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.
Mom’s words and doctor’s advice did not become a way to obstruct the narrator and his pride. Paying no attention to Mom and the doctor’s warning, the narrator took his crippled brother out and trained him anyways regardless of Doodle’s physical restraints, because he is embarrassed. “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 (Hurst 204).” Even worse, the narrator knew it was his pride that made him to force Doodle into cruel training, “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 206).” In addition, due to his embarrassment, the
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narrator desired a change, but not a change in himself for his shameful acts. Instead, he is even more determined to train Doodle to live like a normal boy. He sets impossible goals for Doodle to learn how to swim, to jump, and to run in a extremely short amount of time, and even after tons of failure, he “should have already admitted defeat, but my [his] pride won’t let me [him],” for that pride had made him so full of himself(Hurst 209). Although the narrator hated Doodle for being such a burden, the narrator does love and care for his little brother. The narrator was very strict to Doodle, who was only five. He would often force his little brother to do things that no five year olds would ever do. But he is always by Doodle’s side. When he threatened Doodle and acted like he’s going to leave, he stayed and ended up carrying “him down the ladders (Hurst 204).” And during the storm, he “stopped and waited for Doodle…[and] went back” to find him (Hurst 213).” From these actions, it’s impossible to state that the narrator doesn’t love his brother even when he’s mean to Doodle, because if he doesn’t love his brother, he would never care to wait or even bother to take him out. But the cruelty inside of him may be something more than just “a knot of cruelty borne by the stream of love,” for his other actions had made both him and Doodle suffer (Hurst 203). The narrator’s pride is selfish, his love is heartwarming, but his cruelty is overwhelming. Imagine the narrator when he was a young boy, thinking of ways to kill his weak brother “by smothering him with a pillow (Hurst 201).” It’s almost hard to believe that such a young boy would have callous thoughts like that. But it’s even worse that the narrator had brought his cruelty in action when he told Doodle that he’s supposed to die and threatened Doodle to touch the mahogany coffin that was built for him. The born-within cruelness can be easily distinguished from this event, because the narrator knew that Doodle, as a five-year-old, relies and depends a great deal on himself and whose emotions and actions can also be easily effected by himself. Yet the narrator was able to tell Doodle such harsh and painful truth. In the end, his wish for his brother’s death in the beginning of the story really came true. The narrator, with his cruel side aroused, ran as fast as he could, leaving Doodle “far behind with a wall of rain dividing us [them]... soon could hear his voice no more” and found Doodle dead in the storm (Hurst 213). In the story, the narrator himself remarked that he is cruel because he loved his brother, but from his actions, it’s more like the cruelty is born within him, and it gets more powerful as the narrator grow. As a boy, the narrator’s conflicting personalities: pride, love, and cruelty, all can be observed through James Hurst’s description of his action, thoughts, and words.
Neither did the burden from his brother nor the harsh defeats in training Doodle took away the narrator’s born-within pride. Throughout the entire story, the narrator’s actions toward his brother were either cruel or loving, such contradicting emotions did make him suffer in the end. Whereas the narrator regrets his actions of leaving Doodle behind, which resulted in Doodle’s death and he now have to bear the pain and shame for losing his brother his entire
life.
Doodle was like a shooting star in the night sky. He was rare and special. Doodle was a unique person that was different and didn’t fit in. Doodle was born sick and no one thought he would live, but he did end up living and his brother spent much of his time helping Doodle become stronger and learn to walk. Over time in the story Doodle got stronger, but in the end he eventually died. In “The Scarlet Ibis” James Hurst uses creative symbols such as the color red, the scarlet ibis bird, and the seasons to represent the life of Doodle.
Doodle and Simon have many similarities. They both have heart conditions and have to adjust to their lives but that is really the only similarity. In the movie Simon Birch by Mark Steve Johnson, the character Simon never has a completely normal life because of his disability. In the book “The Scarlet Ibis” by James Hurst, Doodle never came close to normal because of his heart condition. Doodle and Simon have similarities but are different in many ways.
in life and earn respect for ourselves. However, pride also has a negative aspect. Pride can cause misunderstandings and conflicts to erupt between two people and can lead to becoming hurt. For example, in "Rules of the Game" by Amy Tan, Waverly and her mother are constantly fighting and disagreeing with each other because her mother always openly exhibits her pride. And in "The Scarlet Ibis" by James Hurst, Brother's pride compels him to constantly push his sick little brother, Doodle, to become a normal child. Waverly and Brother handle their pride differently since Waverly runs away from her problems, whereas Brother faces his problems head-on and tries hard to fix them.
Who is the dynamic character in “The Scarlet Ibis?” To answer this question, one must first know what a dynamic character is or means. A dynamic character is one who changes by the end of the story. In “The Scarlet Ibis” the narrator is the one who is the dynamic character. How? First of all, the reason why the narrator is dynamic is he feels atrocious of how he has treated Doodle, his brother. The second reason is the narrator comprehends he should have appreciated his brother more. The last reason is the narrator feels fallacious of what he has done to Doodle; which has possibly led to Doodle’s death.
In “The Scarlet Ibis” the positivity of pride prevails in the characters. I think that judgement is influenced by pride, and it can change the whole outcome of a situation. Pride that has wonderful consequences, counts more than pride that ends
The narrator reflects,”I did not know then that pride is a wonderful, terrible thing, a seed that bears two things life and death,”(Hurst 3).This quote showed that at first the narrator thought pride was good but later he became self centered and ashamed of his disabled brother and pushed him far beyond his limit.The short story called The Scarlet Ibis by James Hurst is a drama where the narrator, or older brother, wishes his younger brother wasn’t disabled. Because he is so fueled by pride, the older brother ends up pushing his brother beyond his capabilities to his death. In this story, we will learn how the narrator’s pride led to the tragic death of Doodle.
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.
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
of a little boy and an invalid. Despised by, and an embarassment to his older brother,
One of the amazing things about the story is the level of description and imagery that Douglass uses to describe the suffering around him. The excerpt spans a mere three days, but most of the text focuses on his abuse and battle with Mr. Covey. Douglass skips over the common parts of his life to further his case against slavery. By doing this, the Northerners rea...
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....
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
“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
Slavery consisted of numerous inhumane horrors completed to make its victims feel desolated and helpless. Many inescapable of these horrors of slavery are conveyed in the “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass”. The entire prospect of the duration of the story is to plan an escape from the excruciating conditions awaiting Douglass as a slave. When his escape is finally executed, unpredictable emotions and thoughts overwhelm him. Within the conclusion of his narrative (shown in the given passage), Frederick Douglass uses figurative language, diction, and syntax to portray such states of mind he felt after escaping slavery: relief, loneliness, and paranoia.
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.