Scarlet Ibis: A Love Story

“...I heard Doodle, who had fallen behind, cry out,”Brother, Brother, don’t leave me! Don’t leave me!” That was the last thing the narrator heard from his brother Doodle. The story starts off with the narrator at the time of the first World War, living in North Carolina and has a little brother that is crippled. Everyone thought that the little brother, Doodle, would die. But he survived. The narrator taught Doodle to walk and was training him so he could go to school and be a normal kid. But then a Scarlet Ibis comes to their house after a hurricane had hit. A Scarlet Ibis lives in South America and had came all the way over to North Carolina. The bird was also crippled and fell out of their tree, and had died. Later that day, the narrator …show more content…
The narrator showed that he didn’t care for Doodle when he left him out in the middle of a thunderstorm. One piece of evidence is, “The faster I walked, the faster he walked, so I began to run.” The narrator clearly ran off without his brother and didn’t turn around until the storm had calmed down. Doodle being crippled couldn’t run so he left him in the dust. That shows how he didn’t show any concern for his brother. Also right before Doodle had died he had said,”...don’t leave me! Don’t leave me!” The narrator heard him say that and instead of turning around and helping his brother get to shelter, he took off and left Doodle behind. He clearly heard his brother say don’t leave me but he left him and didn’t care. These two pieces of evidence show how the narrator of this short story didn’t feel concerned of his brother. Doodle was also exhausted when the storm …show more content…
He was going to teach his brother to walk because he loved him. “ I’m going to teach you to walk… if you don’t keep trying you’ll never learn.” The brother really wanted to help his brother to walk. But the real reason why he wanted to teach his brother to walk was he didn’t want to be ashamed of for having a crippled little brother. “Doodle walked because I was ashamed of having a crippled brother.” This proves that he never wanted to teach his brother to walk because of love, he just didn’t want to be made fun of. This piece of evidence clearly shows that he was ashamed of having a crippled brother so he was going to teach his brother to be a normal kid.

In conclusion, the narrator of the short story “The Scarlet Ibis” should be proven guilty because of the evidence . He didn’t care for his brother and he was meant to be gentle to his young crippled brother. Pride can be indeed be a destructive force as the narrator shows as his pride, Doodle, becomes the the destructive force. Do you think that the narrator was guilty for his brother’s