Doodle’s Brother: Kind or Cruel
Have you ever had a sibling that you were jealous of or disliked? In “The Scarlet Ibis” The narrator reminisces about his feeble and sickly brother, their time together, and how he felt about. In the short story “The Scarlet Ibis”, author James Hurst uses Doodle’s brother to show that Doodle’s brother can be kind and cruel to Doodle.
Doodle’s brother is presented as a cruel person in “The Scarlet Ibis”. For example, when Doodle is born weak and on the verge of death, Doodle’s brother who wants a normal younger brother to play with “began to make plans to kill him by smothering him with a pillow” (Hurst 555). This quote shows that Doodle’s brother is willing to kill his newborn brother because he isn’t strong
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He also exhibits kindness and love toward Doodle during parts of the story. For instance when Doodle’s brother tires of carrying Doodle in a go-cart, he decides to teach Doodle how to walk. Although Doodle fails numerous times, his brother keeps trying and and encourages him after a particularly disheartening fail when he says “Yes you can Doodle. All you gotta do is try. Now come on,” (Hurst 558). In this quote Doodle struggles to walk by himself. However, his determined brother stays with him the entire time and encourages Doodle to make sure he never gives up and can learn how to walk by himself. The evidence shows that Doodle’s brother does care for Doodle and that he is not always mean and cruel. The quote exemplifies Doodle’s brother’s ambivalent attitude toward his brother. The author is trying to show that Doodle’s brother grows fonder of Doodle with each passing day. Doodle’s brother’s growing love for Doodle becomes more evident as the story progresses. After Doodle learns to walk well, he and his brother, “roamed off together, resting often, we never turned back until our destination had been reached” (Hurst 559). This quote shows that Doodle’s brother grows fonder of Doodle and the two become inseparable. They go everywhere together and Doodle’s brother takes care of Doodle when they go on their journey. Hence, Doodle’s brother becomes a kind, loving brother who takes care of Doodle and tries to make Doodle have a happy life.
Throughout “The Scarlet Ibis” by James Hurst, Doodle is met with kindness and cruelty when interacting with his brother. The shifting attitude of Doodle’s brother is a wonderful example of the shifting emotions of the people around the world. Just like Doodle’s brother, people are happy, sad, jealous, prideful, angry, cruel, and kind. Although times and circumstances may change, people can’t live without their
In the story “The scarlet Ibis” A kid and his little brother,Doodle could walk,but not run but for his brother who was perfectly fine, had pushed him to walk,run,swim,and to do things like an ordinary child. Because his little brother who couldn’t do any of those things, he tried to help his brother because he didn’t like having a brother who couldn’t walk,so he forced his brother to try and to do things that he has never,done or never did.Doodle was not excited that he couldn’t walk because he wasn’t trying hard enough and died all because of his brother.
For someone to feel guilt for something they did is truly a horrible feeling. It is something that will carry on with that person for the rest of his life. In James Hurst's "Scarlet Ibis" Brother, the main character, feels that terrible guilt towards the way he treated his younger brother Doodle. Brother since the beginning let his pride take over and make Doodle do things that were almost impossible to learn in his condition. The story tells about two brothers growing up together and how the older brother let his pride push his handicapped brother a little to far. Brother is guilty for letting his pride get in the way of what was right and wrong. Also for letting his pride hurt someone he loves, his baby brother Doodle.
Some people in society are judgmental toward people who belong to a minority. This unwanted prejudice and unfair treatment is, for many affected people, impossible to fully escape. In The Scarlet Ibis by James Hurst and A Separate Peace by John Knowles, Gene and Doodle are able to detach themselves from society’s cruel interpretation of unique individuals. Doodle, crippled from birth, retreats to Old Woman Swamp. The secluded swamp is the only place he and his brother can forget the rest of society and view each other as equals, but ends up leading to Doodle’s death. Gene withdraws himself from the death and destruction that accompanies the ongoing war by living in the peaceful Devon School. Gene later experiences disastrous events because he hides from the prejudices. Doodle and Gene escape the constant war of society and inequality in Old Woman Swamp and the Devon School, respectively, but these havens ultimately lead to their downfall.
