The Scarlet Ibis Setting Analysis

The protection of pride can lead to dangerous actions. You don’t have t o look further than everyday arguments that hurt friendships. While this is example on the larger scale, there are some examples on a much smaller scale. In “The Scarlet Ibis” James Hurst uses the setting and the conflict to show that protecting pride can influence dangerous actions.
The setting creates an environment in which the plot is plausible, which in turn allows the conditions of the narrator’s vulnerable pride to exist. The cause of the narrator’s threatened pride is created by Doodle’s physical condition. For example, the narrator is “Embarrassed at having a brother… that [Can’t] walk.” Now we know that Doodle suffers a heart problem because “The doctor [Says] that his weak heart… [Will] probably kill him, but it [Doesn’t].”(1)

Furthermore, the narrator makes a brief mention of Woodrow Wilson, who was in office during the early nineteen-hundreds.

From these two statements, we can come to the consensus that Doodle suffers from a heart problem in the early nineteenth century. Since cardiology wasn’t very advanced in those times, there would be little to no treatment for Doodle’s condition. With nothing to medically help Doodle, the setting uses his disability to threaten the narrator’s pride. In addition, The main motivation for the narrator to fix Doodle finds it’s roots in the early nineteenth-century social prejudice against those who were different. For instance, the narrator tries to motivate Doodle to train by asking him if he “Want[s] to be different from everybody else when [He] starts school.”(4) When asked if it matters the brother says “It certainly does.”(4) This is

an attitude that has been molded by his time’s lack of acceptance of those who were different. Without the narrative taking place during those times, the story lacks a key role in the conflict. Finally, without these aspects of the setting, the narrator wouldn’t be ashamed of his brother’s disabilities, and the story would have turned out much differently.
The author uses the conflict to convey that when his pride is threatened, the narrator chooses dangerous actions. The brother makes Doodle swim “until he turn[s] blue and row until he [Can’t] lift an oar. Earlier in the story, the narrator mentions that the doctor said to not let Doodle overexert himself. This is a warning that the brother disregards when his pride is in jeopardy. The narrator pushes Doodle to work regardless of his brother’s safety. As a matter of fact, the narrator forces his brother to risk his own life to avoid feeling ashamed. The brother “Heard Doodle, who had fallen behind cry out ‘Brother, Brother, don’t leave me! Don’t leave me!’”(6), and “Ran as fast as [He] could.”(6) This particular action resulted in Doodle’s death. In addition, this was avoidable if the narrator hadn’t prioritized his pride over his brother’s safety. The narrator’s choice to leave Doodle isn’t directly affected by his pride, but his pride creates the task in which Doodle fails at, which then turns into the feeling of spite which influences the narrator to leave his brother in the rain. Through the brother abandoning and pushing Doodle to train, it is shown that the brother favors actions that protect his pride, instead of protecting his brother.
At any level, protecting one’s pride can lead to disastrous effects. Hurst uses the setting to create the brother’s pride, and the conflict to demonstrate what the costs of protecting it may be.