Literary Analysis of The Scarlet Ibis

Intertextual Connections

Kill Your Heroes- AWOLNATION

Questions

What does it mean to be licked? Brother says that he could see he was licked. Doodle was my brother and he was going to cling to me forever..."

The music video has children disobeying their mother's orders, like Brother defying the complete opposite of the Doctor's instruction

"Finally, I could see I was licked. Doodle was my brother and he was going to clig to me forever, o matter what I did...."

Did Brother cry because of the guilt Doodle's death will cause him?

What is Dix hill?

Brother Bear movie

"I began to weep...'Doodle!' I screamed above the pounding storm and threw my body to the earth above his

On my Way

"Had anyone stopped to listen to us, we would have been sent off to Dix Hill. (3)"

Why was Brother joyful when Doodle was "there"? Was it because he always wanted a brother?

Was there anything in the story that was portrayed in your life?

"It was bad enough having an invalid brother... he looked straight at me and grinned. I skipped through the rooms... shouting "Mama, he smiled, He's all there!.."

This depicts the happier and pleasant side of Doodle's and Brother's relationship. Also when Keenan finds out that he killed Koda's mom, he is shocked and feels regretful. It is the same with Brother's guilt towards his sibling's death.

http://everydaylife.globalpost.com/positive-negative-aspects-sibling-relationships-5610.html

Did Doodle being a caul baby have to deal with anything through the story?

Imagery: use of figurative language to create visual representations of actions, objects and ideas in our mind

Symbolism: use of specific objects/images to represent abstract ideas

"She said he would live because he ws born in a caul, ad cauls were made from Jesus' nightgown. (1)"

The storm can also be taken as a symbol. It pushed the scarlet ibis far from its habitat, resulting in its death. Brother, like the storm, pushed Doodle to his limit that his body gave up.

The symbolism used in The Scarlet Ibis are portrayed through in the environment of which Brother lives. These variety of symbols allows us to interpret the characters, mood and events in different perspectives. Each adds mystery, superficiality, sentimentality, remorse, and good memorabilia. Without the symbolism, the overall deeper meaning and mood of the story would be absent The reader won't be able to find any closer connection to the characters and their intent of doing things. It would also lose the story's natural flair.

Most of the entire story is told according to Brother's perception and mind. Brother, the narrator uses many metaphors to illustrate an image of his feelings or his environment. This use of imagery exploits Brother's keen senses of his atmosphere. It is noted that he goes in great detail of nature, how the sun is reflected, what the sky looks like, or the flowers blossoming. That shows how nature allows him to remember certain events, like i flashback of Doodle.

For the Author

The biggest and most obvious symbol is the Scarlet Ibis, hence the title. Doodle's vermillion appearance of his death resemble to the bird. But deeply, it's how the ibis was out of place and far from home when it died. Doodle, being the crippled he is, didn't fit in like everyone else, couldn't walk at first and heart weak. To what I believed, I think that the ibis travelled so far and eventually died. Doodle was so far ahead than expected, but was pushed above the limit and also died.

How were you able to retrieve these ideas to develop The Scarlet Ibis if none of the events never occurred to you?

What does the grindstone have to deal with in the story?

The Scarlet Ibis

A grindstone stands where the bleeding tree stood....(1)"

Are any of the names of the characters' from your life?

Other Literary Devices

Literary Devices

archetype: a character or action that represents universal patterns of human nature

http://literary-devices.com/content/archetype

Why did you intend, if you did intend, for Brother having no specific name?

Flashback: author depicts the occurrence of specific events to the reader, which have taken place before the present time the narration is following, or events that have happened before the events that are currently being unfolded in the story. (http://literary-devices.com/content/flashback)

Brother is, in a way, an archetype to the pride and evil tendencies of human nature that result in that. He is also one for the perception we see of people in our image. He wanted Doodle to be like him, like everyone else. So he attempts to change him that goes above Doodle's limits, which results in disaster.

