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Theme Of Pride In The Scarlet Ibis

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“Pride is a wonderful, terrible thing, a seed that bears two vines, life and death” (Hurst 2). This is how James Hurst describes pride in his heart-wrenching short story, “The Scarlet Ibis.” What speaks to me most about this quote is its profound truth. For the majority of people, pride is either a positive or negative thing, but what Hurst and I seem to agree about is the fact that pride can be both. It is an undeniable symptom of the human condition, a tool that can either create or destroy, and is responsible for the best and worst parts of history. It is the reason the world possesses beauty and the reason it possesses evil. Regardless of one’s personal perception of pride, I believe it is an important topic to explore through literature, current events, and through aspects of our own daily lives.
Pride is recurring theme in the aforementioned story, “The Scarlet Ibis.” In the story, the narrator seeks to train his handicapped brother, Doodle, to play like a regular, unafflicted boy. He says “But all of us must have something or someone to be proud of, and Doodle had become mine” (Hurst 2). In stating this, the narrator points out the value of pride, which is its power to inspire improvement. As humans, we all (or at least most of us) have something in our lives that we desire to share with the rest of the world. Pride, I believe, is the driving force behind this. People have a psychological tendency to want to embellish and show off what is their own, just

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