...In “The Scarlet Ibis” by James Hurst, we are shown a picture of a brotherly relationship that is destroyed by shame and pride. The protagonist chooses to help Doodle in the story but realizes too late that his motivations were selfish and hurtful. And although he learns much from his younger, invalid brother, it is the final cost of the lesson that will remain with him. Throughout the story, the author utilizes literary techniques and devices to convey the overall meanings and tone. The most prominent are metaphor and simile. The usage of the simile, “Keeping a nice secret is very hard to do, like holding your breath”, shows the contrast of life and death. In the story, the narrator and his “invalid” brother sets out every single...
Words: 611 - Pages: 3
...The Scarlet Ibis by: James Hurst In “The Scarlet Ibis”, the older brother is coaching his younger brother, who has physical disabilities, on how to fit in, mostly for his own sake. The story brings up all sorts of questions such as, why is it that we sometimes fear people who are different? Why do many people think it's so important to fit in? If someone doesn't mind being different, why do we often still pressure them to conform? This story shows that pushing others too hard to fit in can end in tragedy. Most people think living life a certain way is the most important thing. When they see someone acting a strange way or a way that is different, they react negatively. They get confused because they aren’t used to people not caring about how...
Words: 543 - Pages: 3
...In the short story, “The Scarlet Ibis”, Doodle and the Ibis are very similar. The narrator explains what had happened to the ibis. “Sadly, we all looked back at the bird. A scarlet ibis! How many miles it had traveled to die like this, in our yard, beneath the bleeding tree.” The scarlet ibis is in an unknown area and it has surprised everybody by showing up. This poor bird has traveled so such a long way, just so it could die. In addition, Doodle, like the bird, has traveled and worked so hard, just to have the same fate as the scarlet ibis. “Finally one day, after many weeks of practicing, he stood alone for a few seconds. When he fell, I grabbed him in my arms and hugged him, our laughter pealing through the swamp like a ringing bell....
Words: 300 - Pages: 2
...The Scarlet Ibis is a short story about a baby named Doodle who’s born with disabilities and how his brother and family treat him. Doodle is very determined, and wanted to be like everyone else. He learns and copies many things that his brother did. Throughout my essay I’m going to show how Doodle becomes a part of the family and learns how to do many things that are hard for him, but simple tasks that are easy for his family and regular people. Doodle is determined to learn new things. Since he had many problems with growing and learning things at the right age he had learned to crawl late. The passage says that,”When he crawled, he crawled backward, as if he were in reverse and couldn’t change gears.” The passage also says that, “Although Doodle learned to crawl, he showed no signs of walking, but he wasn’t idle.” Doodle also had learned to talk and when he did the passage says that, “He talked so much that we all quit listening to what he said.Doodle was determined to learn to walk so his brother says that,”Within a few months Doodle had learned to walk well and his go-cart was put up in the barn loft (it’s still there) beside his little mahogany...
Words: 588 - Pages: 3
...“The Scarlet Ibis” by James Hurst places a large focus on humanity and the humane treatment of others. In this short story, the narrator mistreats his younger brother in order to make him more like normal boys who can play, run, and swim. However, this backfires as his younger brother Doodle dies from overexertion because the narrator pushes him past his limits. In “The Scarlet Ibis”, the absence of humanity is a large component and is portrayed in the way Doodle is treated by the narrator. In this story, the narrator’s great pride and lack of humanity is what causes Doodle’s death. Because he is so focused on making Doodle like the other children, the narrator forgets that Doodle has feelings and shortcomings. The narrator is “embarrassed...
Words: 360 - Pages: 2
...“Pride is a wonderful, terrible thing, a seed that bears two vines, life and death.” (Hurst 318), how can one word have life and death in it? In the story “The Scarlet Ibis” by James Hurst, the narrator teaches his disabled brother, Doodle, how to walk. When successfully teaching Doodle how to walk, the narrator pushes Doodle to learn swimming, running, and other physical activities. The narrator takes Doodle into a web of high expectations which both of them don’t come out of till the saddening death of Doodle. Throughout the story the narrator shows the good side of pride, confidence, and the bad side of pride, ego. The helpful side of pride, confidence, which gives people motivation to achieve goals and stand up tall, is shown in the story...
Words: 595 - Pages: 3
...Pride´s Repercussions In ¨The Scarlet Ibis”, James Hurst characterizes the narrator as overly egotistical to exhibit the theme that one's pride can cause harm to others. Towards the middle of the story, when the narrator's brother Doodle, who has a heart disability which causes him to have to strain to move, turns five years old the narrator, ¨feels embarrassed at having a brother of that age who couldn't walk so he, ¨set out to teach him.¨ (7) The word “embarrassed” implies the narrator´s large amount of pride, as rather than teaching Doodle for his benefit, the narrator only does so because Doodle´s disability puts a damper on the narrator's pride. Under normal circumstances, the narrator teaching his brother to walk should seem like a...
Words: 372 - Pages: 2
...The trait that Doodle, one of the protagonists in “The Scarlet Ibis”, possesses is empathy towards all things. Doodle exhibits this trait is when he and his family are eating breakfast in the middle of the story and they hear a loud thud coming from their back yard. The family ventures outside to find a large scarlet ibis, a bird roughly the size of a chicken and native to South America and the islands of the Caribbean, sitting in their tree. The weary and ill looking bird is perched on the highest branch of the tree, resting. When the ibis makes an attempt at flight, it tumbles to the ground, jerks its neck and dies. Doodle shows his empathy to the dead bird when he buries the ibis. “Doodle remained kneeling. ‘I’m going to bury him.’… he carried...
