In the short story, “ The Scarlet Ibis,” the author uses symbolism to represent the story’s main ideas. Symbolism is represented by the Scarlet Ibis and Doodle. In the Scarlet Ibis, Doodle is a young boy who can’t walk by himself so his brother takes care of him. In the story, there are a lot of things that are red symbols because those represent Doodle. In the story, “ Even death did not mar its grace, for it lay on the earth like a broken vase of red flowers”( Hurst 5).In this quote when the scarlet ibis came, it traveled very far from where it lived and died far from home. Also, the broken vase of red flowers represents the death of the bird because they are both red and they both will or have died because flowers without water will die.