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Destruction In The Scarlet Ibis By James Hurst

443 Words2 Pages

“The Scarlet Ibis” isn't a fairy tale, neither dedicated to entertaining the reader, but nevertheless, to avow deeply into the reality of how cruel and prideful people can be, disregarding the limitations of others. The author, James Hurst wanted to portray his larger message, that pride can ultimately lead to major destruction, by conveying two siblings. Doodle, the helpless, dependent, younger brother and his antagonist older brother whose name isn't revealed to us, he’s only referred to as “Brother”. Unfortunately, in the story, the antagonist’s pride and neglection caused major destruction to the protagonist, Doodle, which resulted in his tragic death. Throughout the story, there were many quotes and descriptive words hinting …show more content…

Due to Doodle’s complication during his birth, it resulted in him not being able to keep up with daily activities, like walking. Brother had a hard time coping with the state of his younger sibling so he wanted to end both of their sufferings by killing him, but later changed his mind. Instead of killing Doodle, he decided it would be better if he taught Doodle how to walk. When Doodle was five years old, Brother decided it was time that Doodle learned how to walk. During the process of teaching him how to walk, Brother’s pride was too large for him to care whether or not he was pushing Doodle too hard, he just worried about the end result, of Doodle, walking and impressing his family. Countless times Brother neglected Doodle’s limitations, challenging him physically despite his parents addressing the fact that Doodle has many needs. “I made him swim until he turned blue and row until he couldn’t lift an oar. Wherever we went, I purposely walked fast, and though he kept up, his face turned red and

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