Do you remember your childhood years, when there was always that person that tried to make you do something that you weren’t capable of doing? In the story “The Scarlet Ibis” by James Hurst the Narrator pushes his little brother far beyond his limit. For example, Doodle was born a sick child and he wasn’t supposed to do normal things like the other children. The Narrator wanted to teach Doodle certain things like walking, running, and rowing that the family doctor, supposedly, said he couldn’t do. The Narrator was cruel, impatient, and showed too much pride towards his brother( in a bad way) because he just wanted Doodle him to be normal. The traits that the Narrator showed towards Doodle, unfortunately, led to his brother’s death.
Doodle’s brother is an impatient person. He is impatient with Doodle even though he is sick and delicate. In the story the Narrator is trying to teach Doodle to walk even though he doesn’t want to. Everytime Doodle doesn’t walk right the Narrator grows very impatient, so he starts getting mad at his brother. In the story the Narrator says to Doodle” Well, if you don’t keep trying, you’ll never learn”( Narrator pg.347). Being impatient made the Narrator push his brother beyond his limit and eventually lead to his death.
The Narrator was also a cruel person. Miracurously, the only person the Narrator was cruel towards was his brother.In the story the Narrator says” There is within me ( and with sadness I have watched it in others )a knot of cruelty borne by the stream of love, much as our blood sometimes bears the seed of our destruction, and at times I was mean to Doodle”( Narrator pg. 346 ). The Narrator was also cruel to his brother when he was running away from him; Doodle said “Brother, Brother, don’t leave me, Don’t leave me!”( Doodle pg. 353 ). Lastly, the Narrator also showed cruelty to his brother when he made him touch his own coffin. The Narrator told us that everyone, even himself, has been cruel to their families because of love. I think that the Narrator and other families have been mean to their relatives because they believe that they will forgive them.
Lastly, the Narrator in “The Scarlet Ibis” had too much pride and used in a bad way. The Narrator showed pride when his brother accomplished tasks that he had been taught. In the story the Narrator cries when when his family acknowledges him for teaching his brother to walk and he says to himself, “They did not know that I did it for myself, that pride whose slave I was, spoke to me louder than all their voices”( Narrator pg. 347 ). The Narrator also showed pride when his brother was rowing, but when he went slower the Narrator got mad because they had failed at accomplishing something new. The Narrator said “We didn’t speak( for what are the words that can solder cracked pride?)”( Narrator pg. 353 ). Doodle’s demise could have been prevented if his brother didn’t have too much pride.
Doodle’s brother was conflicted through out the whole story, but he never stopped to think and appreciate how great his brother truly was towards him. He never noticed that Doodle was a miracle happening right in front of his eyes. Thanks to the Narrator’s traits of impatientness, cruelty, and pride he lost the best thing that could ever happen to him. These traits are an important part of the story because they show people that the way a person makes you feel and what that person makes you do, matters and can make you change in a good and bad way. The Narrator, sadly, later regretted that traits he showed to his brother because they led to his death. The Narrator, hopefully, changed by the end of the story because he learned to appreciate his brother and protect him even though it was too late.