“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 …show more content…
When the brother says, “I lay there crying, sheltering my fallen scarlet Ibis from the Heresy from the rain”(344), the reader knows for sure that the bird was a symbol for Doodle. The death of the Scarlet Ibis is caused by a change in his life; this is a change that the pitiful disabled bird can not adapt to(CS2). The bird travels miles to a distance place that he does not know, and once he gets pushed to the limits, he can not survive(CS1). The same thing happens with Doodle; however, the way Doodle travels is not by physically walking, but more of maturing with his abilities. When Doodle gets pushed past his finite abilities, there is a deathly consequence. The result of people changing Doodle is death, just like the result of changing the habitat of the Ibis is