Literary Analysis by:

Rigel Bobadilla

metaphor: comparison not using like or as

simile: comparison using like or as

Personal Reactions

The whole story being told through a flashback makes it seem more melancholy and nostalgic. It makes Brother seem more mature than he was before, so showing a bit of character development. For example, Brother states what he didn't know about pride, the pride that resulted in Doodle's being. The flashback also expresses how much Doodle's death significantly affected him especially the fact how vivid he can reminisce last summer.

Metaphors and similes go along with imagery, but it is a device commonly utilized throughout the story. It gives a good picture to what Brother is describing, whether they're his feelings or the setting. Instead of saying pride is love and death, he says "...pride is a wonderful, terrible thing, a seed that bears two vines, life and death."

"There is within me a knot of cruelty borne by the stream of love, much as our blood sometimes bears the seed of our destruction..."

https://www.google.com/search?q=the+scarlet+ibis&rlz=1C1CHFX_enUS552US552&oq=the+scarlet+ibis&aqs=chrome..69i57j69i61l3j0l2.5107j0&sourceid=chrome&espvd=210&es_sm=146&ie=UTF-8#

Key Words and Phrases

"... and I remember Doodle." (1)

Contextual Information

The Scarlet Ibis is a bird inhabited of northern South America and the Caribbean. It lives around swamps and wetlands, quite like the Old Woman Swamp.

This indicates that The Scarlet Ibis being told is a flashback, that everything narrated had already been done. It also adds on to the narrator's emotion of nostalgia, guilt and burden. Without this simple short phrase, the rest of the story would be in a different perspective. We wouldn't know that Brother had no clue of his rigid pride and that he already learned his lesson

The Scarlet Ibis was first published in a magazine on July 1960. It received high acclaim and the "Atlantic First" award.

Synthesis

My Personal Thoughts

"they did not know that I did it for myself, that pride, whose slave I was... that Doodle walke only because I was shamed of having a crippled brother (3)."

Brother's deception towards his family and Doodle was explicated through this text. He admits only to the audience and himself that he made Doodle walk, so he could make himself feel much better. Thus, connecting to the main theme: Pride. It is his pride and esteem that was let down by Doodle's disability and in order to boost that he taught Doodle to walk. So at least he looks normal.

".... that streak of cruelty awakened (6).

Brother's fire of cruelty kindles and burns inside him and doesn't control it. It leads him to desert Doodle, despite the fact that he tells him not to leave and in which he already knows that he cannot be independently by himself. This connects to the theme of pride because it shows that his was broken and he heals his cracked pride by ditching Doodle.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/pride?r=75&src=ref&ch=dic

The bleeding tree is actually a condition in trees also called gummosis. It is caused by insect infection, mechanical injury, or a disease.

The Scarlet Ibis was written by James Hurst at the age of 38, born on January 1, 1922. After serving in the U.S. army during WWII, he aspired to act and sing, become an opera singer. Three years later, he worked at the New York City bank. During those times at the bank, he wrote short stories, including his only highly recognized work of The Scarlet Ibis. His time serving in the U.S. military might have contributed to the names mentioned in the story. Though he stated that there was no connection to his real life. He did say that it was a story showing the "tenacity and the splendor of the human spirit."

I believe that The Scarlet Ibis had a very beautiful and dark meaning behind it. The theme, symbolism, plot and characterization all contributed to its overall essence. James Hurst was able to create symbols that relate to the main characters' personality and actions. Those symbols were used to connect to the theme of pride. He was also able implement similes and metaphors creatively to develop a good sense of imagery to the reader. The fact that the story was also centered on the relationship between two siblings kindled to me because it depicted my relationship to mine. So, overall the story was a wonderful representation of pride in human nature and its effect on others and relationships.

The Scarlet Ibis is a classic literary art that incorporated simple devices to create an elaborate plot and theme. It used symbolism, flashback, imagery, metaphors and some tragedy. This story explicits love and one of the seven deadly sins: Pride. How the conflict between the two eventually result in a poor sibling connection and an unnecessary death. The text shows how pride is the cause of one character's demolishment and the destruction of a relationship.

http://www.enotes.com/topics/scarlet-ibis

you and I- Ingrid Michaelson

Bright Whites- Kishi Bashi

Best Day of My Life- American Authors