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The Dangerous Brother Character Analysis

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“The Scarlet Ibis”: The Dangerous Brother “He was born when I was six and was, from the outset, a disappointment. He seemed all head, with a tiny body which was red and shriveled like an old man's. Everybody thought he was going to die”(Hurst 1). Brother always wanted the perfect little brother that could run, jump, play, swim, and swing from vines. However, when Doodle is born, he realizes this is not possible. In the short story “The Scarlet Ibis”, James Hurst uses the characterization of Brother to show that one’s pride can get in the way of accepting who people are. In the beginning, Brother’s pride continually forces Brother to make decisions that are unwise and have drastic consequences. Brother stated, “It was bad enough having an invalid …show more content…

It is narrated as follows: “The knowledge that Doodle's and my plans had come to naught was bitter, and that streak of cruelty within me awakened. I ran as fast as I could, leaving him far behind with a wall of rain dividing us” (Hurst 8). The narrator, also known as brother, has met his peak and completely let himself be taken over by his pride. Brother knows that Doodle can not run fast so he takes advantage of that and forgets about the plan and does not care about it anymore because this is the moment were his pride gets to the best of him. Brother is thinking that if Doodle can catch up to his speed, that means Doodle will be normal. Brother does not realize that what he is doing wrong, that when he returns to Doodle he sees instead of his little brother panting and resting, his little brother lifeless on the ground. The pride of brother gets in the way of accepting Doodle for who he is in the short story “The Scarlet Ibis”. Brother’s pride gets in the way, takes over, reaches its peak and leads to die or consequences. While reading this short story, the readers will enter the mind of Brother and see the progression of his pride and the effects of it as

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Scarlet ibis analysis rough draft Imagine you have a sibling that can’t do anything with you because of a disability he has. Brother treated doodle poorly because he was embarrassed of his disability and wanted to get him fixed so doodle was less embarrassing to brother .Brother is not a good brother because he was embarrassed of his own brother and he treated him poorly because of something doodle couldn’t help. Brother made doodle do things he shouldn’t be able to.

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The Scarlet Ibis In the “Scarlet Ibis” James Hurst, weaves together a tragic story following the narrator and his disabled younger brother, Doodle. Throughout Doodle’s life, he had always been caged in but with the aid of Brother’s persistence and infrequent cruelty, Doodle learns to extend past his boundaries. Brother’s motivation stems from his selfishness in wanting an unhandicapped brother to avoid the embarrassment of s six-year old incapable of walking. Battling his own internal struggle between right or wrong, Brother tries to mend the split between the caused by shame and ignorance.

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In “The Scarlet Ibis” one of the most important characters was the brother of Doodle. He is also the one telling the story. He is really important to the story because in a way he shaped Doodles personality. He took care of Doodle, pushed him to walk and killed doodle. He is very determined, somewhat careless, and selfish.

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Would you ever think a person with a disabled brother would be ashamed of him? Sadly, throughout most of the story the narrator in The Scarlet Ibis” has tried to change him and make him a normal kid. Some of the character traits that the narrator has are that he is generous, ignorant, and dramatic. One of the first things the reader notices is how cruel the narrator is. When the narrator threatens to leave Doodle all by himself.

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“The Scarlet Ibis” is a short story by James hurst about a young boy name Doodle who was born with a physical disabilities .Doodle brother (the narrator) dislikes Doodle because of his physical disabilities. At the end of the story Doodles brother left him in a storm which caused Doodle death. Although the narrator helped Doodle learn how to walk, he is to blame for Doodle death because he was cruel and selfish. For instance, the narrator is to blame for Doodle death because he pushed Doodle to hard.

