...James Hurst’s short story, “The Scarlet Ibis,” has a theme, pride is egregious, which Hurst demonstrates through a series of quotes with the main ideas of offering help only due to pride, the belief of infallibility, and pushing someone farther than their limits. The theme can be first expressed when Brother only teaches Doodle to walk only because of his pride. After Brother teaches Doodle to walk, he reflects upon his reasons of doing so in the excerpt,“They did not know that 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,”(Hurst, 4). In the previously mentioned situation pride is egregious because Brother is embarrassed about Doodles...
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...Theme Essay In my family, I have a sister, mom, and, dad. When my sister was young, she went through a stage where she would wear the same pair of pants everyday. This annoyed me because, she had so many other clothes to choose from and still, she chose to wear those pants everyday. I would try to convince her to wear a different outfit, but she wouldn’t budge. In the story “The Scarlet Ibis”, Doodle's older brother was irritated by Doodles disability, because he wanted a normal brother. Because of this, he tried to make Doodle more normal by teaching him to walk. But Doodle's brother should have accepted him from the start In the story, “The Scarlet Ibis” by James Hurst, the theme, people don’t accept others who look different, is shown through tone. In the first place, people who are unique are...
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...Throughout the short story of “The Scarlet Ibis” James Hurst portrays that pride can be a constructive or a destructive thing. During this story, the character Brother uses his pride in ways that are helpful to Doodle, but in ways that are also harmful. As readers, people come to know the character Doodle as a delicate yet a beautiful being. There are things that others need to be careful of when with Doodle. There was “a long list of don’ts [that] went with him, all of which [Brother] ignored once [they] got out of the house.” This quote shows that Brother knew Doodle had limits, but decided to ignore them out of pride. Also, once Brother taught Doodle how to walk, there was a sense inside of him that made him believe that he could accomplish...
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...“Scarlet Ibis” Theme Is there something in your life that embarrases you? If so, you probably know how brother feels in the short story “The Scarlet Ibis” by James Hurst. In the story brother is embarrassed by his brother Doodle. He forces Doodle to do things he really wasn’t capable of doing. Brothers selfishness throughout the beginning, middle, and end of the story help prove the theme that you should love people for who they are. Throughout the story I think brother was consistently selfish. He changed his brothers name from William Armstrong to Doodle because that name was too sophisticated for someone like him. At the start of the story, brother showed Doodle his coffin because nobody thought he was going to survive: “It was bad enough having an invalid brother, but having one who possibly was not there at all was unbearable, so I began to make plans to kill him by smothering him with a pillow” (James Hurst 169). This shows that brother doesn’t have any love or feelings for Doodle. These are ways brother acted selfish and did not care much about his brother....
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...The Sharing of a Common Theme “The Scarlet Ibis” by James Hurst and “The Interlopers” by Saki both share a common theme ‘appearance versus reality’. Though both of the articles have two completely different plots, they share an idea that is displayed throughout both stories. The theme may seem to have different levels of importance or appear in different parts of the stories, but it is present in both no matter what. Here is an example of how “The Scarlet Ibis” and “The Interlopers” both have the theme ‘appearance vs. reality’. The theme of appearance versus reality is displayed in the short story “The Scarlet Ibis” by illustrating Big Brother’s disappointment at having a disabled brother transformed to embarrassment and selfish desire of...
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...Critical Essay Assignment “The Most Dangerous Game,” “The Scarlet Ibis,” and “ Blues Ain’t No Mockingbird” all are short stories that possess different messages, characters, setting, and plot. Based on the elements stated previously, the best of the mentioned three is “The Scarlet Ibis.” “The Scarlet Ibis” holds a very important message in the story, which is pride. Pride is linked directly to shame and embarrassment like a scale, where no embarrassment or shame leads to a head held high. In the story, Brother is feeling ashamed due to Doodle’s disability, and at one point he considers killing him with a pillow. However, Brother’s feelings for Doodle changes as he further connects with him when he teaches Doodle how to walk on his fragile...
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...“I lay there crying, sheltering my fallen scarlet Ibis from the Heresy from the rain.” All the narrator wants is a “normal” brother. He tries his best the change his brother; all that leads to is death. Doodle is his brothers Scarlet Ibis, and Doodle dies because of his brother. His brother tries so hard to change who Doodle is and all that it leads to is a death. In the short story “The Scarlet Ibis”, James Hurst uses conflict, symbolism, and irony to develope the message that everyone needs to accept others for who they are, and not try to change them or the outcome will be negative. James Hurst uses internal conflict to show that changing others for selfish reasons can lead to tragic consequences. The main reason that Doodle can walk is because of the narrator’s selfish attitude of caring what others think. When the narrator says “I was embarrassed at having a brother who couldn’t walk”(336), his egotistical personality defiantly shows through; he is more concerned of what others think rather than the fact that his impaired brother is unable to walk (CS2). The only motivation to...
