Many enjoy ghost stories with haunted houses because of the thrill. Some stories however, include themes of guilt in which a character is haunted by his past. In the short story “The Scarlet Ibis” James Hurst employs flashback and mood to create the emotion of guilt that haunts the narrator. Hurst utilizes flashback by giving a sense of guilt emitting from the narrator. Throughout the story, the author gives examples of the narrator’s selfish actions, which is how he treats his crippled brother, Doodle. Then, Hurst portrays mood by writing the narrator’s thoughts of what horrible actions the narrator did to Doodle. The narrator feels ashamed of having a disabled brother, and feels the need to push Doodle to become “normal”, and this pressure makes the narrator look back and feel guilt. One way the narrator represents guilt is through flashback. Throughout the …show more content…
In the middle of the short story, the narrator finally gets doodle to walk and feel proud of his accomplishment. After realizing the accomplishment was only for the narrator’s own sake, “[he] did not know that pride is a terrible, wonderful thing, a seed that bears two vines, life and death.” The whole reason for the narrator to teach Doodle to walk was only because the narrator was embarrassed of having a crippled brother. The pride that the narrator felt, made him want to do more, which slowly lead to the death of Doodle. The narrator first felt pride and thought everything would go as he planned it to be, but later on, the narrator realized that that pride led to something horrible. Like ghost stories in haunted houses, the guilt that the narrator felt was haunted by his past. The flashback gives a sense of guilt emitting from the reader, and the mood shows the narrator’s thoughts of how he treated Doodle. As the past reminds the narrator of the regret he felts for causing his brother’s death, will never be forgotten in his