Do people think about what it means to be human? There is more to being human than having legs and the ability to breath. Every human understands loss, emotion, survival, relationships, choice,and morality. These six traits are known as shared humanity. Shared humanity can be displayed through literary works such as, “The Scarlet Ibis”, How I Live Now, Night, and the film Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.
In the story “The Scarlet Ibis”,James Hurst uses choice and emotion to explain what the relationship between Doodle and his brother is like. When Doodle was born no one thought he was going to survive, but he did. While he did survive he was suppose to have complications, people believed that he was not all there, but he was. Doodle
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kept surprising people and beating the odds. One thing Doodle couldn't do though is walk, he could crawl on his own but walking just wasn't possible.
Doodles brother had always wanted a normal brother and so for his own selfish reasons of wanting a normal brother he taught Doodle how to walk, “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 in my arms, our laughter pealing through the swamp like a ringing bell. Now we knew it could be done”(Hurst). “ They did not know that I did it for myself, that pride, whose slave I was, spoke to me louder than all of their voices, and Doodle walked only because I was ashamed of having a crippled brother”(Hurst). The only reason that the narrator helped his brother was for himself. He didn't do it for his brother's sake he did it because he was ashamed of his brother. A part of choice is striving for accomplishments and goals. The narrator's goal was to get Doodle to walk so he could have a normal brother, while the narrator did make the goal to benefit himself he also ended up helping his younger brother. After all those weeks of work and he made it seem like he was doing it for his brother while he was really doing it for himself. There is also the characteristic emotion in this story that can be shown when …show more content…
the narrator and Doodle show their parents that Doddle can walk. “There wasn't a sound as Doodle walked slowly across the room and sat down at his place at the table. Then mama began to cry and ran over to him, hugging and kissing him. Daddy hugged him to” (Hurst). They felt immense joy finding out that their son did the impossible and walked. They were overwhelmed with the emotion of joy at theirs sons accomplishment. Their son that wasn't supposed to live past infancy is now walking on his own. They were so proud that they could not contain their emotion and had to let it out. Knowing that their son would be okay because he can walk on is own. He didn't have to rely on other people all the time for everything. They were just so happy that he could do things for himself. While The Scarlet Ibis shows traits of shared humanity those traits can also be found in the movie Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. In the film Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone Harry meets a boy named Draco Malfoy who demonstrates the judgemental trait of emotion. Draco comes from a very rich and powerful family who believes that they are better than everyone. The Malfoy family has never gotten along with the Weasley family because the Weasley family is poor. So when Draco meets Harry and sees him with Ron Weasley, he immediately starts judging him for the hammy down robe he is wearing and second hand school supplies he’s using. Draco looks at Ron and sneers as he says, “I don't need to ask your name, red hair and hammy down robe you must be a Weasley”. Draco then turns to Harry and says, “You’ll soon learn Potter that some wizarding families are better than others, you don't want to go making friends with the wrong sort” (Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone). Draco is judging Ron on where he and his family stands socially. Draco doesn't feel like he has to get to know Ron to know what he's like he can just judge on appearance and what his parents have told him about their family. Draco thinks that his family is so much better just because they are rich and the Weasleys are not. It shows how he judges on people on how they look not who they are. He doesn't feel like he has to get to know them because he already thinks that he is better than they are. Another shared humanity trait can be found in the novel How I Live Now. In the story How I Live Now a shared humanity trait that can be found is loss which helps us understand what it is lie to loose someone you love. Loss is clearly evident when Mrs.McEvoy finds out that her husband has died in the war. “...While she crashed around the house wailing with grief and army wives kept arriving to console her like such a thing was possible” (Rossoff Chapter 21). Loss is such a strong emotion that while the feeling is fresh nothing else matters. No matter what people do or say to help you it doesn't matter. You don't know exactly how to handle the pain so you usually just walk around aimlessly with grief. No matter who you are,where you are, or how old you are loss affects us all. We may not experience it in the same ways but we all feel it and know the sting of loss. Two more characteristics of shared humanity are morality and relationship which are shown in the novel Night. In the book Night both characteristics of morality and relationship are shown even though times are hard.
