Selfishness In The Golden Kite, The Silver Wind

It is said, “Some people create their own storms, then get upset when it rains”. This statement implies that some people create their own problems and then are confused when it all comes back to cause them distress. It proves accurate in the notion that when others are selfish, their very own actions can, in some instances, cause increasingly worse situations than what they were complaining of. This belief is one of the most predominant themes in the three texts that are being referred to in this essay. In “The Necklace,” “The Scarlet Ibis,” and “The Golden Kite, the Silver Wind,” the consequence of the characters’ selfishness lead to their eventual demise.

An example of greed leading to inevitable downfall is in the short story “The Golden

The story introduces the reader to a young lady named Madame Loisel who is a self-absorbed woman who never seems to be satisfied with what she has, no matter how much that may be. This is exhibited when it states in the text, “She suffered constantly, feeling that all the attributes of a gracious life, every luxury, should rightly have been hers.”(Maupassant 333). Not only that but she also has the arrogance to bring her poor husband into the matter by complaining to him whenever the mood strikes her to wish for something she can not have. Although as an eminent theme in many of these texts, her greed comes back to harm her and she does not escape unscathed. Covetously she tries to acquire a necklace that she could never own by herself. Eventually, as fate would have it, she loses the necklace. The reader is stunned when the author writes, “Then she cried out. The necklace was gone, there was nothing around her neck.”(Maupassant 339). In the end, she has too much pride to tell the truth and in paying back the necklace, she loses everything. This is yet another one of countless examples in which the character’s selfishness left them with nothing but themselves. The title of this story is exceedingly relevant, and without digging very far you can discover the significance. The necklace evidently symbolizes everything Madame Loisel has ever wanted and everything that has ever

This led him to wish that his brother was different, and when seeing the opportunity he decided to help his brother walk. Although this may seem as if it was a compassionate and helpful act, the narrator did all of these things not for the well-being of his brother, but instead for himself. In the text, it describes, “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.”(Hurst 389). This quote reveals the narrator’s true feelings and the selfishness that hid behind his righteous deeds. Also, the narrator selfishly became mad after not achieving his goal he had set with his brother. There is an explanation in the text when it says, “The knowledge that Doodle’s and my plans had come to naught was bitter, and that streak of cruelty within me awakened.”(Hurst 394). This became somewhat of a domino effect, and after he let his anger absorb him his story became a much darker one. Due to his anger, he pushed his little brother too far and lost the person who meant the most to him in the process. The title connects to the story because “The Scarlet Ibis” is a key component in the story. It symbolizes Doodle and everything that