Older Brother's Characterization In The Scarlet Ibis By James Hurst

In the short story “The Scarlet Ibis” James Hurst indicates how thinking only for one person or a group can potentially hurt or destroy others lives, through the use of the Older Brother’s characterization. In the middle of the short story when Older Brother and Doodle were in Old Woman Swamp Older Brother said “‘I'm going to teach you to walk, Doodle’ I said. He was sitting comfortably on the soft grass, leaning back against the pine. ‘Why?’ he asked. I hadn't expected such an answer. ‘So I don't have to haul you around all the time.’ ‘I can't walk, Brother,’ he said. ‘Who says so?’ I demanded. ‘Mama, the doctor- everybody.’ ‘Oh, you can walk,’ I said, I took him by the arms and stood him up. He collapsed onto the grass like a half-empty flour sack. It was as if he had no bones in his little legs. ‘Don't hurt me, Brother,’ he warned. ‘Shut up. I'm not going to hurt you’”(Hurst 6). In this argument between Older Brother and Doodle we see that Older Brother sets out to teach Doodle to walk only because he didn't want to push him around and “embarrassed at having a brother of that age who couldn't walk.” Even though Doodle kept collapsing every time Older Brother kept on standing his brother up, even

At the time when Older Brother was making Doodle stand, Doodle was clearly afraid of standing and hurting himself when he said “ Don't hurt me, Brother.” Older Brother was not being