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...Literary Analysis: “The Scarlet Ibis” Can pride affect others in a bad way? The topic of the short story “The Scarlet Ibis” by James Hurst, the narrator helps his brother Doodle(William Armstrong) to accomplish things no one thought was possible because of his bad heart. But in the end he pressured his brother too much and Doodle dies, all because he wanted pride from it. The theme adolescents that pride can both be a good and a bad thing, which you can see through the plot of the story. The narrator reflects on his actions and realizes how selfish he was towards Doodle. In one line it shows that the narrator is planning on teaching doodle more but he saw it as his own victory instead of Doodles victory, “Once I had succeeded in teaching Doodle...
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...Guilt is an emotion caused by an action. These actions may be used for bad, or used for good, but for the wrong reason. In the short story “The Scarlet Ibis”, by James Hurst, a boy and his crippled brother, Doodle, create a good, but unhealthy relationship that causes problems in both lives. In James Hurst’s flashback, the most powerful emotion the narrator, Brother, expresses is guilt because at the end of every conflicted event, the narrator feels guilty. Brother feels guilty for his actions and strongly expresses the emotion guilt. While the narrator wants to kill his brother, he has a realization, “…’Mama,’ he smiled. ‘He’s all there! He’s all there!’ and he was” (Hurst 2). Brother is too young to understand what death is, but he knows...
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...Pride´s Repercussions In ¨The Scarlet Ibis”, James Hurst characterizes the narrator as overly egotistical to exhibit the theme that one's pride can cause harm to others. Towards the middle of the story, when the narrator's brother Doodle, who has a heart disability which causes him to have to strain to move, turns five years old the narrator, ¨feels embarrassed at having a brother of that age who couldn't walk so he, ¨set out to teach him.¨ (7) The word “embarrassed” implies the narrator´s large amount of pride, as rather than teaching Doodle for his benefit, the narrator only does so because Doodle´s disability puts a damper on the narrator's pride. Under normal circumstances, the narrator teaching his brother to walk should seem like a...
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...authors use themes in their stories to relate to the reader and leave a specific message or moral for the reader to remember. In “The Scarlet Ibis” by James Hurst the theme is to always have faith in someone’s potential and abilities, even if the odds are against them. The specific writing techniques James Hurst uses in his short story are foreshadowing, interesting dialogue, and inner conflict. The author uses foreshadowing to help prepare the reader for what is going to happen later in the story. During the story this is shown through the narrator’s feelings about Doodle, “I did not know then that pride is a wonderful, terrible thing, a seed that bears two vines, life and death.” (Hurst 3) The narrator is questioning his relationship with his brother Doodle, and how much he...
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...The Two Meanings of Pride The story, the “Scarlet Ibis” by James Hurst is about a young boy teaching his physically disabled brother, Doodle, how to become “normal.” The story surrounds the most powerful emotion, pride. The narrator was full of pride for his brother at times when he abled him to learn new things. The story expresses the idea that it is good to be full of pride for others, however, pushing people past their limits can be harmful. In the “Scarlet Ibis,” Doodle was pushed over his physical limit and suffered consequences. Several quotes in the story draw attention to the emotional theme, pride. Pride comes along with embarrassment. “When Doodle was five years old, I was embarrassed at having a brother of that age who...
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...Excessive pride causes devastating ruin and can be deeply harmful, not only to the person in which pride in habits, but also to those surrounding them. Through the elder brother’s pride and shame of having an invalid brother, he pushes Doodle to his breaking point, and therefore is a contributor to Doodle’s tragic death though that is not his blunt goal to murder his own brother. This is very evident in James Hurst’s short story “The Scarlet Ibis”. The elder brother of any family has the highest rank among the siblings and holds the most responsibility for the younger children. The elder brother in “The Scarlet Ibis” is no exception. His “pride, whose slave [he] was, spoke to [him], louder than all [his family’s] voices” (2) and the brother...
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...Many enjoy ghost stories with haunted houses because of the thrill. Some stories however, include themes of guilt in which a character is haunted by his past. In the short story “The Scarlet Ibis” James Hurst employs flashback and mood to create the emotion of guilt that haunts the narrator. Hurst utilizes flashback by giving a sense of guilt emitting from the narrator. Throughout the story, the author gives examples of the narrator’s selfish actions, which is how he treats his crippled brother, Doodle. Then, Hurst portrays mood by writing the narrator’s thoughts of what horrible actions the narrator did to Doodle. The narrator feels ashamed of having a disabled brother, and feels the need to push Doodle to become “normal”, and this pressure makes the narrator look back and feel guilt. One way the narrator represents guilt is through flashback. Throughout the...
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...What is the real price of pride? Does pride sometimes make people make the wrong decisions? In the story “ The Scarlet Ibis” by James Hurst the main character Doodle’s brother is embarrassed of Doodle. Doodle could not walk, run, swim, or be exposed to harsh sunlight. The narrator set out on a mission to teach Doodle to do these things, so Doodle would not embarrass him when school rolls around, and in the process of teaching Doodle something terrible happens to Doodle and it is all the narrators fault. The theme of the story is regrets and it is best revealed through the element of important statements. Even though the narrator loves Doodle he is still cruel to him, because of his own selfishness. The narrator is embarrassed by Doodle....
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