Scarlet Ibis Character Analysis Essay

In “Scarlet Ibis”, We are introduced to the character Brother. With a name such as brother you can conclude that this character is most likely a relative of some sort to another character in the story. Where this is technically true, the character “Brother” doesn’t take the true role of being a brother until the very end of the story. This being said, Brother can be characterized as being psychotic and egocentric throughout the story. Although after some major events, Brother lives up to his name and can then be characterized as being heartfelt and broken.

To start, the only thing that Brother wanted was a younger sibling to “ race to Horsehead Landing...to box with and...to perch with...behind the barn”(Hurst 464). Although his wish of a younger sibling did come true, it wasn’t at all what he had hoped for. Instead he received a younger brother that wasn’t much of anything and on the day of his birth was expected to die. He was so much of nothing, that they didn’t even name him until he was 3 months of age. This angered Brother and he grew vexed and psychotic. “I began to make plans to kill him...smothering him with a pillow” said Brother(Hurst 464). Brother

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