Foreshadowing In The Scarlet Ibis

¨The Scarlet Ibis¨ is a short story by James Hurst. This short story is about a young boy who has a brother named Doodle. Doodle is not like other kids his age, he has health problems. This story talks about the narrator and Doodle’s relationship throughout Doodle’s life. The author uses foreshadowing and symbolism to reveal Doodle’s sensitivity and uniqueness.
The use of foreshadowing shows how Doodle is sensitive because when the story foreshadowed his death there was always something sensitive about it. For example, In the story when the narrator said, “I remembered Doodle” it showed that Doodle was sensitive. This shows he was sensitive because the author made it sound like the narrator remembering Doodle was a bittersweet memory. This is because Doodle was very sensitive when it came to the love of his brother. In addition, the story had foreshadowed his death with a bird, it was described as “grace, for it layed down on the earth like a broken vase of red flowers.” This reveals that Doodle dies like the scarlet ibis. The reason why is because …show more content…
For example, when the author uses the way Doodle reacts to the scarlet ibis it uniquely expresses how they are both “graceful”. This shows that Doodle is unique in the way he looks. This is because he is fragile just like a bird, yet both are very graceful. In addition, the author also symbolizes Doodle’s death with the scarlet ibis when describing how in both instances “even death did not mar its grace.” This reveals that even in death both Doodle and the bird are still beautiful and graceful in death. The reason why is because Doodle was an exotic human being that was just full of grace when he died. Using foreshadowing and symbolism in this story is important because is the author did not use them, then the reader would not have known about how sensitive and unique Doodle