ipl-logo

The Scarlet Ibis Character Analysis Essay

611 Words3 Pages

“The Scarlet Ibis,” written by James Hurst, is a bittersweet story. A weak autistic child is born into a family of cotton farmers. They name the child Doodle, which was given by his older brother. His brother was often cruel, but he pushed Doodle to work to fit in. They fail in their efforts at the end of summer. The older brother gets mad, and Doodle dies. Doodle is overall a favorite character for people because he’s just an incredible character everyone could love. Doodle had a unique personality. His family and older brother thought this as well. His brother even described him, “Doodle was just about the craziest brother a boy ever had.”(Hurst 109) Crazy could also be seen as daring, or a risk taker. Doodle was a risk taker. He stayed with his brother no matter how rough he was with him. Crazy could also mean strange. Doodle came up with strange lies that were extremely crazy. These personality traits also go with Doodles actions. The narrator said, “Doodle could beat me at lying.”(Hurst 113) Doodle lies, which is a bad, but his lies were strange. Creativity is needed for a superior lie. This shows Doodle has terrible habits that stem from good talents. All this goes to show is Doodle is at heart, a talented, though strange, boy. Doodle tried so hard to be like the others boys. He worked at it but could see results, so he asked his …show more content…

He has a weak body that is always likely to go out.. The bother truly found this out, and when it did everything changed. It changed his perception of Doodle. He says, “...I lay sheltering my fallen Scarlet Ibis from the heresy of the rain.”(Hurst 118) Suddenly Doodle is no longer a nuisance. A pest. He is now a rare treasure, to be protected from the rain and anything that goes against them. It shows that while Doodle is now dead, he is also treasured. All in one event Doodle has been perceived different than

Show More
Related
388 Words | 2 Pages

The narrator pushed Doodle to the point where Doodle could not handle it anymore and his fragile body ended up dying. When Doodle fell to the ground trying to walk the narrator did not try to help him, he wanted him to learn how to

Read More
455 Words | 2 Pages

but he crawled backwards like a doodlebug; that’s how he got his nickname, Doodle. Doodle from “The Scarlet Ibis” is weak determined, and gullible. One of Doodle’s character traits is weak.

Read More
619 Words | 3 Pages

An example of him being odd is that his brother said, "It was I who renamed him when he crawled backwards as if he were in reverse and could not change gears" (Hurst 2). This shows that he is different or odd because he could not crawl like a typical baby. This is told both at the beginning and near the middle of the story, when Doodle began to improve. A quote from the story is when Brother and Doodle are together, and Doodle says, "I won’t touch it" (Hurst 2). In this case, he is talking about a jewelry box, and he won't even get near it, let alone touch it because it is not his.

Read More
623 Words | 3 Pages

The narrator of the story, The Scarlet Ibis, Doesn't give his name, but he tells about his time with his brother, Doodle. Doodle is a complex character in many ways, he was born a cripple but was, by some accounts, blessed, and Doodle also had the element of being a genius for his circumstances. On October 8, 1911 Doodle was born with a heart condition that left him physically and mentally disabled, and wasn't expected to live past infancy, but, by defying the odds, Doodle survives his first few years of his life. Some of the characters believe that this is because when he was born, he had been born in a caul. Which leads to the fact that, Doodle, was very smart and soon learned to talk and even walk.

Read More
431 Words | 2 Pages

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.

Read More
502 Words | 3 Pages

“The Scarlet Ibis” is about a young boy named William Armstrong, and his healthy, older brother, the narrator. When William Armstrong was first born he was very fragile, and his head was bigger than his body. When William Armstrong was first born his family did not think he would live very long, so his parents was not going to name him. Then after he stayed alive for 3 months they decided to name him. Then his brother, the narrator, decided to rename him because the name sounded too much like a name on a tombstone, so he renamed him Doodle.

Read More
308 Words | 2 Pages

What pulls families apart? Money, fighting, and/or work. In this story its pride, selfish pride showed why people hurt the ones they love. In the story, “The Scarlet Ibis” by James Hurst, The narrator demonstrates the theme that “spiteful cruelty towards a loved one often leads to wounded pride.”

Read More
467 Words | 2 Pages

The story "The Scarlet Ibis" was written by James Hurst. The short story is about a boy with an invalid little brother named Doodle. In the beginning, the narrator hated his brother and thought of killing him because he could not do much. By the end, he had gained lots of love for Doodle and taught him many things like learning how to walk. The character Doodle can best be described as a creative and loyal person.

Read More
591 Words | 3 Pages

Imagine having a disabled brother who couldn’t walk or even barely move himself because his legs were so weak they could break, then imagine trying to teach him to walk and be at fault for a huge upcoming disaster. Doodle was a disabled person who was at first very hated by his brother because he was embarrassed to have a disabled brother. Doodles brother actually had plans to kill doodle, but instead of killing him he tried to help him, by teaching him to walk. Brother is a good brother because he was just trying to help his little brother not trying to hurt him in anyway. Doodle brother was trying to help doodle out by teaching him to walk even though doctors said if he walks he could very easily fall and die.

Read More
788 Words | 4 Pages

When an author writes a story or novel, most of the time objects are purposely incorporated into a plot to symbolize something significant. “The Scarlet Ibis”, written by James Hurst, has a lot of symbolism that greatly contributes to the plot. This short story is about a little boy whose name is Doodle. He is born with a fully functioning brain but an extremely weak body. His brother, who narrates this story, teaches him how to walk, swim, climb, and run out of self pity because of embarrassment he feels due to his younger brother’s disabilities.

Read More
822 Words | 4 Pages

In the story “Scarlet Ibis,” the narrator is flawed in his inability to let go of his desire to have a normal brother. The narrator has a little brother named Doodle, with an extreme amount of disabilities. Before Doodle was born, the narrator fantasized about having a little brother who would be his playmate. Doodle, however, was not the ideal brother. He could not walk or do much on his own.

Read More
626 Words | 3 Pages

He wanted to do many fun things with his brother but since Doodle couldn’t do any of those things he was a disappointment as a brother. The hatred towards his brother was so bad that he wanted to kill him. “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.” (pg 351) This shows how he is ashamed of Doodle.

Read More
770 Words | 4 Pages

The quote “He seemed all head with a tiny body which was red and shriveled like an old man’s”, Gave the reader a view of how fragile Doodle’s body is. They thought at first, he was not going to make it, but he ended up surviving. When the mom explains to the older brother, Doodle is different and will not be able to do things that other kids do, he is then disappointed at having Doodle as his brother. He wants to be able to do things with Doodle, like he would be able to do with the other kids,

Read More
829 Words | 4 Pages

Doodle does have an emotional side and that first stuck in the story when the author says ( Sadly, we all looked back out at the bird, a Scarlet Ibis. How many miles it had travelled to die like this in our yard, beneath the bleeding tree) (424) This quote demonstrates how the Scarlet Ibis represents Doodle’s life, his achievements, goals. It shows the struggles Doodle suffered through and experienced throughout his journey with his older brother, and how sensitive and fragile Doodle can be especially when he is left alone. The Scarlet Ibis is very similar to Doodle in many ways, like how the Scarlet Ibis was forced to follow the hurricane just like how Doodle was forced to conform to society or how both Doodle and the bird died under the bleeding tree.

Read More
827 Words | 4 Pages

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

Read More

More about The Scarlet Ibis Character Analysis Essay

Related Topics

Open Document