The Impact of Pride
In James Hurst’s short story, the “Scarlet Ibis”, Hurst captures the consanguinity between Brother and Doodle. The siblings in the story experience many situations and adventures with one another in defying the odds of physical disabilities. The story’s depiction of the siblings’ friendship may appear as heartfelt and loving through events that occur, such as Brother teaching Doodle how to walk and spending hours of his time and effort to teach him new things. However, the story exposes the underlying intentions of Brother and the way his selfish pride motivated him to push Doodle to accomplish new things only so that he would not have a “crippled” (559) brother. The author of “Scarlet Ibis” demonstrates that pride resembles
This quotation holds significant importance because Brother held onto his own terrible pride by refusing the fact that Doodle saw a rain frog because Brother didn’t want to delay his training and teaching Doodle before school started. Brother’s moral and conscious thoughts, ignored due to the terrible pride that clouded his judgement, dismissed the thought of any danger from a possible storm. After all, this situation exposed Brother’s true intentions with Doodle and that he did not care much for their safety, as a result of his pride that he held on to. The characteristics of Doodle and Brother appear evident during the death of the scarlet ibis. The scarlet ibis symbolizes Doodle because they both radiate vulnerability and gawkishness, and face similar situations. Doodle’s physical disadvantages and differences compared to other regular children, exemplifies the scarlet ibis who has uncoordinated wings and known as exotic/uncommon to its surroundings at the family’s household. The story describes this resemblance,”the bird began to flutter, but the wings were uncoordinated.”(562). Doodle acts in a similar way in “his awkwardness at digging a hole.”(562) when burying the bird during later
For example, Aunt Nicey demonstrated pride by proclaiming that Doodle would live, while everybody else thought that he would die. The narrator remarks that everyone thought that Doodle would die at an early age, “everybody except Aunt Nicey” (555). In other words, Aunt Nicey had hope and had remained doubtless of Doodle living. Aunt Nicey believes that Doodle has great potential and felt proud of Doodle accomplishing the thing everyone initially believed as impossible. As for this, it displays the positive and wonderful aspect of pride. In contrast to Aunt Nicey, however,Brother’s egoistic statements introduce his narcissistic, self absorbed, and immature nature. Clenched to his conceited thoughts, Brother remarks, “I began to believe in my own infallibility and I prepared a terrific development program for him”(559). In other words, the narrator believes that because he taught Doodle to walk, he convinced himself that nothing was beyond his reach. The significance of this statement captures the section in the story where his prideful roots begin to uncover and lead to destruction and hurt by making wrongful decisions. On the other hand, with the intention to please Brother, whom he looks up to, Doodle feels honored and a sense of pride when he sees Brother gratified with his physical improvements and exploits. For this
The scarlet ibis was very similar to Doodle. They both were different than others and didn’t fit in, but they were also one of a kind. Also, when they both died they looked similar to each other with the blood and broken neck. James Hurst wrote, "It's a scarlet ibis," he said, pointing to the picture. "It lives in the tropics-South America to Florida. A storm must have brought it here." Sadly, we all looked back at the bird. A scarlet ibis! How many miles it had traveled to die like this, in our yard, beneath the bleeding tree.” (5) Out of all the possibilities, the bird that was originally from a place far away ended up in their yard under the bleeding tree. At the end of the story Doodle dies under the bleeding tree. The bird did not fit in with the area it was in and it was special. Doodle was different than everyone else because he was different but he was also one of a kind. The scarlet ibis was a major turning point in the story because after they discovered the bird the author began to foreshadow future
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 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
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.
Some people are selfish in such a way that affects only their own selves, but others’ selfishness can hurt those they care about. One of these such people is Brother in “The Scarlet Ibis”. In James Hurst’s “The Scarlet Ibis”, Brother is selfish and only teaches Doodle to walk to benefit himself.
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
of a little boy and an invalid. Despised by, and an embarassment to his older brother,
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....
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
Brother’s goals started to get out of hand once he taught Doodle how to walk he wanted Doodle to learn how to do everything. In the story he says, “ I would teach him to run, to swim, to climb trees, and to fight… I set the deadline for these accomplishments less than a year away.”(Check if this is need or not) (167)(Textual support- 3) Brother didn’t think about Doodle when setting this goal, he didn’t about the strain and impact this would have on Doodle’s body and on Doodle’s mind. (change the wording of this
Pride is a very relevant issue in almost everyone's lives. Only when a person is forced to face his pride can he begin to overcome it. Through the similar themes of her short stories, Flannery O'Connor attempts to make her characters realize their pride and overcome it.
Have you ever thought about murdering one of your siblings, or close family members? Brother took it all the way in “The Scarlet Ibis” by James Hurst. Doodle, Brother’s younger sibling, was expected to die since birth; he was a premature child. The family didn’t name him for three months because they were afraid that he was going to die any second. Doodle learned how to talk way before he could walk, forcing the narrator to pull him around in a gocart everywhere he went. Brother became embarrassed of Doodle and taught him to walk. Doodle dies at age six, and Brother is responsible for his death. The narrator is responsible, because he knew about Doodle’s undeveloped organs, and over-worked him. Brother’s only motivation to teach Doodle to run, swim, climb and walk was the fact that he was embarrassed to have a crippled sibling. Finally, he was aware that Doodle was afraid of being alone and left him to die.
Humans are never perfect, and their emotions often conflict with their logic. In “The Scarlet Ibis”, the narrator receives a physically disabled brother, Doodle, thus trains Doodle physically so that he could live a normal life. Throughout the story, the narrator’s actions and thoughts reveals his true personalities to the audience as he slowly narrates the story of himself and his scarlet ibis, Doodle, whose existence he dreaded. In the story written by James Hurst, pride, love, and cruelty, these conflicting character traits all exists in Doodle’s brother. And the most severe of all, pride.
“The knowledge that Doodle’s” and the narrator’s “plans had come to naught was bitter” and causes a sudden “streak of cruelty [to awaken]” within the narrator. The narrator runs away from his brother leaving a “wall of rain dividing” them. [17]
The Scarlet Ibis bird symbolizes Doodle; this symbolism can be seen by the authors description of both Doodle’s and the Scarlet Ibis’s appearance after death. After the Scarlet Ibis fell from the bleeding tree his “long, graceful neck jerked twice into an S, then straightened out,” (Hurst 4) and he died. After Doodle’s death his brother finds “him huddled beneath a nightshade bush beside the road,” (Hurst 4) where he lay dead. The way Doodle fell made “his vermilion neck appear unusually long and slim,” (Hurst 4). Much like the long legs of the Scarlet Ibis, “his little legs bent sharply at the knees,” making them seem “so fragile, so thin,” (Hurst 4). This description of Doodle allows the reader to imagine him like the Scarlet Ibis, with his seemingly long neck and thin, fragile legs. Both Doodle and the Scarlet Ibis have this appearance after they fall to their death. Hurst utilizes very similar descriptive words when describing both the Scarlet Ibis and Doodle’s appearance after death, so that readers can better see the symbolism of the two.