Words: 287 - Pages: 2
..."They want me to be perfect, but they don't know that I'm hurting." In the short story, "A Scarlet Ibis," the narrator, also known in the story as "Brother," is faced with the embarrassment of having a younger brother, Doodle, who is not physically able to walk, so the narrator sets out to teach his "disabled" brother to walk, even if Doodle does not agree with it. Brother caused Doodle's death because he was embarrassed,he did not care about Doodle's health concerns, and he left him in the thunderstorm. The narrator causes Doodle's death because he was embarrassed of his younger brother's disability. "Doodle walked only because I was ashamed of having a crippled brother."(419) Over the course of a couple months, after a lot of hard...
Words: 408 - Pages: 2
...The Scarlet Ibis is an abbreviated adventure by James Hurst aberrant the adverse adventure of Doodle, a debilitated kid and his sibling, the storyteller. Doodle's activity has been a progression of a breast calamities; the capital acumen he is animate is the admiration and tirelessness – and alternate remorselessness – of his sibling. Sibling's just afflatus is to access Doodle to like altered accouchement befitting in apperception the end ambition to advance a cardinal ambit from the abasement of accepting a six-year-old affinity who can't walk, abacus up to what is, generally, an action with his own accurate self-image. As the adventure gain with, Brother tries to achieve the hopeless aperture in his affection acquired by his abasement and...
Words: 674 - Pages: 3
...Within the book Scarlet Ibis, the author scattered the technique of symbolism throughout the novel because one’s love for an object can be so exponential, but an overcasting dislike is casted because of society's out line of being “regular”, and if anything does not conform to the community's rigid guideline, then it is rejected, or practically thrown out of all social animation. Either it was the author's strenuous need for Doodle to walk, or Doodles longing to rest, Doodles disability was not just showed through Doodle but his surroundings; for instance when Doodle first began to move on his own, the author said,“Daddy built him a go-cart and I had to pull him around. At first I paraded him up and down the piazza, but then he started crying to be taken into the yard, and ended up having to lug him everywhere.” The go-kart showed his disability and his weakness because his brother viewed it as a burden and something to be disliked, maybe foreshadowing his hate for his brother....
Words: 412 - Pages: 2
...A Fatal Consequence of Selfishness in the Scarlet Ibis How often does one act without regard for those around them? It is incredibly easy to become selfish in one’s actions. “The Scarlet Ibis” shows this in Brother’s actions in regard to his younger brother, Doodle. He only assists him when it benefits himself, and throughout his life Brother forces Doodle into activities and abandons him with no thought as to why this is inconsiderate. James Hurst’s “The Scarlet Ibis” uses foreshadowing and symbols to show how selfishness leads to severe consequences, even fatal ones, and the overall maltreatment of others. The family of Doodle commits many selfish actions which foreshadow the demise of Doodle. Early on in their lives, Brother takes Doodle...
Words: 591 - Pages: 3
...“The Scarlet Ibis” by James Hurst is about William Armstrong, also known as Doodle, who had a physical and mental condition. When he was born William’s brother was six years old, and when William died his brother was thirteen. The story is called “The Scarlet Ibis” because the family saw a bird dying in their backyard which was far away from its native land, and William died away from his home. Mr. Hurst was born in North Carolina at a farm by the sea. He studied singing and in Italy and he became a banker. During his thirty four years as a banker he also published a few short stories including “The Scarlet Ibis”. I personally did not like how the story went but I do like how Mr. Hurst wrote it. I also like how he referred the scarlet ibis...
Words: 1444 - Pages: 6
...Kwame Alexander is an award winning, young adults book author and poet. The Crossover is a fictional story. The author choose to write this story a little different than most. He chose to write it in poem form rather than a chapter book. Josh Bell, also known as “Filthy McNasty”, the protagonist, and his twin brother Jordan Bell, love the game of basketball. Their dad played professional basketball, but had to retire, so the boys grew up around basketball their entire lives. One of the struggles the twins have is to deal with their dad having medical problems. It is hard for them to see their dad sick, because they look up to him. In another part, Josh gets mad at Jordan during a game and passes the ball too hard at Jordan’s face, almost...
Words: 260 - Pages: 2
...Shayla Fletcher Mrs. Brewer English 9, Period 2 23 January 2012 Why We Hurt the Ones We Love Most Many people have realized we hurt the ones we love the most, and in the story “The Scarlet Ibis”, by James Hurst, it really make you realize why we do such a thing. There are two brothers in the story trying to make it together, and the older brother pushes it to the edge. The older brother, the narrator, is loving, full of pride, cruel, and hopeful all at the same time, towards his little brother Doodle. With all these emotions going on at the same time, the results turn out to be something you would never imagine. In the story Doodle, William Armstrong, was born as a very special young man. He was so special; nobody thought he was going to live when being born. He didn’t get a name till’ he was three months old and had a casket built for him as a sign. With all this being wrong with him, his older brother gave him the nickname Doodle because he felt it wasn’t a name he had to live up to, or be expected of big things, rather than William Armstrong. Though it seems mean everyone agreed, but that’s okay because he was still a loving older brother towards Doodle. He took Doodle everywhere with him as he grew up. He even took him to his favorite place, The Old Woman Swamp. They would go all the time and have lots of fun like normal brothers would. They made crowns, necklaces, and more together out of honeysuckle. So, with Doodle being a little different then normal little...
Words: 671 - Pages: 3
