Is The Narrator Responsible For Death Of Doodle Essay

Raymond’s Run and The Scarlet Ibis is two short stories about the main characters dealing with their disable siblings, but even though they have disabled siblings they treat their siblings different. The characters have different motives. In the short story, The Scarlet Ibis the narrator has a little brother name William Armstrong but the narrator gives him the name Doodle. Doodle was born with a big head and red body.

The Scarlet Ibis How did Doodle die? Why did Doodle die? Was it his Brother? Doodle was born a disabled kid who was loved by everybody in his family except his brother (The narrator of this story). The narrator wished for a perfect brother that his would be able to do things with but when he wasn’t given that it caused him to do things that no brother should ever do or think about doing to his younger brother.

In a person’s life, many situations transpire and make them feel pride over one’s self. Readers can see this in the short story,” The Scarlet Ibis” by James Hurst. “In his spare time Hurst wrote short stories and plays, but The Scarlet Ibis was the only work of his that become famous “(gradesaver.com)”. In the short story, “The Scarlet Ibis” James Hurst uses red to symbolize warning, death, and guilt to show the change the older brother goes through, as he takes care of Doodle. The first instance when red is used, is to express warning and the older brother’s attitude, is at Doodle’s birth.

“The Scarlet Ibis” Essay Have you ever known a person to be responsible for his own brother’s death? That’s what happened in “The Scarlet Ibis”. The narrator (whose name is not known) inadvertently caused his brother Doodle’s death, when the narrator ran from Doodle in a rainstorm, even when Doodle called out to his brother and told him not to leave him. Doodle had a condition which caused him to be different from everyone else, and his brother helped him learn to walk, and tried to teach him other things, such as swimming. In the rainstorm, the narrator ran from Doodle, and Doodle must have fallen and died somewhere, because when his brother came back for him, Doodle was dead.

“To be human is to be beautifully flawed. ”(Eric Wilson). All humans are flawed. That is what makes them human. Flaws sometimes are hurtful, but they make the character interesting.

Relationships are one of the most important things in our lives whether it be family, friend, or God, and though many things will try to disturb those relationships, we must do everything we can to keep them secure and close to our hearts. “The Scarlet Ibis” by James Hurst is a great short story that represents several universal themes throughout in which readers can identify. The main conflict of the story is between Brother and Doodle because Brother desperately wants Doodle to be able to live and function just like him, even though Doodle was born different from most people living in society, especially at that time. Three of the main themes that are defective in the story are man’s struggle with pride, his desires to please others, and his struggle to love and accept others for who they are.

Effects of Shared Humanity A human is a creature that goes through experiences such as emotions, choices , relationships, losses, survival, and moral dilemmas. These are apart of a concept known as Shared Humanity. The things everybody has in common affect how a person would see the world around them.

“Brother” is pretty cruel and mean so I hold him accountable for the death of Doodle (William Armstrong). Some of these reasons why I think so is that he abandoned him in the forest, he didn’t care if he was leaving him behind, and he wasn’t going to help him home at all. To start it all off his “Brother” left his only sibling in the forest. On page 6 paragraph 1 or 2 is says “After we had drifted a long way, I put the oars in place and made Doodle row back against the tide.” The reason I think this is because he was making Doodle row both of them against the tide

In the story the author didn’t care for Doodle. The author gave him the nickname “Doodle” because he didn’t like Doodles actual name. The author decided to help Doodle on walk on his own time because he was too embarrassed to have a little brother with an unusual name, and also couldn’t even walk on his own at the age five.

After reading the Scarlet Ibis for homework we came into class and discussed. Many good points and counterpoints were made throughout. We discovered that the narrator was a selfish boy who was very worried about his reputation and how people saw him. In the story it said, “Doodle only walked because I was ashamed to have a crippled brother.” That shows that even the narrator saw how horrible he was being yet he continued on.