Families were being lined up to get sent to concentration camps. Eliezer and his family were scheduled to be in the last group to leave. It was a hot day and the people lined up were not allowed to leave their lines. “Children were crying for water.” “Some of the Jewish police surreptitiously went to fill a few jugs. My sister and I were still allowed to move about,as we helped the best we could” (Weisel 16). Eliezer and his sister were helping people out just because they could. People were thirsty and they had the ability to help them so they did. Since Eliezer and his family were in the last group to leave they knew no one would be able to help them but they still helped other people anyway. When it comes to acts of kindness it doesn't matter if you get anything in return from the people you help. These people were being sent to concentration camps and Eliezer knew he probably wouldn't get anything from the in return for helping them and he still did it anyway. Then we see how deep a relationship is between a father and son. They have now arrived at Auschwitz and families are being separated. “My hand tightened its grip on my father. All I could think of was not to lose him” (Weisel 34). Eliezer had already been separated from his mother and sister so his father was all he really had left. While his relationship with his mother and sister was there the one with
his father was stronger as he was the only male role model h had growing up. Their relationship was so strong and important that when families ere being separated all he could think about was not losing his father. The six traits of shared humanity that were shown were relationships, loss, morality, survival, choice, and emotion. Emotion and choice can be used to see what life is like between two brothers. How loss affects all of us and how morality and relationships can be found in even the hardest of times. While everyone experiences these traits differently everyone still experiences them. Everyone has experienced the sting of pain or the feelings of emotion. So do people think about being human? These shared humanity traits define what it means to be human and what a human is.
In the book, family is an important reason for survival. When Eliezer was given a chance to escape, Eliezer chooses to stay with his family instead of leaving selfishly (18). Eliezer choosing family over personal safety makes it evident that family is a key to Eliezer’s instinct of survival. Eliezer’s understanding of “family is survival” strengthens even more when he is in the concentration camps. In the concentration camps, a distant uncle approaches Eliezer and he decides to stay close to this uncle (40). Even though Eliezer and his uncle are distant relatives, Eliezer staying close to him shows Eliezer understands family is a reason to continue to live. During the talks with his uncle in the concentration camps, Eliezer is confronted with the issue of telling his uncle about his family. Eliezer lies to his uncle about what has happened to his family (42). Eliezer lies to his uncle to protect his uncle from losing hope to be alive. By doing this Eliezer displays factors that he understands family is his will to survive. Although Eliezer’s will to survive is his family as the book progresses, the entire family is reduced to his father.
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.
This book focuses on many themes: conflict, silence, inhumanity to others, and father/son bonding. We see many, too many, conflicts this young man faces. Eliezer struggles with his faith throughout the story. He believes that God is everywhere, and he can't understand how God could let this happen, especially as Eliezer faces conflict everyday in the concentration camp. He also learns silence means. He says he says it is God's silence that he doesn't understand. He feels that God's silence demonstrates the absence of divine compassion. Another silence that drive confuses Eliezer is the silence of the victims. He cannot understand why they don't fight back, especially with the inhumanity that is forced upon them. It is because of this inhumanity that he loses faith, not only in God but also in men. He tells how at the beginning, the Germans were "distant but friendly." However, when they reach the camps, the soldiers are transformed from men to monsters.
Upon entering the concentration camps, Eliezer and his father demonstrate a normal father and son relationship. In a normal father son relation, the father protects and gives advice to the son, and the son is dependent and reliant on the father. Eliezer and his father demonstrate this relationship to extremes throughout the beginning of their time in the camp. Eliezer reveals his childlike dependency upon entering the camp. Eliezer displays this dependency during first selection by stating, “The baton pointed to the left. I first wanted to see where they would send my father. Were he to have gone to the right, I would have run after him (Night 26-32) ” . Eliezer’s determination to stay with his father was constantly present. Eliezer reflects on a time in the camp which is all that he could think about was not to lose his father in the camp. Eliezer also requires his father’s protection during their stay in the concentration camps. Unintentionally demanding this protection, Eliezer remembers, “I kept walking, my father holding my hand” (Night 29). Eliezer continues to show his need for his father’s presence. Eliezer’s actions and thoughts reflect his
Eliezer thinks of his own father and prays, “Oh God, Master of the Universe, give me the strength never to do what Rabbi Eliahu’s son has done” (Wiesel 91). He didn’t want to admit it but he could already feel his father falling behind. He feared that there may come a time when he would have to choose between his father and his own survival, and that was a choice he didn’t want to make. That choice came one night after being transferred by train to another camp. Once off the train they waited in the snow and freezing wind to be shown to their quarters.
