The Scarlet Ibis Brother's Relationship

In Hurst's short story “The Scarlet Ibis” how brother thinks he is showing love towards Doodle

but his love is really just poisonous towards him and in reality is destroying him.

As Doodle gets older, brother begins to realize that there is potential in making Doodle into the

brother he always wanted him to be, instead of him being a “burden” and having to pull him in the go-

cart everywhere he went. Doodle grinned right a him and that's when he knew “he's all there.” The

process of infection begins when brother says to Doodle “I'm going to teach you to walk.” This is

where Brother starts his trek to the very peak of his pride. Doodle, being so young, has no choice in the

matter and is forced to oblige. Brother was even nice enough …show more content…
Brother has taken an authoritative and destructive stand over Doodle. Doodle, again being

so young, only wants to make his brother happy by doing what he is told and takes these acts as acts of

love as most kids would. Doodle only sees the surface, which is his big brother trying to teach him how

to walk but is really just his first steps towards death.

Brother also refers to Doodle as his “pride” because brother's love for Doodle is basically

feeding off his pride by thinking he is doing something gracious for Doodle. Brother states that “ They

did not know that I did it for myself, … Doodle walked only because I was ashamed of having a

crippled brother. This enforces the idea that making Doodle do the tasks such as “to run, to swim, to

climb trees, and to fight” were all for the betterment of himself. This lead brother to believe in his own

“infallibility.” Just as it says in the Bible about pride, when it comes from self- righteousness it is sin.

So what brother is is doing to Doodle is just poisoning him further with his prideful state.

The whole life that Doodle has lived has been infected with his brothers ideas of how he