The Scarlet Ibis Character Analysis

Would you leave your invalid little brother behind for dead? The narrator of “The Scarlet Ibis” sure did. Doodle was born when the narrator was six years old. Doodle was a very fragile child who could not participate in many activities and this disappointed the narrator. After growing up a little together, the narrator tries to “help” Doodle become more normal so he could have a brother to go on adventures with. The narrator is responsible for Doodle’s death because he didn’t care about him and didn’t help him, he let his pride get the best of him while with Doodle, and he left him behind after Doodle begged him not to.
The narrator was a cruel person who did not care about Doodle’s well being. The narrator says, “he was a burden in many ways.”(352). Him saying this essentially conveys he did not want to be around him meaning he did not care about him. The narrator also says,”...I began to make plans to kill him by smothering him with a pillow.”(351). If he disliked him so much that he planned to kill him, it is clear that he did not have any emotional attachment for Doodle Doodle. Therefore, since he did not care about Doodle, he also let his pride control his actions toward Doodle.

The narrator says, “They did not know I did it for myself; that pride, whose slave I was, spoke to me louder than all their voices, and that Doodle walked only because I was ashamed of having a crippled brother.”(355). He only helped his brother because he was embarrassed by him, so his pride got the best of him. The narrator also says, “Do you want to be different from everybody else when you start school?”(357). Doodle did not care, so yet again the narrator just did not want to be embarrassed by him in front of other people. His pride contributed to him causing Doodle’s