“Show me a hero and I’ll write you a tragedy.” -F. Scott Fitzgerald. In the short story “The Scarlet Ibis” and movie Simon Birch, this quote not only becomes relevant, but it continues to be a theme in the lives of everyday people. “The Scarlet Ibis” tells the story of Doodle, a young boy battling with a disability all his life, and his older brother, who is damaged by his own pride and a longing to be “normal.” On the other hand, Simon Birch is a film about a boy, also with disabilities, named Simon and his best friend Joe. Simon and Joe battle their way through daily struggles of being teenagers, but also with the constant judgement of their unlikely friendship. While the two stories have their differences in developing the relationship between the two main characters (Doodle and Brother, and Simon and Joe), they are similar
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In “The Scarlet Ibis,” the text starts off describing how the “graveyard flowers were blooming, and their smell drifted across the cotton field… speaking softly the names of our dead” (Hurst 6). The gravestone in this part of the story is foreshadowing Doodle’s unfortunate death that takes place in the end. Similarly, Simon Birch begins in a graveyard, showing an older Joe narrating: “‘I am doomed to remember a boy with a wrecked voice; not because of his voice or because he was the smallest person I ever knew, or even because he was the instrument of my mother's death, but because he is the reason I believe in God’” (Irving 2). Not only does this use a graveyard to foreshadow Simon’s death, but Joe also hints at key events bound to take place in the course of the movie (such as his mother’s death and his struggle with faith). Foreshadowing is a very important element in the stories, as they both emphasize gravestones and graveyards to signify principal deaths that take
In “The Scarlet Ibis,” the text starts off describing how the “graveyard flowers were blooming, and their smell drifted across the cotton field… speaking softly the names of our dead” (Hurst 6). The gravestone in this part of the story is foreshadowing Doodle’s unfortunate death that takes place in the end. Similarly, Simon Birch begins in a graveyard, showing an older Joe narrating: “‘I am doomed to remember a boy with a wrecked voice; not because of his voice or because he was the smallest person I ever knew, or even because he was the instrument of my mother's death, but because he is the reason I believe in God’” (Irving 2). Not only does this use a graveyard to foreshadow Simon’s death, but Joe also hints at key events bound to take place in the course of the movie (such as his mother’s death and his struggle with faith). Foreshadowing is a very important element in the stories, as they both emphasize gravestones and graveyards to signify principal deaths that take