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Brother Hubris In The Scarlet Ibis By James Hurst

626 Words3 Pages

In the short story, “The Scarlet Ibis' ' by James Hurst, there are many big ideas that play a crucial role in shaping the relationship between Doodle and the older brother. Many examples of these big idea roles are shown within the relationship, but Hubris creates the greatest impact in determining the relationship between Doodle and his older brother Within the relationship of the brother Hubris is shown in various ways including how the narrator isn’t content with the brother he has and is set out to teach him to the impossible. When Doodle was born no one had faith in him, except Aunt Nicey. Everyone in the family thought Doodle wasn’t gonna make it far in life so they built a mohangony coffin for him. He passed their expectations and lived, but it came with some precautions, Doodle was physically impaired and can not do things …show more content…

The narrator dreamed of a brother that could do all those things but when his parents told him that “he wasn’t all there” he knew he had to do something about it therefore, “When Doodle was five years old, [he] was embarrassed at having a brother of that age that couldn’t walk, so [he] set out to teach him” (Hurst 488). Despite the physical condition with the Doodle , the narrator’s pride wanted him to “fix” him because he was ashamed of the Doodle ever since he was born. The narrator sets time out of his days to help his brother develop physically since Doodle is physically imobile. He goes down to Old Woman Swamp everyday to teach Doodle. It is easy to say that the brother has only good intentions towards Doodle, however the brother knows about his heart conditions and how he is very fragile. Yet, He still wants to put extraneous work on him; this establishes that the brother is only doing this

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