Doodle In The Scarlet Ibis

539 Words2 Pages

Brother’s, alongside his family’s, perception towards Doodle is shaped by society’s unrealistic expectations. “Everybody thought he was going to die…” (pg. 1) From the beginning of The Scarlet Ibis, Doodle’s entire family has repeatedly expressed the unlikelihood of Doodle surviving. Society had great influence on the doubts that were present in the thoughts of his family especially after witnessing Doodle’s ‘tiny body which was red and shriveled’. Taking the small details into consideration such as the mentioning of President Wilson and World War I battle sites, it can be concluded that The Scarlet Ibis was set in the early 20th century. The context of the situation, the early 20th century –with its lack of proper medical care and short As a result of the collective knowledge shared by people then and his physical conditions, Doodle’s father had expected for him to decease in a short period of time and made the decision to arrange a coffin for him. “They did not know that I did it for myself…” (pg. 6) showed 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, Brother`s thoughts often revolved 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 had convinced Doodle that learning how to walk was important, Doodle and he would frequently go to practice. Although Brother had told Doodle multiple times that walking was an important task that he must learn how to do for himself, the underlying reason why he pressured Doodle to integrate into the norm was that he wouldn’t have to deal with the embarrassment of having a crippled brother. When Brother had finally been successful in teaching his sibling to walk, all he could think about was that his sole purpose that drove him to teach Doodle to walk; his

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