used to represent something else deeper than the actual meaning either in real life or in literature. In the story “The Scarlet Ibis”, Doodle who is mentally and physically disabled was not expected to live. Although, he did live, however, he could not do things other children could do such as walk or talk. Therefore, his older brother set out to teach him because he was embarrassed to have an abnormal brother. However, many years later Doodle is soon overworked until he can no longer go on, and he sadly dies. In “The Scarlet Ibis”, James Hurst uses the caul, the oriole nest, and the blood od Doodle as symbols to offer greater insight into abstract ideas that are difficult to understand on their own.