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The Scarlet Ibis: The Complex Relationship Between Brother And Doodle

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The Complex Relationship between Brother and Doodle
Pride, will always be the longest distance between two people, the reason of betrayal, and even death. In the Scarlet Ibis, James Hurst describes Brother as a slave of pride unable to establish a real relationship with Doodle. The Scarlet Ibis, narrates the complex relationship between the narrator and his physically ill brother Doodle. Pride always invades the weak bond between the two brothers and leads them to a tragic end.
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 …show more content…

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.”(L 390-392) After leaving Doodle, he finally regains his conscience, and goes back for him unfortunately, he realised his mistake too late. The present older brother, clearly regrets his acts and now that he understands everything about life and what happened, he regrets not loving Doodle the way he should have. At the end, the love between the two brothers is complex and paradoxical, their relationship goes from hatred to love but unfortunately due to pride the relationship between them ended

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Pride can be a really good thing that keeps you going and makes you try hard, but it is also a very destructive force that can hurt you and others. Doodle was one of those people who got hurt because of someone's pride. In “The Scarlet Ibis” by James Hurst the story shows that the narrator is guilty of Doodle’s death. These are my two reasons supporting this claim. First off the narrator was ashamed of Doodle, and second He just simply did not like Doodle.

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I do believe the brother did have to have some love for Doodle, he gave him his name after all. On page 345 it says, “It was I who renamed him… Crawling backward made him look like a doodlebug so I began to call him Doodle. Renaming my brother was perhaps the kindest thing I ever did for him, because nobody expects much from someone called Doodle.” But all in all if this brother truly had a sincere love for Doodle he would never have done the things he did to him or had any of the thoughts I’ve mentioned above.

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Brother, the main character of the short story, "The Scarlet Ibis," proves himself to have a double sided personality. On one hand, Brother can be characterized as mean and harsh. The author portrays this behavior when Brother neglectfully tries to shape Doodle into his image despite his clear inability. On the other hand, Brother can be characterized as nice and caring. This personality is shown through his motivation and pride in Doodle due to his accomplishments.

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Brother often foreshadows that Doodle is a burden to bare with. Brother reckons, “The knowledge that Doodle’s and my plans had come to naught was bitter, and that streak of cruelty within me awaked. I ran as fast as I could, leaving him far behind with a wall of rain dividing us” (Hurst 6). Just the idea if Doodle in Brother's Plans and the obstacle he would become was too much for Brother to handle. Because if this act Brother is once again showing an act of selfishness.

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He mentioned how it was “bad enough having an invalid brother” and how he formed ideas to kill Doodle (James Hurst, “The Scarlet Ibis”). Brother feels that he has been “cursed” because of the birth of Doodle. Doodle has physical imparities, making him incapable of doing “normal kid activities”. Therefore, Brother is upset that he didn’t get a brother who could play with him. This shows Brother’s personality because he wanted to kill his blood-born brother just because he wasn’t “normal”.

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He is the accidental killer of his brother pushed to this state by his and societies best and worst qualities. The Brother (the narrator) is compelled to teach and kill Doodle by the two pillars of his character; and the character of man: ambition and arrogance. The narrator is annoyed from the beginning of Doodle’s birth, he holds only contempt for his new sibling. Not because he does not want a sibling, but because he wants one the that can lend to his ambitions and further his goal of progress and greatness.

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"Doodle!" I screamed above the pounding storm and threw my body to the earth above his. For a long time, it seemed forever, I lay there crying, sheltering my fallen scarlet ibis from the heresy of rain”(Hurst 6).This section shows from the end of Doodle’s life onward Brother has felt guilty. The whole story is Brothers story of the dangers of pride and his personal experience.

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Doodle always wanted a brother who will care for him and keep him safe. At the end of the story deceitfulness was shown when brother left Doodle alone in a storm. Brother also mislead Doodle, through having him done things he was not capable of doing. Being deceitful can sometimes break a good relationship or lead to a lot of worse things. Not only did brother mislead Doodle, but he was untruthful to Doodle.

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The narrator’s pride wants Doodle to be an ordinary brother, and kills him in the strive for perfection. “For a long time, it seemed forever, I lay there crying, sheltering my fallen scarlet ibis,” the narrator reveals (426). For the first time, the narrator notices the connection between the scarlet ibis and Doodle. When Doodle dies, his neck is twisted identical to the scarlet ibis’ neck as it dies under the bleeding tree, along with the fact that they are both weak and fragile. The scarlet ibis and Doodle has come a long way, dodging many obstacles and achieving many goals, but in the end, both fall short of

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Brother planned to spend his entire life with Doodle, They "decided that when [they] were grown [they'd] live in Old Woman Swamp and pick dog-tongue" (Hurst). He wanted Doodle to have pride in himself and be able to do everything Brother wanted to do with him. Brother had pride in Doodle since he was first able to stand on his own and walk. He taught Doodle out of his own selfishness, he was ashamed of having an "invalid" brother and wanted to have "someone to race to Horsehead Landing, someone to box with, and someone to perch within the top fork of the great pine behind the barn, where across the fields and swamps you could see the sea" (Hurst). Brother was ashamed of the way he felt and his self-indulgent efforts for Doodle.

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In The Scarlet Ibis, the author revealed finally the real feelings of Brother toward his brother Doodle. During the whole incidents of the short story, Brother is not accepting Doodle as a brother because of the abnormality which Doodle suffered from and so Brother feels ashamed. The last scene in the short story is so tragic. The scene is portrayed as Brother returned back to Doodle who was found dead, having bled from the mouth and his neck is covered in blood. The act of crying and screaming by Brother for the death of his brother Doodle is a pure tragic scene and by such scene the reader makes the readers feel that Brother loves his brother Doodle and for such love he tried to protect him from an outside world.

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