His father’s love towards him does not change a bit. His father once bought a present for him: a half rations of bread, bartered for something he had found at the depot, a piece of rubber that could be used to repair a shoe. They both shared whatever was given to them. Eliezer too used to send a piece of bread he got to his father. His father gives his last possession he had with him to Eliezer, A knife and a spoon telling him not to sell it quickly and to use it when in need. Eliezer did not fear death as much as he feared separation from his father. “I was thinking not about death but about not wanting to be separated from my father.”(82 )
...was almost no relationship. The father is a busy, well respected member of the Jewish community who has almost no interaction with his family. Eliezer recalls that his father was “cultured, rather unsentimental man. There was never any display of emotion, even at home. He was more concerned with others than with his own family” (2, Wiesel). When the two arrived at the camp we notice a switch in their relationship. The horrible experiences they encounter together at Auschwitz bring them closer to each other. Eliezer’s father becomes more affectionate and shows emotions toward his son who starts feeling this love. This is clear when Eliezer states “my father was crying, it was the first time I saw him cry, I had never thought it was possible” (19, Wiesel). It is clear that their relationship transforms from obedience and respect to love and caring about each other.
The two characters come to the realization that they do share a brotherly bond, and that the narrator cares deeply for his brother even after all the time apart. The narrator says, “I don’t give a damn wh...
When Doodle was born, the narrator "...wanted more than anything else someone to race to Horsehead Landing, someone to box with, and someone to perch within the top fork of the great pine behind the barn..."(595). Upon discovering Doodle was not only crippled but also not "'all there'", the narrator selfishly decides to kill his little brother by suffocation. His plan was halted when he watched his brother grinned right at him. Though the narrator didn't kill Doodle, the narrator treated his little brother with cruelty to advance his own desires. Two instances are the reason Doodle walked and Doodle's training in his brother's program. Firstly, the reason that the narrator is determined to teach Doodle to walk was not solely out of kindness. "When Doodle was five years old, I was embarrassed at having a brother of that age who couldn't walk, so I set out to teach him"(597). The narrator is embarrassed that he has a brother that's physically unable to meet the narrator's expectations as what his brother should be. Yet, the narrator successfully taught Doodle how to walk, but in doing so, the narrator gained a false sense of infallibility that's equal only to his pride. The narrator thus created "...a terrific development program for him, unknown to mama and daddy, of course” (599). Several obstacles impeded the progress of the program, resulting in the brothers to double their efforts. The narrator made Doodle"...swim until he turned blue and row until he couldn't lift an oar. Wherever we went, I purposely walked fast, and although he kept up, his face turned red and his eyes became glazed. Once he could go no further, so he collapsed on the ground and began to cry"(601). Blinded by his desire to satisfy his pride, he became ignorant of the fact that as a sick child Doodle is unable to overexert himself, but the
In conclusion, Brother shows his self-interest in how he treats his younger brother. He treats his younger brother, Doodle, as something to ‘fix’ and he cannot accept his brother as he is. When Doodle finally learns to walk, Brother’s selfish need for a more ‘ideal’ little brother is not satisfied for long. Soon he demands a little brother who can run, jump, climb, swim, swing on vines, and row a boat. When he gives Doodle lessons for these activities, he does not do so for concern about Doodle wanting to be able to do them, but because he wants Doodle to be able to be a ‘normal’ brother.
At the beginning of the story, Eliezer and his father are very distant, and there is no close relationship between them. They are never intimate or dependent on each other, before the deportation. After living through death, despair and starvation every day in the concentration camps, Eliezer not only becomes sad, melancholy, also undergoes powerful changes in the relationship, he shares with his father. Their relationship used to be distant, but their bond becomes strong, and filled with trust over time. Works Cited Hazel, M. "Change is crucial in a person’s life.
Doodle's brother would only do this to have control on Doodle and Doodle's actions. This control, which Doodle's brother wanted, gave him enjoyment to boss around his brother, enjoyment to boss a crippled kid. And that Doodle walked only because his brother was ashamed of having a crippled brother. It was bad enough having an invalid b....
(Support) He states, “ When Doodle was five years old, I was embarrassed at having a brother of that age who couldn’t walk, so I set out to teach him.” (166)(Textual support- 2). This shows that brother didn’t want to teach Doodle how to walk to help him, but he wanted Doodle to walk so Doodle wouldn’t embarrass him. Brother is selfish and doesn’t care about Doodle, he cares more about himself and this is a character trait for Brother that runs throughout the entire story. (Commentary)
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.
The narrator only did for himself because he didn’t want his brother by his side because he thought his brother was an embarrassment. Evidence in the short story when Doodle could finally walk, Doodle’s brother decided to show his parents as a surprise, he then starts to notice something, “ “What are you crying for?” asked Daddy, but I couldn’t answer. 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 Doodle walked only because I was ashamed of having a crippled brother”(Hurst, 2003). The narrator realizes that he did not do it for his brother he did for himself neither for his parents. He shows morality. The selfishness of him, made him think how his brother’s suffrage was going through, but Doodle does not know that. This frustrates me because the way his brother, the narrator, treated Doodle. He