Scarlet Ibis Essay

There is a saying that frankly states Only the good die young. Of course, this observation

is not quite literal, as many moral individuals live long and happy lives. Consider, however, the

notion that perhaps the innocence of youth crumbles, jaded, before a chance is truly given to

mature. The loss of innocence and the youthful sins of pride, overconfidence, and infallibility

manifest within the narrator, Brother, in James Hurst's short story "The Scarlet Ibis". This

develops into the central theme after the narrator experiences the tragic death of his handicapped

brother because of his own doing.

Brother laments, "For a long time, it seemed forever, I lay there crying, sheltering my

fallen scarlet ibis from the heresy of rain." (Hurst 6). The dispiriting imagery conjured by the

words above convey a sense of loss of self as well as the loss of another. Hurst foreshadows this

loss (intangibly sometimes) throughout the short story: "The last graveyard flowers were

blooming..." (Hurst 1) and "Such a name sounds good only on a tombstone." (Hurst 1) are two

instances on the first page. New Criticism or [Formalism] suggests that one should pull from the

story the "universal truths" "Through 'isolated' and 'objective reading'..." (AASU Writing

Center 1) the underlying universal truth in "The Scarlet Ibis" is simply that pride will carefully

tear one's world apart, rendering the proud emotionally wrought. As well, the victim of pride

can not be excluded, as Doodle's life and death is a literal transliteration of the saying because he

was a physically handicapped child who's life ended as a result of being abandoned by his older

brother. The narrator woefully proclaims, "They did not know that 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." (Hurst 3).