In the very beginning of the short story “ The Scarlet Ibis”, the author James Hurst gives a huge hint of what is going to happen at the end. The events that lead up to what happens at the end of the story have a dramatic effect on Doodle and his brother. As the story go on and as certain events take place, James Hurst begins to use diction and figurative language to describe how Doodle draws the shrewdness, selfishness and pride out of his brother. In the the end of the story after Doodle’s brother’s flaws have been exposed he is left one one thing, regret. When Doodle was born it affected his brother a lot, by Doodle just being himself he drew out one of his brother’s flaws, shrewdness. Doodle’s brother had always wanted a brother to play ball with and to do dumb things with, but when Doodle was born he had an illness. This illness prevented him from doing things that a normal kid could do, like walking. When a couple years have past and Doodle has not died, like everyone expected him to, his brother tells him that he is “going to teach you how to walk” (Hurst 32) Doodle replies with “I just …show more content…
In the beginning of the story Doodle’s brother did not like him very much, but as they grew older and Doodle grew stronger and more like the other kids, they got closer. The accomplishments they made together like when “Finally one day… he stood alone for a few seconds” (James Hurst 32), caused so much joy and happiness for both of the brothers. Doodle’s brother finally felt like there was hope, there was hope that Doodle could be normal. After this big accomplishment took place Doodle’s brother “grabbed him...and hugged him” (James Hurst 32). When this happened it showed that Doodle was accepted by his brother and that he was his brother’s pride and joy. In this case Doodle’s brother shows good pride and this good pride has an effect on Doodle, he is now more motivated to learn to walk
In order to represent that the narrator's pride caused him to act with ill manners towards Doddle, Hurst creates the internal conflict which portrays the narrator’s struggle to choose what is more important, his pride or his brother. As the narrator confessed his past to the reader, he described a memory about how Doodle walked and he announced to the family that the narrator was the one who taught him. The narrator thus responds with: “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 419). It is important to note how the author compares the narrator to a “slave” of pride, the word slave connotes that the narrator is imprisoned by pride and creates the appearance that the force is inescapable. Throughout the story pride dictates the narrator, if
Through the use of the character vs. self conflict of the narrator being ashamed of his little brother’s disabilities and the symbolism of Doodle’s death through the scarlet ibis, James Hurst conveys the theme that pride should not grow so great to the point that if hurts others in his short story “The Scarlet Ibis”. For instance, the story revolves around two brothers, the narrator and Doodle; Doodle is a boy who was born with a heart condition that causes him to be paraplegic. However, the narrator is embarrassed by his unfortunate brother, so he took Doodle’s health into his control; the narrator attempts to make Doodle be able to be physically active, for he teaches him how to walk and is successful. This success caused the narrator to push Doodle even harder than he was before as it is revealed, “Once I [the narrator] had succeeded in teaching Doodle to walk, I began to believe in my own infallibility, and I prepared a terrific development
...f his pride, yet he seems to do what it tells him to do anyway, just like how Doodle doesn't want to learn how to run or swim, but he does what Brother says anyway. Therefore, it seems that while Brother is a slave to pride, Doodle is a slave to Brother. Pride can be both good and bad, and is "a seed that bears two vines, life and death." (Hurst 112)
People could say that his brother taught him how to walk and move his body, therefore, he clearly loved Doodle and was innocent. And they are right. Doodle did get taught to move and be a more active human being by his brother. But his brother’s motives for doing it were different than a lot of people were thinking. His brother did not teach Doodle to move from the kindness of his heart. He taught him because he was embarrassed by him. He did not want to have a brother that couldn’t do something as simple as walking. He also considered him a burden. He was sick of pulling Doodle around in a wagon. The brother did feel pride for Doodle, but that does not change his motives for doing it the whole
Michael Jordan once said, “My attitude is that if you push me towards something that you think is a weakness, then I will turn the perceived weakness into a strength.” In the “Scarlet Ibis,” author James Hurst uses indirect characterization and an interesting theme of turning a weakness into a strength to create a successful and well written piece of literature. Doodle is the main character of Scarlet Ibis and was born with a disability and was predicted to live for a short amount of time. Doodle overcame his weakness with perseverance and with the help of his big brother. James Hurst did very well creating an entertaining story with indirect characterization and with an amusing theme.
Doodle has a problems with his body that most people don’t have. Doodle has a heart problem, because of that the doctors told them to be careful with him. The doctor told Doodle’s parents that he would never be able to walk. Doodle’s parents were always careful with him, but his brother the narrator wasn’t that
The narrator didn’t always seem to like his brother Doodle, he even wanted to get rid of him in the story it quotes, “so I began to make plans to kill him by smothering him with a pillow” (Hurst, Pg 163), but this
Where you would think this would make Doodle feel bad it actually affected Brother more. Other children were teasing Brother because of Doodle’s disabilities. This caused Brother to feel anger and frustration. Brother can then be characterized as egocentric for reasons being that he teaches his brother how to walk, run, swim, climb and do almost anything any young average boy can do. This may seem like a considerate thing to do, but later in the story Brother says “I did it for myself...I was ashamed of having a crippled brother”(Hurst 468). This shows that Brother is egocentric and had no intentions of actually helping Doodle but instead helping
In the story “The Scarlet Ibis” by James Hurst, the narrator's relationship with Doodle, his brother, is more cruel than caring. For example, the narrator as a young child makes plans to kill Doodle by smothering him with a pillow because he is delicate and he is possibly not all there. Even though the narrator is young , it is sinful to want to kill one's one own disabled little brother. The narrator does not want to accept his brother for who he is and believes that Doodle is a disappointment. Furthermore, he leaves his fragile brother in the storm by himself even after Doodle begs him not to leave. The narrator has a hateful streak and does not take pay heed to the words of his frail brother, because of his egoism and pride. The narrator
In the short story ‘The Scarlet Ibis” Doodle's older brother, the narrator, pushes Doodle too hard. The setting of the story is in the country, near a swamp and the ocean. The scarlet Ibis, casket, and bleeding tree are significant symbols which reveal the theme: don’t push too hard, all people have breaking points.
In “The Scarlet Ibis,” written by James Hurst, Doodle, a boy born with health problems, experiences cruel actions from his older brother who wishes Doodle would have been born as normal as possible with no health conditions. As Doodle grows his older brother tries to teach him to be as normal as Doodle portrays to be capable to be, such as teaching him to walk, although this affects Doodle’s health severely, which eventually leads to his early death. The narrator in “The Scarlet Ibis” causes Doodle’s death by leaving Doodle in the rain, teaching him things that affects his health, and creating a sense of curiosity.
...verything” (Hurst 1). The brother only cared about himself and having fun, and did not think about the affect his actions had on Doodle. The brother decides to “teach him [Doodle] to run, to swim, to climb trees, and to fight” (Hurst 3). Readers can begin to infer that the brother’s careless actions will later lead to serious injury or the death of Doodle.
In the story “The Scarlet Ibis”, James Hurst indirectly characterizes Doodle, predominantly through his actions, as ‘coerced’ to illustrate that when one is pushed past their limit, they start to come close to the breaking point[a].To elaborate on that, there are various times in the story when the narrator is seen pushing his brother, Doodle far beyond his limit. For example during Doodle’s development program, the narrator [b]:
Brother had tried to kill Doodle because Doodle was not able to walk and he felt ashamed and discomforted because of this. At one point Brother says “It was bad enough having an invalid brother, but having one who possibly was not all there was unbearable, so I began to make
...The use of psychological strategies in the Walker's work shows that the characters are joined and create one unit, a family.