Impaired In The Scarlet Ibis By James Hurst

Imagine the deep pain of discovering that your new brother is disabled and can’t climb trees or run in the swamp with you. Although there are several themes in James Hurst’s short story “The Scarlet Ibis,” the most prominent theme is that life is fragile and to appreciate what you have even if it isn’t perfect. Hurst develops this theme through the experiences the narrator has with his brother Doodle and the way his relationship with him changes his experience of life. First of all, the narrator is embarrassed and frustrated that his brother Doodle is born disabled. He is so honest about his feelings he even admits that he imagines killing his brother if he finds out he is also mentally disabled. He says “but having (a brother) who possibly was not all there was unbearable, so began to make plans to kill him by smothering him with a pillow.” The narrator eventually discovers his brother is “all there” or mentally sound so he decides to try to teach him to walk and make him into the brother he wants him to be. He realizes that he is only teaching Doodle due to his own pride. He doesn’t want to have a brother with a disability. When his brother first walks he says, “they did not know that I did it for myself; that pride, whose slave I was, spoke to me louder than all their voices, and that Doodle walked only because I was ashamed of having a crippled brother.” This connects to the theme of

He simply works to try to make his brother different and better for prideful reasons. In the end of the story this pride comes to haunt the