The narrator is not responsible for Doodle’s death. The narrator at first is a bad brother. He dislikes him. But he undergoes a change throughout the story. He ends up caring and loving Doodle very much. Many people believe that he is responsible for his death. But these are the reasons why I feel that the narrator is not to blame for his death. The narrator at first was a bad brother. He thought that Doodle was a disappointment. “He was born when I was six and was, from the outset, a disappointment.” (pg 351) But the narrator wanted a brother. He wanted to do many things with his brother like “jumping and climbing the vines in Old Woman Swamp.” (pg 351) He wanted to do many fun things with his brother but since Doodle couldn’t do any of those things he was a disappointment as a brother. The hatred towards his brother was so bad that he wanted to kill him. “It was bad enough having an invalid brother, but having one who possibly was not all there was unbearable, so I began to make plans to kill him by smothering him with a pillow.” (pg 351) This shows how he is ashamed of Doodle. But this is only in the beginning. His opinion changes towards the end of the story. …show more content…
He thought that Doodle didn’t have potential. He thought that Doodle was unbearable and that he couldn’t live. He was ashamed of Doodle. “ To discourage his coming with me, I’d run with him across the ends of the cotton rows and careen him around corners on two wheels. Sometimes I accidently turned him over, but he never told Mama.” (pg 352) This quote shows how much he thought Doodle was a disappointed and how ashamed that he was his brother. He doesn’t care a lot about Doodle in the beginning of the story. But throughout the story he has a transition. He starts to show care for Doodle. He teaches Doodle how to walk. He does this as a selfish