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Selfishness In The Scarlet Ibis

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Selfishness drives you to make unorthodox decisions. In the short story, The Scarlet Ibis by James Hurst, The author uses figurative expressions and images to make clear the relationship between a handicapable kid and his brother. Brother is extremely cruel to Doodle but he still seems to love Brother notwithstanding this. Brother cruelly pushes Doodle beyond his limits because he is embarrassed by having a disabled brother and is only concerned about his own feelings.The reason Doodle loves brother is because, despite Brother's anger, Doodle wants to impress his brother, Doodle Looks up to his brother, and Doodle doesn't understand the way he was being treated.

Before Doodle learned to walk their parents made brother take doodle anywhere …show more content…

Brother began teaching Doodle to walk. "I can't walk" Yes you can, Doodle... All you gotta do is try"(4).This reveals that Doodle was very doubtful and frankly, didn't care enough to ever try. The only reason he ever started to walk was because his brother was pushing him to be normal. Doodle wanted to just impress his brother but didn't really intend to walk. After Doodle was finally strong enough to walk, the Armstrong Brothers showed their parents. "Doodle only walked because I was ashamed of having a crippled brother” (5) This quote proves that Doodle wants to be accepted by his brother. Throughout the story, Brother is pushing doodle to be like him for his own conscience. Doodle is mesmerized by Brother so he wants to be just like him. While a Brother was giving doodle walking lessons. Doodle constantly questioned the importance of walking "Does it make any difference? It certainly only does"(6). Doodle didn't walk for himself in the beginning of the story he was content in being himself. With the constant push from brother to be normal, Doodle began to feel unhappy with his disability and developed a desire to be just like his brother. Without Brother recurring pressure to fit the social norm. Doodle would have been content being himself and didn't yearn to impress Doodle continues to adore his brother neglecting the emotional abuse because Doodle

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