Scarlet Ibis Compare And Contrast Essay

“‘Doodle!’ I screamed above the pounding storm and threw my body to the earth above his” (426). In the short story “The Scarlet Ibis” by James Hurst, the narrator, known as Brother, brings his younger brother, Doodle, to his destined death a little earlier in his life. Brother, being only thirteen, does not think very highly of his six year old younger brother Doodle. Doodle’s real name is William Armstrong but the narrator discovered his nickname when he sees him crawling backwards like a doodlebug. Doodle has a variety of physical limitations such as he cannot become “too excited, too hot, too cold, or too tired and that he must always be treated gently” (417).The narrator resents Doodle due to all these physical limitations. The ways the narrator in “The Scarlet Ibis” kills his younger brother are he pushes his physical conditions, he is prideful, and he abandons him.

In the story, the Brother makes Doodle do things that he should not be doing, but he will do due to he loves his older brother unconditionally. Whenever the brother teaches Doodle to walk, he “paints him a picture of them as old men, white-haired, and the brother still pulling them around in the go-cart” (419). Once the narrator succeeds in teaching Doodle how to walk, he begins on teaching him other things like “running, swimming, climbing trees, and fighting” (421). On hot days, he makes Doodle swim and row a boat at the Horsehead Landing. For the reason that Doodle did not learn how to swim the narrator makes him “swim until he turns blue” and he also “ rows until he can not lift an oar” (422). The narrator also “purposely walks fast” and although Doodle can keep up his “face turns red and his eyes become glazed” (422). The narrator pushes Doodle until he looks feverish and has nightmares every night. Pushing Doodle too hard could have many reasons, but one reason seems to stick out the