Doodle's Death In The Scarlet Ibis By James Hurst
The short story, “The Scarlet Ibis” by James Hurst is about a boy and his disabled younger brother Doodle. In the story, the older brother tries to make his Doodle like other kids his age, such as being able to walk, climb, swim, and jump around. One day when they were a little ways away from home, the older brother becomes angry with Doodle and starts running home, abandoning him. As this is happening a storm is rolling in. Doodle, depending on his brother very much, tries to catch up to him through the rain but ends up dying under a red nightshade bush. Was it the older brother’s fault that Doodle died? Some details in the story point out that it might not have been the older brother’s fault that Doodle died, but rather other people influencing
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In the story, the narrator's parents let him tote around their weak son wherever the older brother wanted. If something bad happened to Doodle, there wouldn’t be an adult there to help with the situation. This later happens later in the story, where Doodle is dying and the narrator can do nothing about it because he is just a twelve year old boy. Also, it seems that Doodle should be staying more at home. In the story it says “with his weak heart this strain would probably kill him” (Hurst, 163) and, “His skin was very sensitive” (Hurst, 164). This says that Doodle probably wasn’t fit for the outdoors and could probably get hurt very easily. The parents should probably not have put Doodle into the inexperienced hands of the young narrator. The last reason why it wasn’t the narrator’s fault that Doodle died was that the narrator didn’t know any better. He didn’t know that physical activity could potentially kill his brother. Nobody told him or it didn’t really sink in for a six year old boy. Again that goes back to the parents for not telling him. These details from “The Scarlet Ibis” give people reasons to believe that it wasn’t the older brother’s fault that Doodle died. This may not be true for other people as different details give us different views on the story. The author leaves it up to the reader to decide about whether or not Doodle’s death was his
In the story, the narrator's parents let him tote around their weak son wherever the older brother wanted. If something bad happened to Doodle, there wouldn’t be an adult there to help with the situation. This later happens later in the story, where Doodle is dying and the narrator can do nothing about it because he is just a twelve year old boy. Also, it seems that Doodle should be staying more at home. In the story it says “with his weak heart this strain would probably kill him” (Hurst, 163) and, “His skin was very sensitive” (Hurst, 164). This says that Doodle probably wasn’t fit for the outdoors and could probably get hurt very easily. The parents should probably not have put Doodle into the inexperienced hands of the young narrator. The last reason why it wasn’t the narrator’s fault that Doodle died was that the narrator didn’t know any better. He didn’t know that physical activity could potentially kill his brother. Nobody told him or it didn’t really sink in for a six year old boy. Again that goes back to the parents for not telling him. These details from “The Scarlet Ibis” give people reasons to believe that it wasn’t the older brother’s fault that Doodle died. This may not be true for other people as different details give us different views on the story. The author leaves it up to the reader to decide about whether or not Doodle’s death was his