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Motivation In The Scarlet Ibis By James Hurst

676 Words3 Pages

James Hurst in "The Scarlet Ibis" uses the brother to illustrate that both selfish and caring motivations can help someone succeed. Not only caring acts, but also selfish acts can help people succeed. The brother actions leave positive and negative results that affect Doodle’s life. In spite of his natural feelings of pride, or perhaps because of them, the brother cares and loves Doodle. In fact, the brother helps Doodle learn to walk by picking him up “at least a hundred times each afternoon.” The brother's pride causes him to train Doodle to walk every afternoon in Old Woman Swamp. Although his brother teaches him to walk because of selfish reasons, Doodle benefits from his brother's caring efforts of picking him up almost every afternoon. Furthermore, the brother teaches Doodle how …show more content…

In addition, Doodle learns how to complete various physical activities after training with his brother. The brother relentlessly forces Doodle to work hard, so Doodle can achieve success in his day to day activities. The caring side of the brother wants Doodle to do well, so he will be prepared for school. In fact, the brother forces Doodle to stand up over and over again; consequently, Doodle learns how to walk. Because of his brother's force, Doodle achieves success by eventually being able to walk. The selfish side of the brother taught Doodle how to walk because of embarrassment, but the caring side of the brother taught Doodle how to walk because he wants Doodle to do well in school. Furthermore, Doodle is successful because he is fit to go to school in the next season. Because of his brother's extensive training, Doodle is fit enough to go to school and have hope that someday he will be normal. The brother's force pushes Doodle to walk which, consequently, convinces his parents to announce that Doodle is fit for school. Doodle continues to benefit in his daily life because of his brother's caring and selfish

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Brother took a lot of his own time to help teach Doodle things like to walk. Everyone said that Doodle would never be able to stand up, but brother was tired of lugging doodle everywhere so he taught him how to walk. ”I'm going to teach you to walk doodle”(Hurst 2). With everything that brother did to help out Doodle to become a normal a normal person meant a lot to Doodle. Doodle was the only thing

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At a young age Doodle wants to go with his brother everywhere: “To discourage him coming with me, I’d run with him across the ends of the cotton rows and carren him around corners on two wheels” ( Hurst 465). When Doodle was five, his older brother was embarrassed with having a brother you could not walk. So he helped his brother learn, after a few weeks of trying to stand up. On Doodle’s sixth birthday he walked: “That Doodle only walked because I was ashamed of having a crippied brother” (468). After that, he wants to teach Doodle to swim and climb but before they can do that a storm comes.

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"Shut up. I'm not going to hurt you. I'm going to teach you to walk." Brother heaved him up again, and again he collapsed. One day after many days of practice Doodle finally stood alone for a few seconds.

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Everyday Brother would take Doodle out to this swamp to practice skills like swimming and running. They practiced until he collapsed, and then he would get back up and do it again. “I purposely walked fast, and although he kept up, his faced turned red and his eyes became glazed” (Hurst 4). He purposely walked fast even though he knew Doodle could not keep up. His eyes became glazed and his face turned red because he was being push to the extremes.

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855 Words | 4 Pages

When Doodles brother cried when doodle walked in front of their parents but not for the fact that he taught Doodle to walk he knew he was being selfish. Although he wasn’t crying because doodle could walk but because he knew he was being selfish and wrong because he only helped him because he was ashamed to have a crippled brother and wanted to fix his pride. His pride was more important to him then doodle was. Which is the main reason he helped Doodle and he knew he was wrong for this

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548 Words | 3 Pages

Although Brother's reasons for helping Doodle are driven by selfishness, Doodle does benefit from them

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The narrator dreamed of a brother that could do all those things but when his parents told him that “he wasn’t all there” he knew he had to do something about it therefore, “When Doodle was five years old, [he] was embarrassed at having a brother of that age that couldn’t walk, so [he] set out to teach him” (Hurst 488). Despite the physical condition with the Doodle , the narrator’s pride wanted him to “fix” him because he was ashamed of the Doodle ever since he was born. The narrator sets time out of his days to help his brother develop physically since Doodle is physically imobile. He goes down to Old Woman Swamp everyday to teach Doodle.

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Brother is ashamed of Doodle’s disability because Doodle isn't like other boys. Brother is trying to make Doodle as normal as possible so that other kids don't bully them. So, Doodle is taught to walk by Brother. Brother says, “I was embarrassed of having a brother that age

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987 Words | 4 Pages

Nothing happens without reason, not even in fiction. A story needs round characters with motives for their actions. Alternatively the actions of the main character affect the whole plot of the story. Therefore without a good motive the story won’t progress, but with a good motive the story can go surprising places. This makes motive the part of the story that inspires characters to take the story surprising places that the readers and sometimes even other characters don’t expect, as seen in “Lamb to the Slaughter”, “The Scarlet Ibis”, and “The Cask of Amontillado”.

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In the dramatic short story Scarlet Ibis by James Hurst a boy named Doodle and his brother encounter many obstacles similar to the brothers in the movie Simon Birch even though they come from starkly different family situations. Doodle and Simon were always the underdogs and wanted to be accepted. Doodle wasn’t accepted by his brother whereas Simon’s brother always looked at him like an equal. There brothers teach them many things like baseball and how to walk. Simon and Doodle are always happy and never sad or down.

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Before Doodle learned to walk their parents made brother take doodle anywhere

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Eventually the narrator taught Doodle to walk, then decided to teach Doodle other abilities that would make Doodle be considered “Normal.” The narrator was so engrossed in this task that he did not notice that Doodle could not keep up. “I made him swim until he turned blue and row until he couldn't lift an oar. Wherever we went, I purposely walked fast, and although he kept up, his face turned red and his eyes became glazed. Once, he could go no further, so he collapsed on the ground and began to cry.”

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520 Words | 3 Pages

Brother planned to spend his entire life with Doodle, They "decided that when [they] were grown [they'd] live in Old Woman Swamp and pick dog-tongue" (Hurst). He wanted Doodle to have pride in himself and be able to do everything Brother wanted to do with him. Brother had pride in Doodle since he was first able to stand on his own and walk. He taught Doodle out of his own selfishness, he was ashamed of having an "invalid" brother and wanted to have "someone to race to Horsehead Landing, someone to box with, and someone to perch within the top fork of the great pine behind the barn, where across the fields and swamps you could see the sea" (Hurst). Brother was ashamed of the way he felt and his self-indulgent efforts for Doodle.

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696 Words | 3 Pages

Brother was determined to teach Doodle how to run, swim, climb trees, and do all things that a healthy boy can do. "I did not know then that pride is a wonderful, terrible thing, a seed that bears two vines, life and death." (p.419) The brother stresses on pride. He pushes Doodle to make him fit in at school. When he took Doodle to Horsehead Landing before the first day of school he fills shame of failure but he doesn't stop trying even when he knows it's fatal.

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827 Words | 4 Pages

At first the narrator sees Doodle as a crazy frail brother but as we move into the story, we can observe a lot of varying feelings brother has towards Doodle. Brother described Doodle as unbearable, an invalid brother, a brother who was not there at all, so he started

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