Pride And Pride In The Scarlet Ibis By James Hurst

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In the story “The Scarlet Ibis” by James Hurst a young child named Doodle, Formerly William Armstrong, is introduced who at first glance seems ordinary; however at a closer glance, he suffers from a rare disease that incapacitates him from daily activities. On the other hand, the narrator is Doodle’s brother, referred to as Brother, who simply wished for a brother who did not poorly represent himself. Unable to give in to the “humiliation”, Brother sets out to train his brother to reach the climax of his brother’s ability, which he believes will redeem his pride. The narrator’s point of view is heavily based upon pride, for example the training of Doodle is done in relation to Brothers pride. The author expresses the story through intricate …show more content…
In the ending sequence Doodle and Brother are running home after training the day before school, however it began to rain. Initially Brother maintained a speed which allowed Doodle to be within a foot distance. In a turn of events Brother began to “I ran as fast as I could”, which leads to Doodle’s unknown death (Hurst 380). This represent the narrator running away from his problems which represents Doodle. This is him leaving the dreaded pride he created to begin a new chapter which ultimately is scraped with his brother’s blood on his hands. This creates a depressing cocoon over the narrator were his guilt corners him into his brothers demise. Hurst uses this to show Brothers impulses once his pride was damaged, which he uses symbolism to create the theme of how pride can destroy a person’s ego. In addition, Doodles death was foreshadowed earlier in a scene were a Scarlet Ibis lands dead in their yard after a rough storm hit, which lead to its death. When the Scarlet Ibis began twisting in pain “Even death did not mar its grace” which is used to represent the innocence of the Bird in relation to its death (Hurst 250). This ties with Doodles death, with Doodle being the Bird and his Brother being the Storm, which shows how Doodle was put into his brothers’ encasement of pride which constricted him to the point of exhaustion. The author uses this to show how Doodle was an innocent child, who was then destructed by his brother’s pride which in turn destroyed Doodle literally, and Brother’s

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