The Scarlet Ibis Character Analysis Essay

In the story, “The Scarlet Ibis”, the author, James Hurst, used a scarlet ibis to symbolize Doodle. The scarlet ibis in the story was an injured bird that was weak just like Doodle. Throughout the story Doodle shows that he is also gullible and a big dreamer along with being weak. Doodle from “The Scarlet Ibis” is gullible, weak, and a big dreamer.

One of Doodle’s main characteristics is that he is gullible. Doodle shows that he is gullible in many different situations throughout the story. When Doodle’s brother tells him his plan to teach him to walk Doodle doesn’t think he he can walk because that is what everybody has told him. Doodle said, “I can’t walk, brother.” His brother then asked him, “Who says so?” Doodle responded, “Mama, the doctor-everybody” (418). This quote instantly infers that he is gullible because he just listened to what they said and whatever they said that was how it was. Another time Doodle was being extremely gullible in the story was when they were running back to the house in the storm and Doodle cried our, “Brother, brother, don't leave me! Don't leave me!” (425). This quote shows that Doodle

The narrator shows multiple times throughout the story how Doodle is weak. As soon as the flashback started the narrator said , “Everybody thought he was going to die” (416). The only person in the story that though he would live was Aunt Nicey. Later in the story Doodle showed some improvement was but he was still very weak. He crawled backwards like a doodlebug and that was how he got the nickname Doodle. The narrator wrote, “When he crawled, on the rug, he crawled backward, as if he were in reverse and couldn’t change gears” (417). Doodle had some condition with his heart that was really explained but just identified as being “weak”. Later in the story he does learn to walk, run, jump, and swim but his heart was still weak. He would never had been able to be a normal