Irony In The Scarlet Ibis

“I did not know then that pride is a wonderful, terrible thing, a seed that bears two vines, life and death.” “The Scarlet Ibis,” a short story by James Hurst, proves with his theme, that excessive pride can ultimately hurt the people you love by using cleverly placed foreshadowing, bitter irony, and dramatic symbolism. In the story, the author writes about the deaths of his characters and is proven by foreshadowing, which is a literary device used by the author to build the plotline. Irony, another literary device, helps to build the theme by giving Doodle a strong name even though he is physically weak. Hurst uses symbolism to compare and contrast different characters or creatures in the story to better enforce the theme. The theme is: your excessive pride can end up hurting the ones you love, and the author uses this theme to teach people to accept others for who they are and to not let pride get in the way. Hurst shows us symbolism through the Scarlet Ibis the tragic fate in the end that Doodle will meet if the narrator continues to push Doodle past his limits because of his selfish pride. “At that moment the bird began to flutter, but the wings were uncoordinated, and amid much flapping and a spray of flying feathers, it tumbled down, bumping

“Daddy had Mr. Heath, the carpenter, build a little mahogany coffin for him. But he didn’t die…” (paragraph 3). The narrator explains that his family did not believe Doodle was going to live much longer after he was born, they all anticipated that he would die. After 3 months Doodle was still alive and they finally decided to name him… “They named him William Armstrong, which is like tying a big tail on a small kite.” (paragraph 3). That name suggests someone has physical strength, not someone who is as weak as doodle