In “The Scarlet Ibis,” by James Hurst we are told the story of Doodle from his brother’s perspective. We’re told just how crazy Doodle could be, how delicate he was and how he cared for a certain bird. Moreover, in “The Scarlet Ibis,” Hurst uses imagery to show the connection between Doodle and the scarlet ibis. The said bird is originally from the tropics but was found badly wounded in Doodle’s own backyard. It ended up falling out of a tree and dying.
His little legs, bent sharply at the knees, had never before seemed so fragile, so thin.” The author describes Doodle very similarly. He explains in detail, the limpness of Doodle’s limbs, just as the scarlet ibis. Also, Hurst uses the word, limp, in both descriptions to describe the bird and Doodle, and he also describes, in detail, the bloodiness of each of their bodies. To continue, Doodle seems very sorrowful, much more sorrowful than his family, after the scarlet ibis shows up in their yard.
Anna Edgren Sophomore English Period 3 Mrs Burdette 28 April, 2017 Quote Journal #1 Revision Project Throughout the book The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, the readers are able to see the protagonist Huck change his views on society and being able to distinguish right and wrong. The end of chapter fifteen reveals a great deal about Huck and Jim’s relationship. In the chapter, Huck and Jim are on the river on a raft trying to get to Cairo. During this journey, Huck and Jim get separated by the fog when Huck goes ahead to pull the raft.
The narrator in The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County does very little storytelling. He introduces us to Simon Wheeler by a barroom stove in an old tavern; then we spend the next three full pages listening to him (Twain 662-665). The narrator interrupts Wheeler and he ends our story (Twain 666). In The Outcasts of Poker Flat the narrator is outside the story and we do not know who it is. The narrator follows John Oakhurst from the beginning when he becomes an outcast (Harte 674) to the end when he dies (Harte 684).
When the scarlet ibis first shows up at the plantation, the family notice that the bird is unfamiliar and are unaware what kind of bird it is. However, after the bird falls to it’s death out of the tree, the family figures out that a rare bird from an exoctic southern country, Likewise, the family doesn’t realize how rare and unique Doodle’s life is until after Doodle dies. In addition, the big straw hat that falls over Doodle’s ears represents a halo. Throughout the short story, Doodle represents an angel: He is kind and isn’t self-centered.
In the story the text also explains, “ With scarlet feathers and long legs.” Showing the color and visualization of the bird's body (180). Meanwhile, Doodle is told to be “Fragile.” like the bird. In addition, stating that the Doodle has “Little legs” (183).
Harte’s story takes place during November of 1850 (Harte 674) and Twains story was somewhere between the winter of 1840 and 1850 (Twain 663). Both towns were mining towns during the California gold rush. They were small towns in which would look somewhat like the Wild West. People would come from all over in the hopes of finding gold and getting rich quick. One small difference between the stories is in Twains story “The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” is that it is in a “decayed mining camp” (Twain 662), but in Harte’s story it is referred to as “a town of all improper persons”.
He took out a piece of string from his pocket and, without touching the ibis, looped one end around its neck. Slowly, while singing softly "Shall We Gather at the River," he carried the bird around to the front yard and dug a hole in the flower garden, next to the petunia bed. (Hurst)”, Doodle’s family watched went back inside, refusing to touch the bird. However, Doodle stayed and felt sympathy for the scarlet ibis, which resulted in a clumsily dug grave and quiet burial. Doodle was the only one that stayed, the one that didn’t give the bird a quick glance then moved on with his day.
In James Hurst’s short story “The Scarlet Ibis,” the narrator’s remorseful attitude towards Doodle’s death is illustrated through the utilization of foreshadowing and flashback. This is made evident through the passing of the scarlet ibis and the narrator’s own prideful behavior and faith in his infallibility. The scarlet ibis that symbolizes Doodle with its death is incorporated into the foreseeable outcome of the end of Doodle’s life, and the indication of the narrator’s future guilt is manifested through his reminiscence of cruelty he displayed towards Doodle in his past. The significance of the appearance of the bird is emphasized alongside specific characteristics to foreshadow Doodle’s own fate, followed by the narrator’s guilt.
The symbolic scarlet ibis represents Doodle with its sickness that ultimately leads it to death and the significance of the appearance of the bird is emphasized alongside specific characteristics to foreshadow Doodle’s own awaiting tragedy. When the ibis makes an entrance into the story, its scarlet feathers and the sickly state it was introduced in were accentuated to stand out. The bird was “perched precariously” (561) on the topmost branch as the narrator and his family watch “a feather [drop] away and [float] slowly down through the green leaves” (561). The scarlet ibis’s sickness is employed to illustrate Doodle’s inability to walk, just as the bright red feather depict the end of Doodle’s life as the narrator cradles him in his arms,
After a long day of training to go back to school, Doodle and the narrator were enjoying lunch when they both hear a squawking sound coming from the outside that led to them seeing a scarlet ibis perching upon the bleeding tree. Much like Doodle at the time, the bird looked “tired” and “sick” and just like Doodle’s movements the birds “wings were uncoordinated” leading the narrator and both their parents to watch as “Its long, graceful neck jerked twice into an S, then straightened out, and the bird was still.” (351-360). The scarlet ibis is uncoordinated, tired, sick, and awkward just like Doodle. One of the occurrences where Doodle holds similarities to the scarlet ibis was when he died because he was described as laying “very awkwardly,” with a “vermilion” neck, equivalent to the red feathers of a scarlet ibis.
This shows how Hop Frog gets revenge from the mistreating by the king. Hop Frog’s actions are justified throughout the story because of the horrible comments and actions of the
In the short story, “The Scarlet Ibis,” Hurst advances his plot of his short story through the significance of the rain frog, the symbolic use of the hurricane that brought the downfall of the Scarlet Ibis, and the connection it has to the symbol of the storm at the climax of the short story. When Hurst draws attention to the fact that Doodle was the only one that saw a rain frog, which serves as a sign for a storm, “down in the swamp,” he foreshadows that a storm is coming while hinting that something malevolent will happen to Doodle (392). For this reason, when Hurst decides to include how the hurricane brought the Scarlet Ibis on the yard of the house Doodle lives in and reveals that the Scarlet Ibis traveled “many miles [it had traveled]
The use of language in writing is a form of self-expression and is a way to reveal key things about narrators’ characters. The narrators in “The Notorious Jumping Frog” and “Baker's Bluejay Yarn” by Mark Twain, have a very specific style of language which reveals things about their characters. In “The Notorious Jumping Frog” the narrator’s name is Simon Wheeler, The story takes place in Calaveras County, a mining town in California. Wheeler is originally asked about a man by the name Leonidas W. Smiley, but Wheeler started talking a completely different man by the name of Jim Smiley, a man with a gambling problem, who once lived in town. In “Baker's Bluejay Yarn” the narrator's name is Jim Baker.
These words immediately hints at the tragedy of the novel, as the bird echoes the phrases of rejection that it has heard many times. Although Madame Lebrun’s parrot speaks English, French, and “a little Spanish,” it also speaks a “language which nobody understood, unless it was the mocking-bird that hung on the other side of the door, whistling his fluty notes. . . .” (1). Caged and misunderstood, the parrot’s position represents Edna’s -- Edna also speaks a language that nobody, not even her husband, friends, or lovers, understand.
