In the short story “The Scarlet Ibis” by James Hurst, the selfish narrator set a mission for himself to make his invalid brother become “normal” to fulfill his own personal pride. At one point in the story, the author illustrated a scene in which Doodle and the rest of his family were drawn outside to observe a scarlet ibis as it sat unstable on a branch of a tree, and tumbled to the ground at their feet when it tried to take flight. The scarlet ibis symbolizes Doodle because both Doodle and the bird could be described as vulnerable, weak, and uncoordinated, yet they both still tried to push themselves past their limits. To begin, the precarious way the bird perched itself high up in the tree, represented Doodle because they both share vulnerabilities.