...Jennifer Kang Ms. Ferdinandsen Honors English 9 6-4 17 October 2017 Theodore Parker, a minister in the 1800’s once said the wise words, “Pride is both a virtue and a vice.” The effects of pride are experienced by two characters, Brother and Doodle in James Hurst’s short story “The Scarlet Ibis”. Doodle, a physically and mentally handicapped character is constantly pushed to his limits by his brother’s pride. With a noble cause pride can be beneficial to one’s goal, however a corrupt impetus can have detrimental effects. Doodle overcame his physical impairment of walking because of Brother’s pride. His pride began when Doodle was just a baby, where his pride sparked, “He looked straight at me and grinned... ‘Mama, he smiled. He’s all there!...
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...The short story, “The Scarlet Ibis” tells of an older brother who fights the war of pride over love upon his younger brother. Throughout the story Brother’s haughtiness gradually shrinks as his love for his younger sibling grows. However, the issue with pride lasts too long. Brother’s pride ends up as the root cause of Doodle, his little brother’s death. Once Doodle passes on, Brother no longer feels shame towards Doodle, but rather himself. Brother, during the beginning moments of the story, finds pain and embarrassment in his brother, Doodle, due to his disability. This shame causes Brother to pursue violent actions towards Doodle. When attempting to murder Doodle, Brother stops; due to the smile on his little brother’s face. “However,...
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...Argumentative Essay-Scarlet “Pride is a wonderful terrible thing, a seed that bears two vines, life and death” James Hurst wrote this quote in his short story The Scarlet Ibis. In other words, James Hurst is saying, Pride can be both good and bad depending on how you look at it. This quote sums up the effects of pride on human life, both the good and bad. Pride enables a person to accomplish tasks. Pride assists one in achieving goals. Also, pride motivates a person to grow confidence. Acknowledging the other view of ways pride could be an unattractive quality to possess. Too much pride can damage other’s and one’s self. Referring to a quote from page 172 in “The Scarlet Ibis” states “don’t hurt me brother” he warned “oh shut up...
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...“Pride is the mother of arrogance” (Toba Beta). Pride is a feeling that everyone has felt in their lifetime, whether it be because they finally solved a question in math or because they finally graduated from college. That’s pride in it’s best form, but then there’s also the bad kind of pride, the kind mentioned in the quote above, that leads to arrogance and can sometimes be harmful. The tale The Scarlet Ibis by James Hurst is a great example of how pride can be harmful. The Scarlet Ibis revolves around two brothers, Doodle (who is disabled), and his older brother, the narrator. In the story, the narrator tries to teach Doodle to do things like an abled person. He succeeded with teaching Doodle to walk, so then his ego/pride starts growing...
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...Literary Analysis: “The Scarlet Ibis” Can pride affect others in a bad way? The topic of the short story “The Scarlet Ibis” by James Hurst, the narrator helps his brother Doodle(William Armstrong) to accomplish things no one thought was possible because of his bad heart. But in the end he pressured his brother too much and Doodle dies, all because he wanted pride from it. The theme adolescents that pride can both be a good and a bad thing, which you can see through the plot of the story. The narrator reflects on his actions and realizes how selfish he was towards Doodle. In one line it shows that the narrator is planning on teaching doodle more but he saw it as his own victory instead of Doodles victory, “Once I had succeeded in teaching Doodle...
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...John Ruskin, the leading English art critic of the Victorian era, once said, “It’s better to lose your pride to the one you love, than to lose the one you love for pride”. The meaning of this quote is that one shouldn’t have to lose the ones they love because they also want pride, and that one should rather lose their pride to the one they love. Many authors write about the intriguing topic of conflicts between pride and love. For example, in the novel Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck, the protagonists, Lennie and George, clearly show that pride should not always get in the way of love. This is exhibited at the time of Lennie’s demise. George tries to forgives himself, and reminds himself that killing Lennie was the right thing to do. It is manifested clearly in this allegory, that family is...
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...Jessica Lange, a famous actress once beautifully stated, “Acceptance and tolerance and forgiveness, those are life altering lessons.” Acceptance and tolerance mean appreciating the differences in people and respecting people for who they are. When one is tolerant, they understand and reverence others that have a different gender, ethics, feelings, and behaviors than them. In the stories “The Scarlet Ibis” written by James Hurst, and “Raymond’s Run” written by Toni Cade Bambara, the authors depicted the relationships with disabled siblings. These relationships could have a significant impact on these siblings’ life later on. Notwithstanding bearing the fact that Doodle’s brother and Squeaky previously displayed infinitesimal tolerance towards their younger siblings’ incapacity, the differences that it unfold in their stages of tolerance as the stories continue are relatively remarkable. Initially, a similarity relating to tolerance found in “The Scarlet Ibis” and “Raymond’s Run” is how both Squeaky and Brother both take care their disabled sibling. In the short story “The Scarlet Ibis,” Doodle was the younger brother who was born with physical disabilities. The narrator, who was known as Brother in the story supervises Doodle because he was determined to make Doodle to become his ideal brother. Specifically on paragraph 10 Brother remarked, “ 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.” This...