In conclusion, the narrator went through the pride cycle before realizing that he loved Doodle for who he was and not for what he couldn’t do. In the end, the narrator was too late and he had gone past Doodle’s barriers and limits. This caused Doodle’s body to be worked too hard thus causing Doodle to
(pg. 6. Showing the consistent motif throughout the story was the reason behind Brother’s actions – his pride and his need for his younger brother to fit society’s expectations. In The Scarlet Ibis, Brothers thoughts often revolve around one major objective: to make Doodle normal. As Brother narrates the story he recalls himself repeatedly pushing Doodle away from his comfort zone because Brother had wanted to make sure that Doodle would be seen as normal. When Brother convinced Doodle that learning how to walk was important, Doodle and he would frequently go to practice.
of a little boy and an invalid. Despised by, and an embarassment to his older brother,
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
The struggle of sibling rivalry over ability and temperament has taken East of Eden in a whole new perspective. Steinbeck’s portrait on sibling rivalry shows the good vs. evil of each character in the story. The nature of good vs. evil as natural selection is also seen in siblings, as a compete for something physical, mental, or something emotional. The sibling rivalry from the biblical characters embraced Steinbeck’s characters throughout every concept in the novel, the good vs. evil confines the characters personality in every idea of Steinbeck’s novel. From the biblical story of Cain and Abel to Adam and Charles to Cal and Aaron the story continues through out every generation.
“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 50). This supports the claim that this is Brother’s fault, because if he were never ashamed of Doodle in the first place, he wouldn’t be given all of the extra stress running has brought his body. The narrator was very strict, and hard on Doodle because he wanted a brother that was “all there.” Brother would have been much nicer, and understanding if his decision to teach Doodle to do things like the other children was based on
The narrator was a good, caring brother who never intended to kill doodle through his action. In the story, it says ‘“Aw, come on Doodle.” I urged “You can do it. Do you want to be different from everybody else when you start school?” “Does it make any difference?” “It certainly does,” I said. “Now, come on,” and I began to help him up’ this quote shows how the narrator really wanted to push his brother to new heights and achieve more than just the normal kid at his age. It also shows how much the narrator loved him to push him to his limits which brings me to my next
Brother doesn’t think twice about Doodle and how he’s doing. Even when brother see’s Doodle’s health deteriorating he still keeps Doodle’s limits. (Commentary)
Most children experience agony and hope as they face the struggles of sibling rivalry throughout their childhood. This situation has been experienced by children, of whom may or may not have siblings, for hundreds of years. Several stories represent this crisis, including the Biblical story of Abel and Cain which was written over 3000 years ago. Abel of whom was forced to be Cain’s ash-brother. Cain had developed an intense feeling of jealousy of Abel when his offering to the Lord was rejected while Abel’s was accepted. This caused him great agony, but he wasn’t the only one. The fairytale “Cinderella” encompasses the ideas of sibling rivalry as well as the agonies and hopes that correspond with it.
In conclusion, co-dependency and rivalry is very common in the world today. Though it is not a big issue out in the open, it is an emotional attachment that only one can define. In this short story the two main aspects of having siblings is the theme which revolves around codependency and rivalry. Having siblings is a part of everyday life and problems do occur which sometimes makes a person, or changes a person in ways. In this situation, Pete and Donald are completely different people but they are in fact very dependent upon one another.
The characters in this novel entertain conflicting notions of morality and pride. Sometimes, these characteristics are at odds with one another, creating the immoral and "evil" characters. Other times, they cooperate to create realism in these people. The moral characters are good, but still have enough pride to be dignified, yet not arrogant. Sometimes, when the evil twins (or other halves) run amuck, things get out of hand and troubles abound. Though most of the time these troubles spring from the discrepancy between pride and morality, at other points, dignity and morality work hand in hand to create reliable and realistic characters.
James Hurst is the author of the heart breaking short story entitled “The Scarlet Ibis”. “The Scarlet Ibis” is a short story about two brothers; one brother is healthy, while the other is physically handicapped. The short story is centered on the idea that the older, healthier brother’s selfishness and pride ultimately led to the death of his younger brother, Doodle. Numerous quotes throughout the story demonstrate Hurst’s use of symbolism and foreshadowing to portray and predict Doodle’s untimely and heartbreaking death.