Hurst wrote the story "The Scarlet Ibis" to symbolize that Brother never accepted Doodle for who he was, his stubbornness to let Doodle remain weak and unable to participate in life killed him. Brother was six when Doodle was born. From the start, Brother had a plan to kill Doodle. This symbolizes that Brother never even gave Doodle a chance. You can touch death, hear death, and sometimes feel it. In this case it was touched, "Don't leave me, Brother, he cried, and leaned toward the coffin. His hand, trembling, reached out, and when he touched the casket he screamed" (318). Brother was accepting that Doodle was going to die because Brother considered him as a person who couldn't do anything on their own, a nobody, like he needed to be in a
