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Literary Techniques In The Scarlet Ibis

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The Scarlet Ibis In Literature,authors use many different literary techniques to develop the themes of their stories.In James Hurst's short story”The Scarlet Ibis” set in the early nineteen hundreds on a rural farm,the narrator flashes back to his childhood days as he tells of his life with his brother Doodle. As Doodle struggles to overcome his handicap,his brother struggles with his embarrassment at having a brother who has difficulties.Through his use of characters and event, Hurst develops his theme”that pride is a wonderful,terrible thing,a seed that bears two vines,life and death. Through hurst use of events in the story you can seen how his theme,”pride is a wonderful terrible thing” unfolds through the story . One event from the story is when the older …show more content…

This is best shown in the very beginning of the story with things like “It's strange that all this is still clear to me” shows how even after all the years that have went by he still remembers these days. Also, just the way the story is written can be easily missed because it’s written in flash back which is shown through “I sit in the cool,green draped parlor ,the grindstone begins to turn and time with all its changes is ground away and I remember Doodle.” While also in the story showing how he know understands what he did back then was wrong and he wishes he wouldn’t have done it .
James Hurst theme that pride is a wonderful,terrible thing,a seed that bears two vines,life and death is showed in many way as shown through the story but, it’s not only just in this story that pride does this to people. In real life this theme happens everyday and they might not understand what they did back then but later in life they will come to the realization and reflect on it just like Doodle’s brother does. That why the theme is so deep and the character and events of the story show it so

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In the story, “The Scarlet Ibis” author James Hurst uses indirect characterization through the thoughts and feeling of the protagonist towards his little brother Doodle to establish a meaningful theme. The theme is that being ashamed of those close to you often makes you lose sight of what that person may be going through, leading to regret in the future. In the beginning of the story, the protagonist talks about how his baby brother’s crawling made him resemble a doodle bug. This is why he calls his brother Doodle. “Renaming my brother was perhaps the kindest thing I ever did for him, because nobody expects much from someone named Doodle,” (3) the protagonist proceeds to explain.

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In the short story, “The Scarlet Ibis”, James Hurst conveys his theme to the readers in order to discuss the issue of pride and how having too much pride can negatively impact another individual. Within the story, James Hurst brings forward his message when Brother is beginning to teach Doodle how to walk at Old Woman Swamp. After some innumerable attempts Brother feels a strong urge to give up but his pride over Doodle would not let him give up. Shortly after Brother starts thinking to himself, “I did not know then that pride is a wonderful, terrible thing, a seed that bears two vines, life and death.” (170-172)

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