Preview

The Two Headed Calf By James Hurst: Poem Analysis

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
199 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
The Two Headed Calf By James Hurst: Poem Analysis
In the “Scarlet Ibis” by James Hurst, Brother and Doodle are like the two-headed calf staring at the stars in the poem, “The Two-Headed Calf,” by Mary Gilpin. Although Brother is at time aggravated by Doodle’s neediness and because he is “a burden in so many ways,” (Hurst) the brothers still enjoy their time together and, while growing up, are free to be themselves. The time the brothers spend together at Old Woman Swamp enjoying nature and each other is carefree in the same way the two-headed calf is carefree when enjoying the beautiful night without any fear of persecution. It is only when the looming threat of school draws close, that Brother begins to worry how others may view Doodle and even himself for having a crippled brother. It is

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    In the story “The Scarlet Ibis” by James Hurst there is a day where Doodle is brought to the barn loft and made to touch his casket, this is foreshadowing the upcoming event of Doodle’s death. First and foremost the fact that Doodle is being forced to touch his poison covered coffin by his brother is a representation of Doodle being pushed to the limit. Then the day he dies is the day brother goes too far, he pushes Doodle to work to point where he starts to cry. It begins with brother making “Doodle row back against the tide.”(5). Before this Doodle was too exhausted to swim and after rowing the boat it is too hard for him to run. However, his brother starts to run. Consequently pushing Doodle farther than he can go. Afterwards Doodle starts…

    • 306 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    “Forever” written by Paul Jennings and “The Scarlet Ibis” written by James Hurst are two sad stories. Both stories are about mentally and physically disabled children that ends in an unfortunate way. A brother lost in each story leaving behind a grieving family.…

    • 609 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • 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
  • Good Essays

    In the short story, “The Scarlet Ibis” by James Hurst there are many symbolic meanings, but the most common and predictable one is the Scarlet Ibis bird. Doodle wasn't born like the average person. “Everyone thought he was going to die except Aunt Nicey, who had delivered him. She said he would live because he was born in a caul and cauls were made from jesus nightgown” (pg.416)Doodle and the scarlet ibis bird have much in common. Doodle was born weak, feeble, with problems, and for that matter of fact people believed he wouldn’t have much time to live. He had lived past 3 months and they had named him.The representation he has with the scarlet ibis is that after the storm that had occurred, a scarlet ibis bird was blown all the way into Doodle’s…

    • 379 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
  • Satisfactory Essays

    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…

    • 397 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The short story written by James Hurst “The Scarlet Ibis” explains that a selfish deed is not always bad. The story starts with the narrator, Brother, and his little brother Doodle. When Doodle was being born, he was red, and all shriveled up, a disappointment, and everyone thought he would die. When their mother always told Brother to take Doodle with him everywhere he went, Brother is embarrassed to be seen with his 5 year-old brother, who couldn’t walk, but had to be pulled everywhere in a mini go-cart. The narrator made it his mission to set out to teach Doodle to walk and everything else, so he wasn’t behind everyone in his grade. One day they went to Horsehead Landing, so narrator could teach Doodle how to swim but there came a lightning storm.…

    • 488 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The narrator is unable to accept his disabled brother. The pride the narrator has convinces him to teach Doodle how to be normal. Once Doodle learns to walk, he goes on to teach Doodle other things. One day, the family finds a scarlet ibis that dies.in front of them. Later in the story, Doodle and Brother are at Old Woman Lake when the weather changes and Brother leave Doodle behind. Once he's done this he goes back only to find Doodle dies just like the Scarlet Ibis…

    • 88 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    “The Centaur” by May Swenson portrays an imaginative, care free young girl as she becomes one with what she thinks is the centaur, she is “the horse and the rider” (38) , but eventually her mother brings to an end her wild ride. Through structure, diction, figurative language, and imagery, Swenson describes a special time for the ten year old girl.…

    • 779 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    “The Scarlet Ibis” is about a kid named Doodle and his brother. “The Scarlet Ibis” is about a normal family that had a kid who was born and at the age of five he still wasn't able to walk. The older brother always takes care of him. The older brother calls his little brother Doodle because he crawled like a doodlebug. The older brother went through many troubles to help his little brother Doodle. They are different in many ways and are similar at the same time.…

    • 350 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    This is shown when he clutches Doodle’s body in a sign of remorse. Where he had often left Doodle behind in the past, he hangs on to Doodle’s corpse and tries to shield it from the rain and the world. Since Brother changed his action, it is shown his feelings for Doodle changes from childness resentment to shame for his actions. The tone of guilt also shows in the afterthought in the story after Brother finishes telling an event, like when he reveals that he “[taught Doodle how to walk] for himself… and that Doodle walked only because [he] was ashamed of having a crippled brother” (182-184). Because he regrets treating Doodle the way he did, he laments about his past actions and paints an ashamed tone over the events. By showing the feeling changes of Brother, Hurst makes the story more…

    • 456 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Do you know what makes a good or bad brother? Well a good brother, like Doodle’s brother, will instruct him to better himself, hope for the best, and will safeguard him from any imperilment. The narrator in “The Scarlet Ibis” was a caring brother because his actions helped motivate Doodle to become self reliant.…

    • 411 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Even though Brother saw Doodle as a crazy brother that you would see in your dreams he was mean to him by making him do things he didn't want to. Too much pride had ridden over Brother as he did his best to change Doodle into an ordinary boy for he was ashamed of him even if it meant he was cruel and harsh in the process. Another example is after Brother had finally taught Doodle to successfully walk on his own. The narrator says “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”(3). What Brother had done for Doodle was great, but Brother had been mean to him in the process of teaching Doodle how to do anything like a normal boy. The narrator had too much pride for himself instead of his brother that everything he did was for himself simply because he was embarrassed. The short story “The Scarlet Ibis” written by James Hurst displays that too much pride has us treat our loved ones in a cruel…

    • 446 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the “Scarlet Ibis” by James Hurst the narrator wanted a brother who could play and run with him. Nevertheless he had a brother with severe disabilities and great limitations. Instead of viewing his brother, Doodle, with love and friendships, he saw him as a mistake that he should fix. After considering murder the narrator decides to try and teach Doodle to be normal. However, he ended up killing Doodle instead. Even though, Doodle’s death greatly saddened the narrator it taught him to accept and appreciate others for who they are, instead of changing…

    • 1048 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    In this stylistic analysis of the lost baby poem written by Lucille Clifton I will deal mainly with two aspects of stylistic: derivation and parallelism features present in the poem. However I will first give a general interpretation of the poem to link more easily the stylistic features with the meaning of the poem itself.…

    • 1304 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays