Doodle's Pride In The Scarlet Ibis, By James Hurst

“The Scarlet Ibis” Revision

Brainstorm

Doodle’s Coffin

Narrator’s own insecurities over Doodle’s state

The way pride over takes him because of his own wants- quote

Doodle Walking and Narrator Crying

Narrator crying because he knows how his pride is affecting his own treatment of Doodle

Still not over pride- hasn’t gotten past it

Doodle’s Death

Narrator realizes full consequence of actions when doodle dies

Connects to the Scarlet Ibis due to the way he pushed Doodle

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In James Hurst’s short story “The Scarlet Ibis” the story follows the narrator and his brother Doodle throughout their early childhood and captures the struggle of the young disabled Doodle and the narrator’s pride. By the end of the story, the narrator becomes

The narrator explains how he brought Doodle everywhere, pulling him in a cart and never leaving him behind, which sets him up as caring. But, the author soon reveals more about the narrator as he shows us the first act of pure cruelty the narrator does- shows Doodle his own coffin. The pure relentless nature the narrator shows as he taunts the fact of Doodle’s almost death as an infant sets up the understanding of just how much the narrator is affected by pride to the reader, showing his own desires take over and get this best of him. The narrator states in the text “...I wanted more then anything else to race to Horsehead Landing, someone to box with…” setting his own expectations for doodle. But since Doodle cannot fully live up to these expectations, the narrator grows insecure over Doodle’s own disability, making his pride take over and causing the narrator to be cruel to his brother

He relates the death back to the scarlet ibis’s using synonyms like red because Doodle is that scarlet ibis. The narrator understands that his pride made him teach Doodle to walk and that pride made him push Doodle away from his home indoors, like how the scarlet ibis was away from it’s home in South America. This is when the narrator’s character arch is finally completed within the story, as he both realizes his own mistakes and how his pride has caused his own brother’s death. This proven even further because of the way the story is told- in past tense. The narrator looks back as an adult and understands his own pride, stating in the first pages “I did not know then that pride is a wonderful, terrible thing, a seed that bears two vines, life and death.” This proves that the narrator learns the full affect of his pride and carries it even into his adult