Comparing Scarlet Ibis And Freak The Mighty

Faith Heathcote
Period 7
November 5, 2015

We have studied three stories: the short story “The Scarlet Ibis” by James Hurst, Freak the Mighty, a novel, by Rodman Philbrick, and Simon Birch, a film, by Mark Johnson. These three stories are conveyed through very different forms, but they share many character traits, literary devices, and themes.
Doodle, Kevin and Simon all have disabilities. This makes life a challenge for them, but they each have a special friend to help. Doodle’s brother was his designated best friend whether he liked it or not. Although at first he didn’t like the idea of having a sibling but he saw that Doodle was “all there.” Brother said, “I skipped through the rooms, down the echoing halls, shouting, ‘Mama, he smiled. He’s all there! He’s all there!’ and he was’” (Hurst 351). Brother taught Doodle how to walk for self-embarrassment later realized that he wasn’t the only one effected by

Brother loved Doodle, but by his brotherly instinct he sometimes bullied Doodle. “There is within me a knot of cruelty borne by the stream of love, much as our blood sometimes bears the seed of our destruction, and at times I was mean to Doodle” (Hurst 353). Unlike Doodle with his bully as a close figure in his life, Kevin faced a more dangerous villain like Tony D. “...they call him Blade, he’s at least seventeen and he’s already been to juvy court three, four times” (Philbrick 29). Tony steps in front of Freak and asks him what he called him. Freak just looks right up into his face and says, "Cretin. C-R-E-T-I-N. Defined as one who suffers from a mental deficiency" (Philbrick 6.17). Later Kevin realizes how dangerous Tony D. can be as he and Ma flee into the pond to escape Blade’s wrath. “I (Max) hear this zingy sound and i just know that Blade is swinging a knife, cutting the air behind us, and there’s nowhere to go but into the pond like Freak wants me to” (Philbrick