The Scarlet Ibis Short Story

In the short story, “The Scarlet Ibis” written by James Hurst, creates a story about a boy named Doodle who was born with disabilities and his brother makes plans to kill him. In paragraph 5 on the first page of the story, Hurst writes, “It was bad enough having an invalid brother, but having one who possibly was not all there was unbearable, so I began to make plans to kill him by smothering him with a pillow.” This clearly makes readers think that the narrator wants him dead, and the narrator isn’t grateful for what kind of brother he has. This clearly brings up that it was the narrator 's fault that Doodle died. He left Doodle out in the storm on purpose and ran away, the narrator had plans to kill him earlier on in the story, and everyone expected Doodle to die right when he was born. In the beginning of the story, Hurst writes , “Doodle was just about the craziest brother a boy ever had.” “He was born when I was six and was, from the outset, disappointment. He seemed all head, with a tiny body which was red and shriveled like an old man’s. Everybody thought he was going to die-everybody except Aunt Nicey, who had delivered him. She said he would live because he was born in a caul, and cauls were made in Jesus’ nightgown. Daddy and Mr. Heath, the carpenter, build a little mahogany coffin for him. But he didn’t die, and when he was three months old, Mama and Daddy decided they might as well name him.” After that it said that the name William Armstrong sounds good, only