Scarlet Ibis Essay

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self respect and personal worth. Pride is generally thought of as a positive quality, but when it dominates one’s life, people end up sacrificing what is truly important. “In general pride is at the bottom of all great mistakes.” This quote by the English author, John Ruskin, suggests that behind every immense error one will find a person blinded by his own ego. The short story, “The Scarlet Ibis” by James Hurst, proves that this quote is valid. In the story both the characterization and conflict help to show how “pride is at the bottom of all great mistakes.” The characterization of the narrator allows the reader to see the problem brought about by having too much pride. The author’s use of indirect characterization in “The Scarlet Ibis” is one way the story relates to the quote. In the beginning of the story, the narrator said, “It was bad enough having an invalid brother, but having one who possibly was not all there was unbearable, so I began to make plans to kill him by smothering him with a pillow.” This demonstrates that the narrator has a hard time dealing with his brother’s disability. The author allows the reader to see how desperate the narrator is to have a typical life with an ordinary family. The narrator feels that it is one thing for Doodle to be disabled, but he would rather do away with Doodle than deal with the embarrassment of having him in his life if he were mentally weak as well. This feeling of inadequacy pushes him to try to make his brother “normal.” The narrator says at one point, “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.” This excerpt is a prime example of how pride can influence ones life. Instead of the narrator helping Doodle learn to walk so the narrator can feel better about

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