The Scarlet Ibis Theme Essay

How can a person be so selfish and vain as to kill his brother? In the short story, “ The Scarlet Ibis,” author James Hurst explores the love and cruelty of a boy towards his disabled brother, Doodle. The story depicts the South in the 1900’s, when babies with birth defects rarely survived due to a lack of advanced medical equipment. “The Scarlet Ibis” chronicles the bond of miracle baby, Doodle, and his older brother until his tragic death. The narrator, or brother, causes Doodle’s death by pushing him beyond his physical restrictions , putting pride before family, and abandoning Doodle in a life-threatening situation. The way his brother continuously trained Doodle resulted in his premature death. Before Doodle began school the narrator strived to make
Brother’s success in training Doodle to walk causes him to fall under the delusion that Doodle can accomplish any physical task that a normal human can perform and leads him to make the ultimate sacrifice of his younger brother and the inexcusable choice of his own needs over those of disabled Doodle. “ I ran as fast as I could , leaving him far behind with a wall of rain dividing us,” (425) says the narrator as he describes the fateful afternoon when he leaves his helpless little brother shivering and alone in the cold to his tragic fate. As the story comes to an end, the narrator returns to the spot where he abandoned Doodle in the rain to discover a pale and bloody Doodle lying lifeless on the ground and realizes his responsibility in the death of his brother. “ I lay there crying, sheltering my fallen scarlet ibis from the heresy of rain.”(426). Laying there in that moment, as he holds small, limp Doodle, the narrator clearly realizes that nothing overcomes the love and devotion a person owes to his family and how being selfless, rather than selfish, will end in a better