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Summary: The Scarlet Ibis By James Hurst

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Recommended: An essay on pride both the negative and postive aspect of pride

Brenda Nguyen
English 1 Honors
October 5, 2015
Intro Paragraph

“People get tangled up in their own ego of how they’re perceived. They can lose their way,” –Pierce Brosnan. Some people seem to get caught up in themselves with their actions so that they can be viewed a certain way to society while negatively affecting others without realizing it. This self-pride can be a destructive force if realization isn’t taken into the interests of others. In James Hurst’s “The Scarlet Ibis”, the narrator is shameful of his little brother, Doodle, in which makes his pride overpower Doodle’s needs. He is afraid of what people will think of his crippled little brother since he isn’t like anyone else so he tries to bring doodle up to his expectations. Some may argue that the narrator did make a big impact on doodle’s life by pushing him to his limits. Although, the narrator …show more content…

“The Scarlet Ibis” by James Hurst reveals that selfish pride can blind the needs of others. Viewing the needs of others blindly shows a lot about the person’s character. To start off with, the narrator was actually suggesting to kill the little brother thinking that he’s not all there and ending his misery, that is until the narrator received a miraculous response. The narrator shouts, “Mama, he smiled. He’s all there! He’s all there!” (Hurst, 464). As soon as the narrator is proven that his little brother is more than alive, his feelings of selfish pride before shows up crystal clear. As the narrator was considering to end his little brother’s life to save him of misery, it’s actually shown that he’s trying to save himself of the mortification of having an invalid brother. In addition, the narrator pressures

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In James Hurst’s “The Scarlet Ibis”, Brother is self-centered by viewing his younger brother, Doodle, as a burden because of his physical limitations. Because Doodle is born extremely weak, “The doctor [says] that he mustn’t get too hot, too cold, or too tired and must always be treated gently” however “all of which [Brother] [ignores] once they [get] out of the house” (Hurst 47). Since his younger brother limits him, Brother is purposely careless around his sibling so he can participate in activities of his choice. Doodle is also so medically restrained that Brother is worried about his self-image being tainted by the fact that he has a lame brother. Also Brother realizes despite his wanting to roam the family farm freely and possibly spend

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In the short story, “Scarlet Ibis”, James Hurst uses characterization to demonstrate the idea that if pride isn’t controlled, it can take over a person’s life and blur out the needs of others during one’s pursuit of success. Pride, the satisfactory feelings that one experiences after an achievement of some sort, is a two-way street; it both fills a person with gratitude, and confirmation that they succeeded, but it also is the driving force behind the guilt that quickly follows after one ceases to prioritize themselves. Brother fights to surpass this manipulative feeling, but is soon forced to succumb. Once Doodle had made it to five years old, Brother became fed-up with the embarrassment that emanated from Doodle, as he was everything but

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Thesis Statement Despite the fact that pride is considered an incredible feeling of motivation and happiness, the author James Hurst through his characters, Doodle and the older brother, in his story, “The Scarlet Ibis,” proves ,it is in fact, a masked detrimental and beneficial feeling of selfishness and guilt. II. First Thesis Point- Topic

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In the short story, “The Scarlet Ibis” written by James Hurst, creates a story about a boy named Doodle who was born with disabilities and his brother makes plans to kill him. In paragraph 5 on the first page of the story, Hurst writes, “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.” This clearly makes readers think that the narrator wants him dead, and the narrator isn’t grateful for what kind of brother he has. This clearly brings up that it was the narrator 's fault that Doodle died. He left Doodle out in the storm on purpose and ran away, the narrator had plans to kill him earlier on in the story, and everyone expected Doodle to die right when he was born.

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Enabling pride to take charge of life not only affects the person which pride controls, but also allows them to suffer emotionally and physically. In James Hurst’s short story, “The Scarlet Ibis” The narrator's control over his little brother, Doodle, fosters him to be pushed over the edge by his older brother, leaving Doodle suffering at the cause of the narrator’s pride. Doodle’s disability leads to the narrator becoming ashamed of him and soon, he sets out to teach him to walk because he is embarrassed that Doodle is so weak and frail. After teaching Doodle to walk, the narrator pushes Doodle to be just like everyone else by teaching Doodle to swim, run, climb, and fight. One day, while the Narrator and Doodle were eating lunch, they both

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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.

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Pride is Ignorance Disability is a physical or mental condition that limits a person's movement, senses, or activities. " The Scarlet Ibis," a short story written by James Hurst, focuses on the relationship between two brothers: the narrator and his disabled brother, Doodle. Doodle is born when the narrator, Brother, is only six years old. Since the narrator is young and does not know how to cope with a situation like this, he plans to kill Doodle. The prideful narrator wants a brother he can play with and is disappointed and embarrassed that he will not be like a regular boy.

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Have you ever been so ashamed of who you are associated with, that you push them past their own physical limits for your own good? In the short story, The Scarlet Ibis, by James Hurst makes you think about what is truly from the goodness of the brother character’s heart or if he is just being selfish. Ever since Doodle was born, he had no hope from anyone. Brother was the first one to look past his disabilities and see that he had the potential to be normal. Although Brother has to care for Doodle and teach him how to walk, run, swim, and row, it was only because he was sick of giving all of his personal time to the little disabled boy who could not walk.

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“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.

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“Pride is a wonderful, terrible thing, a seed that bears two vines, life and death” (Hurst 2). This is how James Hurst describes pride in his heart-wrenching short story, “The Scarlet Ibis.” What speaks to me most about this quote is its profound truth. For the majority of people, pride is either a positive or negative thing, but what Hurst and I seem to agree about is the fact that pride can be both. It is an undeniable symptom of the human condition, a tool that can either create or destroy, and is responsible for the best and worst parts of history.

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