Preview

Red And Death In The Scarlet Ibis By James Hurst

Satisfactory Essays
Open Document
Open Document
397 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Red And Death In The Scarlet Ibis By James Hurst
In James Hurst's “The Scarlet Ibis”, a tragic tale is told about the Narrator’s younger, disabled brother who he teaches to walk. The whole story has a sad nostalgic shadow cast across it due to many symbols, motifs, and foreshadowing. Doodle, the young boy was born in a cual and wasn’t thought to survive he looked very strange when he was born, “ He seemed all head with a tiny body, which was red and shriveled like an old man’s” The mention of red is throughout the story leading up to the appearance of the ibis, as the story continues on we see more possibilities of how Doodle is going to meet his end. Red and death are brought up in contrast to happy memories of Doodle, almost representing the ibis before it arrives. The ibis appears out

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Doodle, a younger disabled brother in James Hurst’s “The Scarlet Ibis”, is uniquely symbolic to the beautiful red bird seen dying in his yard. The scarlet ibis, like Doodle, both are exotic in many wonderful ways. For one instance, the ibis is beautiful, while Doodle has a creative imagination. The ibis is a rare phenomenal bird, likewise, Doodle is an extraordinary boy. He is sensitive, like when he sees Old Woman Swamp. “His eyes were round with wonder as he gazed about him, and his little hands began to stroke the rubber grass. Then he began to cry. “It’s so pretty, so pretty, pretty, pretty.” (318). Despite the Ibis and Doodle’s magnificent traits, both ibis and Doodle suffer from a horrible storm. The ibis faced a storm that blew it all…

    • 270 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Scarlet Ibis Symbolism

    • 190 Words
    • 1 Page

    In the short story “Scarlet Ibis” James Hurst shows the scarlet ibis a symbol for Doodle by describing how both bodies were in death broken and on the ground. In the story a storm brought in the scarlet ibis from the tropics. The bird falls off the tree hits the ground and dies Aunt Nicey said “Dead birds is bad luck… especially red dead birds!” this sysmbolies that aunt Nicey knows that it’s not a good thing to have thing to have a red bird die in front of your house. Also, both doodle and the red ibis die with the same devastating was “it’s long graceful; neck jerked twice into an S, and then straightened out. And the bird was still. Then brother leaves doodle running after him in the storm brother comes back to find that doodle “had been…

    • 190 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    In Scarlet Ibis” James Hurst uses colors as a way to indirectly tell the reader a message, he uses three major colors red, black, and green. Firstly James Hurst uses black as a symbol of fear, and danger. The author connects the black clouds forming, to the kids moving faster to escape it. “Black clouds began to gather in the southwest, and he kept watching, trying to pull the oars a little faster”(62). Black is being used to describe the clouds in a fearful way, hence the reason why Doodle and his brother began to pull the oars faster. It supports the topic sentence because black is being used as a symbol for fear, and danger. Secondly James uses green as a symbol for tranquility, coolness, and life. James contrast the dark green woods…

    • 415 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    According to the first paragraph, what characteristics of the "Red Death" make it such a horrible disease?…

    • 657 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    I think that taking these precautions would be considered a natural reaction in my opinion, because Prince Prospero doesn't want to become a victim of The Red Death that is currently taking over his land and killing everyone off that it comes into contact with. Most any and everyone would try their best and attempt to do whatever is necessary to keep themselves and loved ones locked away from becoming infected with a plague, proceeding that they have the ability and obligatory materials required to do so. Keeping yourself distanced and put away from any sort of contact with the plague would be a natural reaction, because almost anyone would do whatever they could physically and possibly do in order to avoid being consumed of death by a plague.…

    • 291 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Assignment: Your assignment is to write a five-paragraph essay about the symbolism used in “The Masque of the Red Death” by Edgar Allan Poe. You will have an introduction, three body paragraphs, and a conclusion. You must include at least one direct quote in each of your body paragraphs from the story as well as from an article of literary criticism. You must have a title page and works cited page. All of this must be typed, double-spaced, and printed.…

