Scarlet Ibis Short Story Theme

“Every day we have plenty of opportunities to get angry, stressed or offended. But what you're doing when you indulge these negative emotions is giving something outside yourself power over your happiness. You can choose to not let little things upset you.” (Joel Osteen). Emotions are expressed in highly different ways, especially during youth. Sometimes, young children are emotional, and they decide to express those emotions in ways that will obtain attention. Unfortunately, not all attention is beneficial. In the short story, “The Scarlet Ibis” by James Hurst, a boy who responds to the name “Brother” is shown to have multiple sides to his behavior. He and his younger brother, nicknamed Doodle, go on many adventures, in which Brother’s loving

Selfishness of a child is represented as a negativity in Brother’s life when he starts to cry after presenting a walking Doodle to his loved ones. “Doodle told them it was I who had taught him to walk, so everyone wanted to hug me, and I began to cry… They did not know that I did it for myself; that pride, whose slave I was, spoke to me louder than all of their voices; and that Doodle walked only because I was ashamed of having a crippled brother,” (347). At the time, Brother doesn’twant to be known as the boy with the crippled brother, so he does whatever he can to teach Doodle to walk. He cries due to the fact that his family’s glee is only present at the time due to him ashamed. His own desires have taken over his mind, and he acts upon them. Another example of Brother’s selfishness presents itself when he is about to leave the house, but Doodle starts crying to go with him. “‘Take Doodle