Summary Of The Scarlet Ibis By James Hurst

As a popular author and poet, Adil Adam Memon, once said, “Your ego decides the humanity in you- the higher the ego the lesser the humanity”. Quite literally, Memon states that the more prideful you are, the lesser you are as a good person. In the short story, The Scarlet Ibis by James Hurst, the narrator tells a story of two brothers, one of which lets their pride and ego go so far as to work his own brother, Doodle, to death for his own reputation. Looking back at this, Brother stated, “I did not know then that pride is a wonderful, terrible thing, a seed that bears two vines, life and death” (Pg. 558). It is then that Brother realises his pride had caused a very tragic thing and that he was too late to fix what he had done. In an act of

In the early stages of planning this, Brother said, “When Doodle was five years old, I was embarrassed at having a brother of that age who couldn’t walk so I set out to teach him” (p.557). This further explains how Brother feels about Doodle being embarrassing because he is not exactly like everyone else. So, in an attempt to make Doodle like everyone else, the narrator plans to teach Doodle to walk himself. Here, Brother shows that he is selfish and that the only reason he had any interest in helping Doodle was so that he wouldn’t be embarrassed. He took his pride so far as to change Doodle in an attempt to make himself look good. Also, once Doodle can finally walk, Brother surprises his family and they all started crying of joy for this miracle. Brother, knowing what he did was for his own good, stated, “They did not know that I did it for

Because of this, Brother continues to make plans to make Doodle more like the other kids his age. While planning this, Brother says“...I began to believe in my own infallibility and I prepared a terrific development program for him, unknown to Mama and Daddy, of course.” (P. 559) Once Brother has had the success of teaching Doodle one thing, he assumes he can teach him anything. He considers himself incapable of failing at even the hardest task, and so he pushed Doodle far beyond what the little boy can handle. He doesn’t think he needs any oversight by their parents either. Brother’s pride has completely overtaken his thinking at this point and the “terrific plan” he thinks up is going to kill his little brother. Their parents will only discover what’s happening when it’s too late. Even knowing this, Brother continues to push Doodle beyond his limits for his own selfish pride. After a long and tiring day of Doodle working to meet Brother’s expectations, Doodle starts to slack which leads to Brother becoming angry that he isn’t making progress. On the way back to their house, Brother stated, “We never spoke (What are the words that can solder cracked pride?), but I know he was watching me, watching for a sign of mercy” (P.563). While the two were beginning their run back home, Doodle is aware of his brother’s disappointment and hopes to be forgiven. His brother, though, is far too prideful to show mercy. Brother