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Bad Motivations In The Scarlet Ibis By James Hurst

552 Words3 Pages

Good Acts Bad Motivations In the short story, The Scarlet Ibis the author James Hurst depicts a story between two brothers one of which is a little developmentally behind. In the end, one of the brothers was killed by the other from being too overworked. Given this information, the theme is that even with good acts, the motivation behind them might not be for good reasons. This is shown through plot and character. The very first way the story shows the theme is through character. For example, Doodle's brother renamed him because of his disabilities. “Renaming my brother was perhaps the kindest thing I ever did for him because nobody expects much from someone called Doodle.” (Hurst 464) This shows how good acts have no good motivation behind …show more content…

I hadn’t run too far before I became tired, and the flood of childish spite evanesced as well. (Hurst 475) This proves even with good acts, the motivations behind them might not be for good reasons is because Doodles brother left him to teach him discipline because his plans did not work, the act of teaching him discipline is good leaving your dying brother out in a field in a rainstorm while trying to teach him discipline is not the right way. This again fits the theme of even with good acts, the motivation behind them might not be for good reasons. The third way the story shows the theme is through the plot. In the story, his brother took Doodle to the swamp every day to teach him to walk but did so for selfish reasons. His reasons were that he did not want his brother to be a reflection of himself and have him be embarrassed. After successfully teaching Doodle to walk, Brother surprised everyone by crying. “What are you crying for?” asked Daddy, but I couldn’t answer. 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 468) This again shows how Doodle's brother did a nice act by helping Doodle learn to walk. The reason behind it is that he is ashamed of his brother which is a bad motivation. This is exactly

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First example is ”doodle walked only because i was ashamed of having a crippled brother.” (pg 6 paragraph 3). It is crazy that he would do so much just so that he wouldn't have to deal with a crippled brother that he is ashamed of for something that isn't his fault. One of their conversations were “Do you want to be different from everybody else when you start school? Said brother Does it make any difference?

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The story of Yankee Doodle is a well known story and has a catchy song to it too. You probably remember it as a kid but in the story “The Scarlet Ibis” one of the characters is named Doodle but the story isn't what you think it is. Doodle had a brother that wanted to teach him how to do thing to become more like a normal person because Doodle had this illness from birth. Brother was a good brother to Doodle for trying to help him become a normal person. Brother spent countless hours to try to help Doodle walk and become a normal person.

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The narrator is is very determined to help Doodle walk. He can’t drag doodle around everywhere. This gives brother the idea to teach doodle to walk. At first doodle doesn't think he can do it.

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this shows how he doesn't want doodle to be his brother at all and is ashamed of him. This proves the theme because the text shown shows that the brother has a bad side of pride. this pride will bring more bad Than good to the brother as the story progresses. Which bring the bad. After a certain amount of time the brother stats to have homicidal thoughts.

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This quote from The Scarlet Ibis proves my topic sentence because since doodle will be able to walk, brother will no longer need to wheel him around everywhere making brother’s selfish actions beneficial to him. These two quotes support the statement that positive outcomes can be found in selfishness. Negative outcomes can come from selfishness

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In the short story “The Scarlet Ibis” James Hurst indicates how thinking only for one person or a group can potentially hurt or destroy others lives, through the use of the Older Brother’s characterization. In the middle of the short story when Older Brother and Doodle were in Old Woman Swamp Older Brother said “‘I'm going to teach you to walk, Doodle’ I said. He was sitting comfortably on the soft grass, leaning back against the pine.

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The use of symbolism shows how Doodle is unique because of the way his mind works in the story. For example, when Doodle and his brother are sharing “lies” with each other, the narrator notices that Doodle’s “lies” were “twice as crazy.” This shows that Doodle was very creative when it came to telling stories. This is because he was a good storyteller in his own unique way.

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“We decided to double our efforts, to make that drive and reach our pot of gold. I made him swim until he turned blue and row until he couldn’t lift an oar” (Hurst 490). Brother feels as if he and Doodle spent too much time and work into this for it to all go in vain. Brother is confident in Doodle that he will succeed. As summer comes to a close, Brother feels bittersweet.

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Due to Doodle’s complication during his birth, it resulted in him not being able to keep up with daily activities, like walking. Brother had a hard time coping with the state of his younger sibling so he wanted to end both of their sufferings by killing him, but later changed his mind. Instead of killing Doodle, he decided it would be better if he taught Doodle how to walk. When Doodle was five years old, Brother decided it was time that Doodle learned how to walk. During the process of teaching him how to walk, Brother’s pride was too large for him to care whether or not he was pushing Doodle too hard, he just worried about the end result, of Doodle, walking and impressing his family.

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The narrator is a representation of society. He is civilians that will not wait for the less fortunate or challenged individuals. He is people who do not want to deal with realities because they are inconvenient. He eventually realizes Doodle is not a hurdle in his life but his brother to be embrace. He puts effort into teaching Doodle to walk and swim, but even then he is cruel to his brother.

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This internal conflict represents the theme by saying that the narrator pushed Doodle to hard and is realizing that he was ashamed of himself and his pride means that he was pushing Doodle to be someone he was not. The theme is important

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As well as discouragement like “ When Doodle was 5 years old , I was embarrassed of having Him as a brother” (paragraph 7, page 2) and “ man up it's just a dead bird” (paragraph 5, page 6) Brother was a witness in Doodles death, we don’t know if Doodle was struck by lightning But brother admitted leaving Doodle right before he died, “ he ran as fast as he could, leaving Doodle behind”(paragraph 4 page 6) and “ I heard Doodle, who had fallen behind , cry out , Brother!, brother! Don't leave me! Don't leave me!(paragraph 3, page 6).

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Therefore, the theme of the story is too much pride can be a bad thing; the narrator lets his pride get the best of him and ends up killing Doodle. Three symbols that enrich the understanding of the story and relate to the theme are the Old Woman Swamp, the color red, and the scarlet ibis. The first symbol that enriches the understanding of the story

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Brother put lots of his time, effort, and care into Doodle even though "It's a miracle [he] didn't give up" (Hurst). His efforts showed the pride he had, or at least wanted to have in his younger sibling; even if it was rooted in selfishness. Pride is what motivated Brother to help him, though he wished it was his family which gave him the grit to always push Doodle to success. Brother

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Due to his hurtful actions, inflicted upon Doodle throughout his life, the Narrator feels deep shame for what he has caused. Through the elements of foreshadowing and dialogue, Hurst’s narration reveals the protagonist’s guilt, emphasizing his deep regret over his actions regarding his crippled brother. The Narrator foreshadows the eventual climax of the story through his words regarding his views of pride. He states, “But all of us must have something to be proud of, and Doodle had become mine.

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