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Comparing Pride In The Scarlet Ibis And A Brother's Crime

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There are stories about characters having a brother who has a deep effect on them which could be because the characters care for their brother. Two stories that are about this are called “A Brother’s Crime” and “The Scarlet Ibis”. Inside “A Brother’s Crime” is about Edwin Booth, the brother of John Wilkes Booth, learning about their brother’s crime and has to deal with it. The story “A Scarlet Ibis” is about how a brother has pride in their own little brother that ends badly because of how that pride has good and bad. In “A Brother’s Crime” and “The Scarlet Ibis”, the actions of a brother had a profound effect on one of the main characters. In the story “A Brother’s Crime”, it is about Edwin Booth’s point-of-view to their brother’s crime. The effect it has on them is huge because Edwin’s life changes by having to leave their job and being a suspect of helping Lincoln’s assassination. As Edwin goes to the Boston theatre they soon find out that the owner closes the theatre. The owner states in the note, “…out of respect for the anguish which will fill the public mind as soon as the appalling fact shall be fully revealed, I have concluded to close the Boston theatre until further notice”(Giblin 331). That is the effect of Edwin’s brother’s crime, it causes …show more content…

The narrator’s pride in Doodle is both good and bad, it is good because it made them teach Doodle learn how to walk, but it is bad because they have cruel expectations of Doodle that comes out and acts harsh. Doodle’s disability affected the narrator by giving them a streak of cruelty towards Doodle. It was when the narrator stated, “One day I took him up to the barn loft and showed him his mahogany casket, telling him how we all had believed he would die”(Hurst 164). That was the effect of Doodle’s disability on the narrator, it made the narrator do harsh actions towards Doodle from embarrassment and

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For example, the morning before the murders, when Mister Death came to wake up his brother to get ready for the murders, he refused to go with him (Hahn 2). However, Mister Death forced him to come by making him believe that he had no choice but to help with the murders by saying “What somebody does to me, they do to you. That’s what being brothers mean. (Hahn 2)” In addition, Mister Death’s brother was extremely guilty and depressed because of what he had done.

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The narrator pushed Doodle to the point where Doodle could not handle it anymore and his fragile body ended up dying. When Doodle fell to the ground trying to walk the narrator did not try to help him, he wanted him to learn how to

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In James Hurst’s “The Scarlet Ibis”, the narrator is shameful of his little brother, Doodle, in which makes his pride overpower Doodle’s needs. He is afraid of what people will think of his crippled little brother since he isn’t like anyone else so he tries to bring doodle up to his expectations. Some may argue that the narrator did make a big impact on doodle’s life by pushing him to his limits. Although, the narrator

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How could someone be responsible for their own brother’s death? In The Scarlet Ibis the element pride was a destructive force because the older brother had plans and dreams of how he wanted a brother to be. Unfortunately that isn’t how it turned out at all. His brother was born disabled and limited him of the brotherly things he could participate in such as running, fishing and all the fun things brothers do.

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This same internal conflict gives Brother the intuition to really push Doodle’s limits. If it weren’t for Brother’s unruly pride, which feeds his ego and develops the disappointment that Doodle burdens him with, then Doodle would not have died. The tiring endeavor that Brother is tasked with is recurrent throughout the whole story, as he faces hardship when it comes to accepting Doodle both as a fellow human being and a sibling of the same blood. During the beginning of the flashback, the first time Brother refused to embrace Doodle’s existence, the obvious frustration that Brother experiences becomes known as he struggles with having a brother with a disability: “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” (2). Hurst presents the external conflict, Brother’s efforts to change Doodle, and the internal conflict, Brother’s issues with accepting Doodle, which makes the reader’s opinion of Brother dramatically shift.

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Doodle taught Brother the lesson that people mistreat the ones they love most. Even though Brother loved Doodle, he would push his anger on him, without thinking about it. He made Doodle touch the coffin that was made for him as an infant, because no one thought he would live. Brother did this just because he was frustrated “One day I took him up to the barn loft and showed him his casket”(4).

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In both short stories, Only Daughter and The Scarlet Ibis, there is a similar theme which is pride. For example, in Only Daughter, the narrator, Sandra Cisneros, wants her father to be proud of the work she’s been doing. In The Scarlet Ibis, the narrator wants to help Doodle to walk so that he can be proud of Doodle and because he was ashamed of Doodle being crippled. How do you think, the theme, pride played a role in both

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I. Introduction Attention Getter Before becoming a writer, James Hurst was young engineer, but, he switched to a musical career. During his musician days, he auditioned for the opera;however, he failed and supported himself as a writer and night bank clerk. “The Scarlet Ibis,” was first published in the Atlantic Monthly, where he made his writing debut with his touching story between the two brothers.

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“The Scarlet Ibis,” by James Hurst describes that if kin passes away, guilt, sadness, and confession may go through one's mind . The“Brother,”or narrator is filled with guilt over his actions leading to the death of his little brother Doodle. In the beginning of the story, the narrator speaks in a very sad and depressed way by mentioning things like “the summer was dead...ibis lit in the bleeding tree..the oriole nest in the elm was intended and rocked back and forth like and empty cradle”(Hurst 1). The narrator sets a very sad and dreary mood that gives clues that maybe the narrator is guilty or confessing something. Right after, the narrator has a flashback “...as I sit in the cool, green draped parlor,...

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As the narrator explains it, “pride is a wonderful, terrible thing, a seed that bears two vines, life and death”. Teaching Doodle how to walk was not only an act of love, but also an act of pride. “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”. The narrator’s pride starts evidently harming Doodle when Doodle eventually becomes sick from the grueling coaching offered by his brother. The narrator’s pride made him disregard his brother’s health as he “made him swim until he turned blue and row until he couldn’t lift an oar”.

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Hurst’s immense detail of the narrator reveals how pride can both cause beneficial and destructive effects. In the beginning of the story, the narrator’s pride has a beneficial effect towards Doddle. Because of Doodle’s deficiencies, everyone in his family were skeptical of if he would ever be “all there” in his mind. The narrator is the first to recognize

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Brother now sees the horrible effect pride has had changed his life. In this story Brother has learned that pride has covered his love. He has also learned that Doodle has loved him and if they would have loved each other equally that maybe Doodle could have died differently. This story is a life lesson. Pride affects everybody and it is important to remember that their is a cruel streak in

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Resulting in, the narrator helping his younger brother, but “he did it for [himself], that pride. ”(3). The older brother only guides Doodle for the narrator's own selfish reasons. The narrator didn’t think Doodle was enough, resulting in him attempting to change his younger brother into a “normal” person. Doodle only “walked because” the narrator “was ashamed of having” a brother that was “crippled.”(3).

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Pride can be a positive or negative element in someone's life. It can help them succeed in their efforts or cause them to become greedy and selfish. In the short story "The Scarlet Ibis" by James Hurst, the main character Brother shows the theme of pride through his persistence and love for Doodle. Brother had pride in Doodle, considering his brother as "his"; he always persisted in working tirelessly with him on his successes. "

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“Pride is a wonderful, terrible thing, a seed that bears two vines, life and death” (Hurst 2). This is how James Hurst describes pride in his heart-wrenching short story, “The Scarlet Ibis.” What speaks to me most about this quote is its profound truth. For the majority of people, pride is either a positive or negative thing, but what Hurst and I seem to agree about is the fact that pride can be both. It is an undeniable symptom of the human condition, a tool that can either create or destroy, and is responsible for the best and worst parts of history.

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