    • 601 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The universal theme, no one can escape death, is displayed in “The Masque of the Red Death” by Edgar Allan Poe. In this story, Prince Prospero threw a masquerade to distract him from the pestilence that was The Red Death. His guests were worried about the plague getting to them and killing them all, and they tried forgetting about it. Eventually, The Red Death came and everyone, including the prince, was killed. This theme is not just found in this story, it appears in other places. The universal theme, no one can escape death, is found in “The Masque of the Red Death” as well as in The Fault in Our Stars by John Green and in the “Book of Psalms”.…

    • 787 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    When a widespread disease conquers everyone throughout the country, one man hopes to escape the disease by locking himself and many of his wealthy friends in his abbey. “The Masque of the Red Death,” by Edgar Allan Poe, is a story about a disease called the Red Death wiping out the country side. Prince Prospero believes he can escape the Red Death by locking himself in his abbey with a thousand of his wealthy friends. To celebrate escaping the deadly disease at the end of the fifth or sixth month, Prospero throws a masquerade ball. The ball takes place in seven different rooms; blue, purple, green, orange, white, violet, and black. When the party is in full swing, the ebony clock strikes twelve and everybody stops. Once everybody stops they…

    • 1220 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Throughout the novel, “The Scarlet Letter,” Nathaniel Hawthorne illustrates the themes with various dramatic colors. Of the array are the colors green and gold, where green symbolizes different aspects of nature such as tranquility, security, and gloominess, whereas gold represents all that pertains to luxuriance, serenity and goodness. In certain chapters, it seems as if one color is codependent with the other.…

    • 369 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the story, The Masque of the Red Death by Edgar Allan Poe, the author tries to create a specific atmosphere to emphasize the action within the story. The setting of the story immensely helps to create this atmosphere. Poe's descriptive setting aids in creating the atmosphere of the story by developing mood, evoking feelings from the reader, and creating a false sense of security.…

    • 592 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The story begins with the explanation of the “Red Death”. It is particularly described as a lethal disease whose symptoms include dizziness, profuse bleeding, sharp pains, and red stains on the victim’s faces and bodies. This contagion takes full effect in half an hour; those with the “red stain” tend to be rejected by the general public. Even when the disease has depopulated half of Prince Prospero’s country, he still remains happy and carefree. He invites a thousand of his uncontaminated noble friends to join him; to hide in a castle with enough supplies. While the mad Prince is holding wild parties inside the castle; his country quickly begins to depopulate.…

    • 671 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    As time has passed, many different literary periods have occurred. From ancient times to the present day, thousands of people have used their extensive imaginations and ideas to write beautiful literature for people to enjoy. One of these periods was the Romantic Period, which began in the late 1700s and ended in the 1870s. This movement opened the minds of average people to the strange and impossible ideas they encounter every day. Romantic literature allowed people to escape from reality to a world full of vivid dreams and abnormal fantasies, as shown in Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart” and “The Masque of the Red Death.”…

    • 1028 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    "The Masque of the Red Death" can be seen as an allegory about death. In the story Prince Prospero tries to avoid the deadly plague by gathering some friends and going to “one of his castellated abbeys” (687). Abbeys are usually a place where monks and nuns in the religious life live. This could be interpreted to mean that when faced with death people seek out religious or spiritual sanctuary. The colors of the rooms are significant. That at the eastern extremity was hung, for example in blue—and vividly blue were its windows” (688). The writer progresses down corridors describing rooms of various colors until reaching the western or black chamber. The walk down the corridor, from east to west, seems to signify birth, life and death, similar…

    • 336 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    When an unstoppable epidemic spreads across the land, especially in a medieval era, there is often little hope for survival. Many try to flee from it, but most cannot, and those who can are merely delaying the inevitable. In the story “The Masque of the Red Death”, Edgar Allan Poe, the author, uses plot developments to drastically change the story’s initially positive atmosphere with a bleak one until the climax puts the final nail in the coffin.…

    • 1035 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    The Masque of the Red Death and Young Goodman Brown are both good stories that paint vivid images. Throughout these stories, both Edgar Allan Poe and Nathaniel Hawthorne evoke a sense of fear and death. Edgar Allan Poe tells us a story of a prince who believed he could save himself and his nobles by keeping them inside of his castle. However, Nathaniel Hawthorne tells us a story of a man who takes a "journey" with his conscience. Both authors use characterization, symbolism, imagery and allusions to portray fear and death.…

    • 1154 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays