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Literary devices in scarlet ibis
Literary analysis essay for the scarlet ibis by james hurst
The scarlet ibis by james hurst characters
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In the story ‘Scarlet Ibis’ by James Hurst. The narrator is characterized as greedy and prideful to communicate the thought that too much pride can cause us to treat loved ones in cruel ways. At the beginning of the story, when the narrator and doodle are both young, the narrator seeing no matter how hard he tries, Doodle would “never do these things with me” Under frustration the narrator attempts to kill the baby by smothering him with a pillow. He stops and sees Doodle smile at him and realizes that he is smart and abandons the plan. "Mama, he smiled.
In the “Scarlet Ibis” by James Hurst, Brother’s personality allows him to solely focus on his motivation which is a result of his conflict being Doodle’s disability embarrassing him and the resolution of the conflict of training him until he is able to perform normally as someone his age. Brother’s personality traits include him being perseverant, naive, insecure and apprehensive. Brother’s insecurity and apprehensiveness cultivates the conflict of him being ashamed of Doodle’s inability to perform like a normal child. This insecurity and apprehensiveness of his also motivates him to train Doodle to be able to perform tasks, which is his resolution to his conflict. Furthermore, Brother’s perseverance motivates him to continue to cultivate
Blood may be thicker than water, but pride can be thicker than both blood and water. Pride can be life or death. Pride can be good or bad. In the story “The Scarlet Ibis” by James Hurst the narrator’s pride ruled over his actions and decisions. The narrator’s pride lead to the death of his little brother, Doodle.
This same internal conflict gives Brother the intuition to really push Doodle’s limits. If it weren’t for Brother’s unruly pride, which feeds his ego and develops the disappointment that Doodle burdens him with, then Doodle would not have died. The tiring endeavor that Brother is tasked with is recurrent throughout the whole story, as he faces hardship when it comes to accepting Doodle both as a fellow human being and a sibling of the same blood. During the beginning of the flashback, the first time Brother refused to embrace Doodle’s existence, the obvious frustration that Brother experiences becomes known as he struggles with having a brother with a disability: “It was bad enough having an invalid brother, but having one who possibly was not all there was unbearable, so I began to make plans to kill him by smothering him with a pillow” (2). Hurst presents the external conflict, Brother’s efforts to change Doodle, and the internal conflict, Brother’s issues with accepting Doodle, which makes the reader’s opinion of Brother dramatically shift.
If everything happens for a reason, then Doodle was purposely put into their lives for a certain purpose. The narrator tells of how he wants nothing more than to have someone to play with and to do activities with. Infact, the narrator stated, ‘It was bad enough having an invalid brother, but having one who possibly was not all there was unbearable.’ His thoughts probably consisted of, ‘Why did this happen to me? Why do I have to have an invalid brother?
“The Scarlet Ibis” isn't a fairy tale, neither dedicated to entertaining the reader, but nevertheless, to avow deeply into the reality of how cruel and prideful people can be, disregarding the limitations of others. The author, James Hurst wanted to portray his larger message, that pride can ultimately lead to major destruction, by conveying two siblings. Doodle, the helpless, dependent, younger brother and his antagonist older brother whose name isn't revealed to us, he’s only referred to as “Brother”. Unfortunately, in the story, the antagonist’s pride and neglection caused major destruction to the protagonist, Doodle, which resulted in his tragic death. Throughout the story, there were many quotes and descriptive words hinting
He is the accidental killer of his brother pushed to this state by his and societies best and worst qualities. The Brother (the narrator) is compelled to teach and kill Doodle by the two pillars of his character; and the character of man: ambition and arrogance. The narrator is annoyed from the beginning of Doodle’s birth, he holds only contempt for his new sibling. Not because he does not want a sibling, but because he wants one the that can lend to his ambitions and further his goal of progress and greatness.
In the end, however, he pushes his brother too hard, and Doodle dies. This is a story that uses foreshadowing to hint to the reader about pride, and how it is both a wonderful, and terrible thing. The speaker wanted an able-bodied brother desperately, and having a crippled brother tore into him, “...so [he] began to make plans to kill him by smothering him with a pillow,” (1), until his brother, Doodle, smiled at him, and proved that he was indeed all there. The narrator was six, and for the time being, that smile from Doodle was enough.
Brother is loving and attentive for Doodle but unfortunately, this is not the only side Doodle sees from Brother. On the flipside of Brothers personality, he is not always so sweet to Doodle and can often be seen as evil. Brother explains how he was quite disappointed in how his new little brother didn’t really know how to do anything. “So begin making plans to kill him in his sleep by smothering him with a pillow”.
The narrator’s pride wants Doodle to be an ordinary brother, and kills him in the strive for perfection. “For a long time, it seemed forever, I lay there crying, sheltering my fallen scarlet ibis,” the narrator reveals (426). For the first time, the narrator notices the connection between the scarlet ibis and Doodle. When Doodle dies, his neck is twisted identical to the scarlet ibis’ neck as it dies under the bleeding tree, along with the fact that they are both weak and fragile. The scarlet ibis and Doodle has come a long way, dodging many obstacles and achieving many goals, but in the end, both fall short of
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.
“It was bad enough having an invalid brother, but having one who was possibly not there at all was unbearable, so i began to make plans to kill him by smothering him with a pillow. However, one afternoon as I watched him ... he looked straight at me and grinned.” Once the narrator attempted to kill Doodle, he realized that he couldn't . He didn’t kill his brother simply because he realized that Doodle was aware and he was “all there”, something that his family doubted him to be.
In The Scarlet Ibis, the author revealed finally the real feelings of Brother toward his brother Doodle. During the whole incidents of the short story, Brother is not accepting Doodle as a brother because of the abnormality which Doodle suffered from and so Brother feels ashamed. The last scene in the short story is so tragic. The scene is portrayed as Brother returned back to Doodle who was found dead, having bled from the mouth and his neck is covered in blood. The act of crying and screaming by Brother for the death of his brother Doodle is a pure tragic scene and by such scene the reader makes the readers feel that Brother loves his brother Doodle and for such love he tried to protect him from an outside world.
“The Scarlet Ibis” Literary Analysis Essay As the protagonist unfolds his tale, he paints a picture of himself initially as a malevolent force, planning the smothering death of his crippled brother, to a bully, force-teaching Doodle to walk to satisfy his own ends, and finally a neglectful older brother whose acts lead to Doodle’s demise. It is the central event of his brother’s death that gives full meaning to the title, “The Scarlet Ibis.” In this short story by James Hurst, the author conveys the Narrator’s guilt over Doodle’s life and, more importantly, his death.
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
