In the Scarlet Ibis by James Hurst, Doodle is very similar to the scarlet ibis that suddenly appears at their house, and, as suddenly as it appeared, dies. To begin with, the family notices that the red bird does not look well, even stating that “it looks tired… or maybe sick”. With this in mind, when Doodle is first born, he is described as having “a tiny body which was red and shriveled like an old man’s”, soon after mentioning that “everybody thought he was going to die” on page 384. This shows that both the strange red bird and Doodle appeared sickly and and overall unwell. After the bird’s strange and sudden death, the father reads “it’s a scarlet ibis...it lives in the tropics- South America to Florida” on page 393, meaning that the