The Scarlet Ibis Theme Analysis

The Scarlet Ibis by James Hurt is a story about a Brother who is the narrator of the story, whose sibling Doodle cannot walk. The brother starts to teach Doodle to walk, and as he gets well, the brother pushes Doodle more and more. One day, during a storm, the Brother leaves Doodle in a field, expecting him to be able to run back as fast as him. However, after a long time, the Brother searches for Doodle and finds him dead. There are many important themes in this story, including that sometimes in life, you must accept people for whom they are instead of trying to change them.

One example of the theme in The Scarlet Ibis is when the narrator explains why he wanted to teach Doodle to walk. A quote from this part of the story is “When Doodle

"I can't walk, Brother," he said.

"Who says so?" I demanded.

"Mama, the doctor--everybody."

"Oh, you can walk," I said.” This part shows that the narrator of the story wanted the doodle to walk only because it was embarrassing for him. He wanted a doodle to fit a mold that he can't fit and wanted him to be normal when he was already good.

Another example of the theme in the story is when the brother first shows his parents Doodle's progress with his walking, and Doodle tells them that the narrator is the reason he learned to walk. “There wasn't a sound as Doodle walked slowly across the room and sat down at the table. Then Mama began to cry and ran over to him, hugging him and kissing him. Daddy hugged him, too. Doodle told them it was I who had taught him to walk, so they wanted to hug me, and I began to cry. "What are you crying for?" asked Daddy, but I couldn't answer. They didn't know that I did it just for myself, that Doodle walked only because I was ashamed of having a crippled brother.”This part shows the theme of the story because it shows how the narrator was only helping his brother for his reason and so that he wouldn't have to be ashamed of him

An example from this part of the story is “But Doodle couldn't keep up with the plan. Once, he collapsed on the ground and began to cry. "Aw, come on, Doodle. You can do it. Do you want to be different from everybody else when you start school?" "Does that make any difference?" "It certainly does. Now, come on." I reply” This part of the story shows that theme because the narrator is making Doodle ashamed of himself so that he will try to be different and fit expectations because he wants to be