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...The Sharing of a Common Theme “The Scarlet Ibis” by James Hurst and “The Interlopers” by Saki both share a common theme ‘appearance versus reality’. Though both of the articles have two completely different plots, they share an idea that is displayed throughout both stories. The theme may seem to have different levels of importance or appear in different parts of the stories, but it is present in both no matter what. Here is an example of how “The Scarlet Ibis” and “The Interlopers” both have the theme ‘appearance vs. reality’. The theme of appearance versus reality is displayed in the short story “The Scarlet Ibis” by illustrating Big Brother’s disappointment at having a disabled brother transformed to embarrassment and selfish desire of...
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...In the “Scarlet Ibis” by James Hurst; it tells us how the narrator; also known as brother, has a wanting for his little brother; doodle, to become normal. In this story by James Hurst; it shows how pride can be a terrible quality. Pride causes some people to become selfish and make bad choices; which is shown through the narrator brother. Pride can take over someone's emotions. This could be opinionated, but in this story it shows plenty of examples on how pride can be a negative quality.As the story progresses the pride of brother grows stronger. With the strength of his pride Brother finds guilt. Mainly because he knows he isn't helping Doodle just to help him, he is doing it for himself. Which he explains in the following quote, “ They...
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...The Two Meanings of Pride The story, the “Scarlet Ibis” by James Hurst is about a young boy teaching his physically disabled brother, Doodle, how to become “normal.” The story surrounds the most powerful emotion, pride. The narrator was full of pride for his brother at times when he abled him to learn new things. The story expresses the idea that it is good to be full of pride for others, however, pushing people past their limits can be harmful. In the “Scarlet Ibis,” Doodle was pushed over his physical limit and suffered consequences. Several quotes in the story draw attention to the emotional theme, pride. Pride comes along with embarrassment. “When Doodle was five years old, I was embarrassed at having a brother of that age who...
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...Throughout the short story of “The Scarlet Ibis” James Hurst portrays that pride can be a constructive or a destructive thing. During this story, the character Brother uses his pride in ways that are helpful to Doodle, but in ways that are also harmful. As readers, people come to know the character Doodle as a delicate yet a beautiful being. There are things that others need to be careful of when with Doodle. There was “a long list of don’ts [that] went with him, all of which [Brother] ignored once [they] got out of the house.” This quote shows that Brother knew Doodle had limits, but decided to ignore them out of pride. Also, once Brother taught Doodle how to walk, there was a sense inside of him that made him believe that he could accomplish...
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...The quote, “Don’t fix what’s not broken” by Robert Atkins is a great example of why the narrator in “The Scarlet Ibis” by James Hurst ended up being the reason for his little brother’s demise. The short story opens up with the narrator reminiscing about his time with his younger brother, Doodle. His younger brother Doodle was a child born with a serious medical condition, but even though the narrator was warned–many times–on how Doodle can’t do things like “normal” kids, he decided to ignore it and still try to “help” him overcome some of his challenges–not understanding that his condition isn’t something that can be fixed. Throughout the story, the narrator keeps trying to push Doodle and doesn’t seem to understand why he can’t do simple tasks, even calling him a “burden” (p.2) since the “doctor says he mustn’t get too excited, too hot, too, cold or too tired and he must always be treated gently” (p.2)....
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...“There are two kinds of pride, both good and bad. ‘Good pride’ represents our dignity and self respect. ‘Bad pride’ is the deadly sin of superiority that reeks of conceit and arrogance.” John C. Maxwell. John C Maxwell is a contemporary author and an inspirational speaker and he enlightens the reader with his profound view about pride. In other words, John C Maxwell is saying that pride can be a good thing, if you use it the right way, but it can also be a terrible thing, that makes an individual treat the ones they love in a cruel way. This quote sums up that fact that pride can be good and bad. Therefore, I think pride is a terrible quality to possess. Pride can be a wonderful quality to possess. Pride can motivate one to want to succeed....
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...James Hurst’s short story, “The Scarlet Ibis,” has a theme, pride is egregious, which Hurst demonstrates through a series of quotes with the main ideas of offering help only due to pride, the belief of infallibility, and pushing someone farther than their limits. The theme can be first expressed when Brother only teaches Doodle to walk only because of his pride. After Brother teaches Doodle to walk, he reflects upon his reasons of doing so in the excerpt,“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,”(Hurst, 4). In the previously mentioned situation pride is egregious because Brother is embarrassed about Doodles...
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...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...
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