Brother's Guilt: A Critical Analysis of 'The Scarlet Ibis'

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In James Hurst’s short story, “the Scarlet Ibis”, the narrator is guilty of his brother, Doodle’s death. There are many pieces of evidence stacked against him. He never treated his brother right and obviously had something against him from the very start. Doodle had a lot of health problems. His weak heart made it difficult for him to do simple things like walking and standing up. His brother was absolutely mortified at the idea of the embarrassment he would endure if he was known as the kid with a brother who couldn’t walk.

`The first piece of evidence that can be held against the narrator is the fact that he made Doodle touch his own coffin. This has nothing to do with Doodle’s death but does show how the narrator looked at Doodle and shows how he thought he could treat him. When Doodle was a child, the whole family thought he was going to die because of his weak heart. Just crawling was putting too much stress on his heart. The family was so sure he was going to die that they even made him a coffin. But Doodle didn’t die at that point in time. The family hid the coffin away. The brother decided that he was going to threaten Doodle into touching it. SInce Doodle couldn’t walk, the brother took him up there and threatened to leave …show more content…

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

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