Symbolism In The Scarlet Ibis

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The Scarlet Ibis is the symbol that best represents Doodle from the story “The Scarlet Ibis”. I will use quotes from the story to explain this. Firstly, “Its long neck jerked twice into an S, then straightened out, and the bird was still. A white veil came over the eyes and the long white beak unhinged. Its legs were crossed and it claw like feet were delicately curved at rest. Even death did not mar its grace, for it lay on the earth like a broken vase of red flowers, and we stood around it, awed by its exotic beauty” (Hurst 137). Secondly, “He lay very awkwardly with his head thrown far back, making his vermilion neck appear unusually long and slim. His little legs, bent sharply at the knees, had never before seemed so fragile and thin” (Hurst …show more content…

The first quote is of when the Scarlet Ibis died and The second quote is of when Doodle died. Both of these examples are similar, they are about Doodle and the Scarlet Ibis. When the Scarlet Ibis dies the author describes it to be graceful, while when Doodle dies the author describes it to be awkward and making him seem fragile. A similarity between both the Scarlet Ibis and Doodle is that, in death it looks like Doodle has an unusually long and slim neck, and the Scarlet Ibis is a bird and naturally has a long thin neck in death. Next, The narrator straight out compares Doodle to the Scarlet Ibis at the end of the story by thinking this next piece of example, “For a long time, it seemed forever, I lay there crying, sheltering my fallen scarlet ibis” (Hurst 139). The next quote explains how the Scarlet Ibis was not supposed to be where he was. “It lives in the tropics--South America to Florida. A storm must have brought it here” (Hurst 137). Doodle was also not supposed to

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