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Imagery In The Scarlet Ibis

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The short story “The Scarlet Ibis” by, James Hurst, uses vivid imagery, predictive foreshadowing, and sharp point of view to convey the idea that pride isn’t the focus of life.
To start, Hurst’s use of imagery shows how the cripple brother portrayed in the story is shown to be treated by his brother who is ashamed of him. The author uses imagery to show how the brother was born as a cripple and could not walk and wasn’t shown to be anything more than that. His brother, the point of view in the story, was ashamed of the brother and didn’t want to be known for having a crippled brother. The author uses imagery to give the reader an idea of what the brother was thought to be, saying “He seemed all head, with a tiny body that was red and shriveled …show more content…

In the beginning of the story the family finds a scarlet ibis in their yard and right in front of them saw it die. The scarlet ibis in a sense is doodle who is unique and right in front of them. The author gives the foreshadowing by stating “How many miles had it traveled to die like this, in our yard, beneath the bleeding tree?” (Hurst, 1960) which is what happened to doodle and his brother. The brother teaches doodle so much and he came so far but then doodle passes right in the brother’s arm just as the scarlet ibis did so. By using foreshadowing the author was able to generate the narrative tension and give a clue to the story of what is sure to come. The author also uses the scarlet ibis as foreshadowing by showing that doodle shows compassion towards the bird saying “I’m going to bury it” (Hurst, 1960)showing that unlike his brother he cares for life and not just himself. This use of foreshadowing also gives the reader an idea of why the two brothers is different and if that difference will lead to consequences. In the end the foreshadowing comes through to because doodle dies in the end, and there the older brother sits holding him and says” I lay there crying, sheltering my fallen scarlet ibis.” (Hurst,

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