By employing the use of conflict and similes, the author reveals Doodle’s determination and fragility. The use of conflict shows how Doodle is determined because the struggle for him to please his brother empowers him to overcome his physical disabilities. Doodle’s brother himself
The brothers overcame the struggles one by one, pushing themselves to the limit. Doodle’s characteristics of being cautious, receptive and frightened proves that one should not lose hope in oneself or anyone else. Doodle took every move with caution,
The narrator dreamed of a brother that could do all those things but when his parents told him that “he wasn’t all there” he knew he had to do something about it therefore, “When Doodle was five years old, [he] was embarrassed at having a brother of that age that couldn’t walk, so [he] set out to teach him” (Hurst 488). Despite the physical condition with the Doodle , the narrator’s pride wanted him to “fix” him because he was ashamed of the Doodle ever since he was born. The narrator sets time out of his days to help his brother develop physically since Doodle is physically imobile. He goes down to Old Woman Swamp everyday to teach Doodle.
The narrator’s pride in Doodle is both good and bad, it is good because it made them teach Doodle learn how to walk, but it is bad because they have cruel expectations of Doodle that comes out and acts harsh. Doodle’s disability affected the narrator by giving them a streak of cruelty towards Doodle. It was when the narrator stated, “One day I took him up to the barn loft and showed him his mahogany casket, telling him how we all had believed he would die”(Hurst 164). That was the effect of Doodle’s disability on the narrator, it made the narrator do harsh actions towards Doodle from embarrassment and
In the short story it has a small family and a young boy William Armstrong A.K.A Doodle, Doodle has many health problems, one of which is the disability to walk. When the narrator; or Doodles brother is forced to take him wherever he goes “Take Doodle with you” and the narrator has had enough and decides he is going to teach his brother to walk. So in the short story “The Scarlet Ibis” by James Hurst, It shows a story of a small family who undergo many difficulties and two brothers that have to be together all the time. After many months and multiple seasons of trying to teach doodle to walk, Doodle finally learns to walk and everyone was so happy “Then Mama began to cry and ran over to him, hugging him and kissing him.”
“The Scarlet Ibis” is about a young boy named William Armstrong, and his healthy, older brother, the narrator. When William Armstrong was first born he was very fragile, and his head was bigger than his body. When William Armstrong was first born his family did not think he would live very long, so his parents was not going to name him. Then after he stayed alive for 3 months they decided to name him. Then his brother, the narrator, decided to rename him because the name sounded too much like a name on a tombstone, so he renamed him Doodle.
The narrator says, “They did not know I did it for myself; that pride, whose slave I was, spoke to me louder than all their voices, and that Doodle walked only because I was ashamed of having a crippled brother. ”(355). He only helped his brother because he was embarrassed by him, so his pride got the best of him. The narrator also says, “Do you want to be different from everybody else when you start school?”(357). Doodle did not care, so yet again the narrator just did not want to be embarrassed by him in front of other people.
As proven at the end of the story, Doodle’s brain and personality had matured greatly, but the significance of flashbacks is giving comparisons of how Doodle’s choices of wanting to walk and live in the real world effects his physical capabilities. When Doodle was bedridden, the only way for his family to know he was “with” them was when he smiled. This proves how much time and effort Doodle and his brother put into trying to get Doodle to walk and live as a normal eight year old boy. As a child, Doodle was extremely weak and fragile, “When he was two, if you laid on his stomach, he began to try to move himself, straining terribly” (Hurst 417).
It was grueling to force Doodle’s body to move correctly and not falter, The narrator acted as if it was to help his brother, and have a better outcome for the world, but he truthfully did it out of pride because he didn’t want the humiliation of an invalid brother. Doodle learned out to walk, but the narrator wouldn’t stop there. He forced his brother to do more grueling tasks. “Do you want to be different from everyone else when you start school?”
Crawling backwards made him look like a Doodlebug, […] because nobody expects much from someone called Doodle.” Society’s attentiveness is predominantly towards the aspects of and in this story Doodle’s impairment seemed to have negative impacts on him that the society has caused. His brother saw him as a burden in many ways. Doodle must be treated gently as he was forbidden from certain activities and conditions, at the same time he was embarrassed to have a crippled brother at the age
The narrator says, “Doodle told them it was I who had taught him to walk, so everyone wanted to hug me, and I began to cry” (Hurst 559). We can see the positive effects of the pride that the narrator has for Doodle in this passage because he cries when Doodle tells their family that it was him who had taught Doodle to walk. After Doodle learned to walk
Throughout the story readers get to see how when a loved one has a disability it’s hard to accept it. In this story it shows the different ways that Brother acts dealing with Doodle including; Brother becomes egotistic, a little antagonistic, but also can be very considerate.
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.
In the story “The Scarlet Ibis” a child named Doodle is born very weak and disabled. He could not walk or run until the age of 5 and has many health issues. Doodle’s older brother tried to teach him to do these things, but ends up overworking him. Later in the story, Doodle dies after falling down during a heavy storm while Brother runs away from him.
Doodle is born sick, and everyone but their Aunt Nicey thinks he will die. The dad even buys his son Doodle a coffin. When Doodle has lived for two months, the parents said they will name him William Armstrong. The narrator is very athletic and active and always wanted a brother to explore with, but his little brother Doodle was born was born ill and his mom always told him that Doodle will never be able to run and play like a normal little boy. Time passes and Doodle is now 5 and still can't walk and his brother is embarrassed by him and Doodle is afraid his brother will abandon him.
