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What Is The Symbolism In The Scarlet Ibis

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Have you ever been so ashamed of who you are associated with, that you push them past their own physical limits for your own good? In the short story, The Scarlet Ibis, by James Hurst makes you think about what is truly from the goodness of the brother character’s heart or if he is just being selfish. Ever since Doodle was born, he had no hope from anyone. Brother was the first one to look past his disabilities and see that he had the potential to be normal. Although Brother has to care for Doodle and teach him how to walk, run, swim, and row, it was only because he was sick of giving all of his personal time to the little disabled boy who could not walk. Brother was making great progress with Doodle until one rainy day when he made the poor, tired boy run home. His heart had been so overworked that it could not take anymore. Doodle had died. The scarlet ibis is a symbol for the narrator's brother, Doodle, because they both are exotic in appearance and place, overworked in life, and similar in color and position in death. To begin, the scarlet ibis is a symbol for Doodle because they are both overworked in some way. Doodle is born with a disability that makes him unable to walk. He starts crawling at age three, but backwards. The doctors tell his family not to put any strain on his heart and not to take part in any physical activities. …show more content…

Brother was so ashamed of who his brother might have been, that he went to extremes to make him normal. That would have been fine, but he did not help Doodle out of the goodness of his own heart, he taught him things because he felt that he would be spending too much time with him and Brother feared that he would spend the rest of his whole life trying to take care of his disabled little

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