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His brother only thinks of himself and only cares of his own achievements and success, making him not care so much for his brother which leads him to the guilt in the end of the story from what happened and what he did to his brother. The Scarlet Ibis connects with this theme because the Scarlet Ibis is a representation of Doddle in the story, foreshadowing what will happen to Doodle and how his brother is left with the feeling of guilt from Doodle’s death (the theme of guilt). In conclusion, the story uses many different forms of symbols and foreshadowing, some listed, to help get the reader's thinking and to create another meaning to the story besides what’s just literally written down in the text. They both help connect to the main theme of the story and in the end, instead of making the story a boring book required for class, it becomes a piece of literary art because of its multitudes of meanings and beauty from inside the

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The story, “The Scarlet Ibis,” is written by the author, James Hurst. In the story, the narrator’s little brother is born with a disability. However, as the story progresses the narrator tries to teach his little brother, Doodle, how to walk, row, and other skills that he thinks that Doodle should know. The narrator has very high expectation for Doodle, but in the end, they’re not fulfilled. The author uses symbolism and metaphors to reveal Doodle’s uniqueness and sensitivity.

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Brother cannot fathom the reality of having an abnormal sibling. Brother uses his pride as a way to help Doodle succeed, but Brother only did it because of the embarrassment and disappointment that Doodle is. In James Hurst’s, The Scarlet Ibis, Hurst insinuates that pride is controlling Brother when he thinks to himself, “They did not know that I did it for myself; that pride whose slave i was…” (Hurst 218). In the quote, Brother is taken over by his selfish pride.

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When someone is full of pride, they cannot love others for who they are and tend to make bad decisions. The narrator only cared about himself and wanted to kill Doodle for his own personal gain. His pride took him over and led him into making the wrong choice. Then after the pride came the guilt that followed. It can be inferred that he will never be able to forgive himself after what he did.

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In James Hurst’s “The Scarlet Ibis,” strong forces lead to loss too soon. Doodle was not the most ideal brother, leading to turmoil inside the boy. To him, Doodle was an embarrassment, leading to a powerful urge to make him walk (Hurst 112). Sometimes family isn’t perfect, but it is what it is; there is no choice. The boy needed to not let him get ahead of himself.

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Hurst points out, “He had failed and we both knew it, so we started back home, racing the storm.[... ]The faster I walked, the faster he walked, so I began to run.[... ]I heard doodle, who had fallen behind me, cry out, ‘brother, brother, don't leave me! Don’t leave me!” This happened when the narrator taught doodle how to walk and then tried making him do more, but Doodle could not physically do it.

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In the story, the Brother makes Doodle do things that he should not be doing, but he will do due to he loves his older brother unconditionally. Whenever the brother teaches Doodle to walk, he “paints him a picture of them as old men, white-haired, and the brother still pulling them around in the go-cart” (419). Once the narrator succeeds in teaching Doodle how to walk, he begins on teaching him other things like “running, swimming, climbing trees, and fighting” (421). On hot days, he makes Doodle swim and row a boat at the Horsehead Landing. For the reason that Doodle did not learn how to swim the narrator makes him “swim until he turns blue” and he also “ rows until he can not lift an oar” (422).

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In this short story “The Scarlet Ibis” depicts the relationship between two brothers. A story, that filled me with sadness and tears as I was reading it. As I contemplated the relationship between big brother and Doodle, the pride, cruelty, and selfish behavior that big brother portrayed was cruel. Reading more in depth into the story, I couldn’t help myself, I felt horrible for Doodle. Pride and malice play a big part in this story.

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“I ran as fast as I could, leaving him far behind with a wall of rain dividing us”(Hurst 360). This moment is when the author begins to run away from his brother. He feels such disappointment in Doodle that he just wants to run away as fast as he can away from him. He feels no sympathy as he runs, he believes that this will not harm him and that he will eventually catch up. “I heard Doodle, who had fallen behind, cry out ‘Brother, Brother, don’t leave me!

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When the storm hits, the two brothers run back to the house but Doodle can not keep up and brother taken over by pride leaves him there alone. That powerful pride that brother has, always breaks his bond with Doodle, after the failed lesson they just had, he gives up on his brother. The narrator, clearly has a lot of things going on inside his head, lost he just leaves him there because of his failure and an inside pride. “I began to weep and the tear-blurred vision in red before me looked very familiar. Doodle I screamed above the pounding storm and threw my body to the earth above his.

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